There's no denying the resilient community surrounding the Super Smash Bros. franchise. After donating $94,683 to charity in a bid to feature Super Smash Bros. Melee in EVO 2013, it immediately became apparent that those following the game's tournament scene were serious about their fighter. With that said, it's hard to determine how fans will react to the latest rumblings pertaining to the beloved franchise.
According to Le Figaro (via CVG), Nintendo of France managing director, Stephen Bole, has confirmed that Super Smash Bros. for Wii U will support Nintendo's loosely detailed NFC initiative. For those unaware of what including this entails for the series, it means that action figures (similar to Skylanders or Disney Infinity) will be able to be scanned into the game.
This could have any number of ramifications for the game if true, which according to Bole it is.
"On the output side of games produced by Nintendo, there will obviously be the fighting game Super Smash Bros.. E3 is also an opportunity to show the use of NFC technology in Nintendo consoles. The NFC will be used in the Wii U version of Super Smash Bros.."
Nintendo of Europe has since issued a response regarding the possibility of Super Smash Bros. being amongst the first piece of software to support the Big N's NFC strategy. The company's statement comes across as rather generic, however, simply stating that there haven't been any specific announcements pertaining to that feature in any game yet — let alone Smash.
"On 8th May 2014, Mr Iwata announced the decision for Nintendo to release character figurines with built-in NFC functionality that are compatible with video games starting from this year-end sales season. There has, however, not been any specific announcements regarding which software titles for Nintendo platforms will use this functionality. We have no other announcements to make at this time."
If Nintendo's Figurine Platform is planned for the next Super Smash Bros. game then the feature will likely bypass the 3DS version since that title is scheduled to arrive in Summer 2014 — months before NFC figures will be hitting store shelves. As for what kind of content will arrive with the figures themselves, fans shouldn't get too worried about having to buy statues in exchange for playable characters.
While it's true that Smash figurines have the potential to unlock some characters down the road as additional DLC, the statues themselves are likely only to save data such as win-loss ratios, custom move sets, and alternate color/costume preferences.
That said, Nintendo has yet to formally announce which of its games will be supporting NFC, so it's possible that none of this will come to fruition. With E3 2014 almost here, the wait to see what Ninty has planned for both Super Smash Bros. and its line of NFC figurines won't be much longer.
How would you feel about Super Smash Bros. supporting NFC figurines? Would you try to buy 'em all?
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Super Smash Bros. is scheduled to arrive on 3DS in Summer 2014, while a Wii U version is currently set for Winter 2014.
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