There’s a lot of reasons why I love the Super Smash Bros series. And there’s a lot of things that have only ever shown up in one Smash Bros game or the other and have never returned since like items, stages and modes. Which yeah, I do find sad but that also means that pretty much every game in this series has some reason to go back to it. However there is one thing that’s been a staple of this series since Melee but never made it into Ultimate that I wish would come back in a future Smash Bros game. And it might actually surprise you what that is. It’s not a specific game mode like Smash Run or Crazy Orders or any specific Adventure Mode even though that would be nice to see make a comeback. Nor is it any certain character, I mean obviously I would love if we still get ever single character from Ultimate in the next game on top of a bunch of new characters. No, the thing I’d want back most in a new Smash game more than anything is Trophies.

Yup, out of everything that was ever in the previous games and was not in Ultimate I’d want to see make a comeback, the collectable trophies are the thing I’d want back most. And there is a bit of a personal reason as to why I’d love to see them again. But first, let me actually go over what trophies are in Smash for people who don’t know. They first made their appearance in this series in Melee and were collectable figurines you could get through various different methods by just playing the game. Usually when you cleared classic mode with a certain fighter you would get their specific trophy along with different variants of that character from beating Adventure Mode and All Stars mode. However, you could also unlock trophies of other non-playable characters or items though stuff like bonus games, the lottery machine, certain event mode matches and as the series went on you were able to unlock them from clearing certain challenges or rewards from some of the other various side modes as well as a shop in Smash 4 Wii U/3DS. And there are A LOT of trophies in each game so unless you were unlucky enough to get a duplicate of a trophy you already had (which sadly happens to me a fair bit) you were basically constantly being rewarded for playing the game.

And one of the reasons why I loved these little collectables in Smash, aside form just looking really nice and the way they were all displayed in game, was actually the bios and lore that was attached to these trophies. Every trophy you got also told you a bit about the character or item the trophy was based on as well as even what specific games in a franchise they originated from as well as the system you could play those games on. Granted, they were incredibly brief descriptions, and they didn’t tell you EVERYTHING about a character. I mean in Brawl alone the Paper Mario trophy only talks about his role in Super Paper Mario and lists that as his only appearance even though there were two other Paper Mario games he’s been in before this, Gardivoir’s doesn’t mention how it is able to create a black hole like some of its Poke Dex entries in Pokemon do, Ganondorfs doesn’t even have anything on how he’s the only male in a race dominated purely by females and the Wedding Bowser one has aged horribly because it mentions how this might be the last time we will ever see Bowser in a tuxedo only for Super Mario Odyssey to come by a decade later and prove it wrong. Even with how brief some of these were it was still enough for me have an interest in learning about these different characters and franchises.

And that’s the whole reason I fell in love with trophies in the first place. Paired with the masterpieces mode which let you play short demos of some of the games these characters came from it was a way for me to learn about some of the various franchises that were featured in Smash and grow an interest in them. It wasn’t uncommon for me to spend a bunch of time in Brawls coin launcher mode which was the replacement for the slot machine from Melee because that was the quickest way you could unlock new trophies if you have a lot of coins saved up because I loved reading about some of these characters and franchises I had never seen or heard of before and it’s what caused me to get invested in some of the ones I am now.

I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned this in the past but I owe a lot to Smash Bros, Brawl in particular as that was my first Smash game, because it’s what got me into some of the franchises I am into now such as Zelda and Pokemon which up to that point I wasn’t aware WAS a game and thought this whole time it was just an anime. And the trophies were one of the massive reasons for that. They weren’t just some cool collectable you could get from playing the game or anything, they also told you a bit about who those characters were and where they came from. It’s one of the main reasons why Smash Bros continues to be one of my favourite crossovers in gaming. It’s also why I’m not the biggest fan of what was introduced in Ultimate as their replacement, Spirits.

For as much as I love Ultimate and do still think it’s one of the best games in the series, the one thing I think I’ve come to dislike about it more and more over the years is the spirit mode. It’s cool that Spritis actually had a role in gameplay unlike trophies since these gave your characters different buffs and were a major part in World of Light, but outside of the gameplay reasons they really aren’t that exciting to me. They are literally just JPEG’s. That’s it. It’s literally just the official artwork of that character. No description or bio telling you about that character’s story or personality, nothing. That’s honestly pretty lame if I’m gonna be honest. Especially since both Trophies and Spirits COULD still exist in one game. Hell, they technically have! Prior to Ultimate, Brawl had a similar mechanic with Stickers which were another form of collectable and while they were exclusive to that games adventure mode they more or less has the same purpose as Sprits, something you could equip on your characters and they would buff you in game.

In an ideal scenario, THIS is how I’d want the next Smash Bros game to handle it. Still have Spirits for gameplay reason as well as the fights to unlock them but still have the trophies with there bios for people like me who want to learn more about these characters. And also, maybe masterpieces mode making a return as well, that would be great two. It won’t be the end of the world if they don’t but still. The sad thing is the part of my brain that is a little cynical is thinking that if we ever do get what I’m asking for back there is a good chance this fandom would probably complain about it being “advertising” for other games which obviously I’m exaggerating but considering this is the Smash Bros fandom we are talking about who look so deeply into everything that Sakrui says thinkings it’s some deep hint towards something, seriously think Sakurai hates Waluigi and who are so thinn skinned they make a big fuss over what characters are or aren’t added into Smash/are added but as Mii Costumes/are made into Assist Trophies I wouldn’t be surprised if they would genuinely think this. I really can’t go one discussion about Smash without making fun of it’s God awful fanbase, can I?

But if Wii U and 3DS really is the last time we might ever see trophies in a Smash game, well… at least we still have Amiibo’s IRL right?