One of Super Smash Bros's biggest problems is a complete lack of PoC/women representation.
Besides the "avatar" characters (Inklings, Mii, Villagers), the only humanoid characters that aren't white/adjacent are Ryu (being Japanese) and Ganondorf (being a Gerudo, who are largely inspired by Middle Eastern people).
Female representation is a bit better, but still much worse than the number of males.
Someone here did a thread on representation seen among fighting games this gen, and I believe Super Smash Bros was worst in every metric.
A large part of this is due to the lack of non-white characters among Nintendo (and 3rd party) game leads.
Like in the case of The Legend of Zelda, there are other Gerudo (like Urbosa) that are now very iconic for the franchise, or Sheikah like Impa, who has always been a series mainstay.
However, they've only elected to focus on the main 3 characters of the franchise.
Now many might argue that they should only use the characters that are the biggest, but Super Smash Bros is a bigger franchise than most of the series represented, and more often than not, makes those characters the icons they are now, rather than the other way around.
For instance, in the case of F-Zero, people know Captain Falcon now, but that's largely due to the Super Smash Bros series. Instead of just using Captain Falcon though, they could've instead used Kate Alen or someone else. Let's be honest, nobody knew Captain Falcon before Super Smash Bros.
Other crossover fighting games, or guest characters in fighting games don't just limit themselves like this.
Like in Tekken, we see characters like characters like Geese and Negan instead of Terry or Rick.
Let's not forget that Morrigan was not the main character of the Darkstalkers franchise, but has become the face of the franchise due to Capcom's crossover games.
So in future Super Smash Bros games, I'd much rather see Wonder Black or Twintelle over Wonder Red or Spring Man. Not saying these franchises will be represented, but should they use franchises with a rich cast, I really hope they don't limit themselves to just more white guys.
Besides the "avatar" characters (Inklings, Mii, Villagers), the only humanoid characters that aren't white/adjacent are Ryu (being Japanese) and Ganondorf (being a Gerudo, who are largely inspired by Middle Eastern people).
Female representation is a bit better, but still much worse than the number of males.
Someone here did a thread on representation seen among fighting games this gen, and I believe Super Smash Bros was worst in every metric.
A large part of this is due to the lack of non-white characters among Nintendo (and 3rd party) game leads.
Like in the case of The Legend of Zelda, there are other Gerudo (like Urbosa) that are now very iconic for the franchise, or Sheikah like Impa, who has always been a series mainstay.
However, they've only elected to focus on the main 3 characters of the franchise.
Now many might argue that they should only use the characters that are the biggest, but Super Smash Bros is a bigger franchise than most of the series represented, and more often than not, makes those characters the icons they are now, rather than the other way around.
For instance, in the case of F-Zero, people know Captain Falcon now, but that's largely due to the Super Smash Bros series. Instead of just using Captain Falcon though, they could've instead used Kate Alen or someone else. Let's be honest, nobody knew Captain Falcon before Super Smash Bros.
Other crossover fighting games, or guest characters in fighting games don't just limit themselves like this.
Like in Tekken, we see characters like characters like Geese and Negan instead of Terry or Rick.
Let's not forget that Morrigan was not the main character of the Darkstalkers franchise, but has become the face of the franchise due to Capcom's crossover games.
So in future Super Smash Bros games, I'd much rather see Wonder Black or Twintelle over Wonder Red or Spring Man. Not saying these franchises will be represented, but should they use franchises with a rich cast, I really hope they don't limit themselves to just more white guys.
