Xbox Legends: An Xbox Smash Series From 2004 (ON BREAK, then starting Series X/S 'Ultimate' Entry)

[TORNADO BUS DRIVER]

1. Cortana
2. Jago
3. Enderman

 

[darkvortex]

1 Jago
2 Skorge
3 Cortana

 

[Schnee117]

1. Skorge
2. Jago
3. Cortana

 

[Northsouthmap]

1. Cortana
2. Jago
3. Skorge

 

[KneeOfJustice99]

1. Cortana (Honestly a really fun candidate - the main reason I didn't submit her was because I felt Halo might have slightly too many characters introduced in this one game, but she'd make for an iconic and fun yet very surprising DLC candidate even if not a headlining pick in the next game.)
2. Jago (A pretty iconic candidate from a series with plenty of them, plus someone who I think would have a pretty neat moveset even if he'd not necessarily be as surprising, on the face of it, as Cortana. Still, a great suggestion nonetheless.)
3. Enderman (Really inspired, and a character I think people would sort of simultaneously have as a concept while not, by any means, expecting them. I think Enderman could be a really weird character to go up against, and including elements from throughout Minecraft's End like Shulkers could be fascinating.)

Jinjo is such a fun one though.

 

[Qwerty UIOP]

1. Jago
2. Enderman
3. Jinjo

 

[nirvanafan]

Results (Most votes added)

1 Jago 17
2 Cortana 13
3 Skorge 6
4 Enderman 5
5 Jinjo 1

Jago will be our 1st DLC fighter offered for free for a limited time.

Job 61 - Nominate a 1st Party & 3rd Party fighter (2 Nominees allowed) to be our DLC for 2016.

Below is a list of Xbox releases from that year published by Microsoft. Does not need to be from that list, is just a reference of what might be getting a marketing boost around the time.

Spoiler

Cobalt
Quantem Break
Recore
Forza Horizon 3
Gears of War 4
Dead Rising 4
Halo Wars Definitive Edition (2 is early 2017 release)

Will submit my 2 nominees later.

 

[KneeOfJustice99]

Job #61
First, a first-party candidate - a bit of a wild-card, even if I have submitted him a couple of times before now in the past, but someone I think would be recieved pretty well by most... and exceptionally well by some.

Character Name: Nanashi
Character Origin: Phantom Dust (2004)

"Nanashi" is the player character in Phantom Dust, which was (to cut a long story short) a Japanese-developed game for the Xbox which was intended to help improve brand recognition for the Xbox in Japanese markets. While the game would, by this point, be pretty old - it has an upcoming rerelease in mid-2017 exclusive to Xbox One and PC, which is announced in 2016 to significant fanfare after talk of a Phantom Dust sequel fell through between 2013 and 2015. Not to mention, content from Phantom Dust has been in this series since its very first entry - specifically, the The Ruins stage. While he's a relatively obscure character compared to other candidates, he's in a great spot to act as cross-promotion, an opportunity he might not actually get again in the future.

In terms of moveset, Nanashi's got a lot of potential due to the myriad of different Skills available in Phantom Dust. For context, the original game plays like a combination between a third-person shooter and a collectable card game akin to Yu-Gi-Oh, and it features a massive number of unique attacks with their own effects, elemental properties, and so forth due to this. As such, Nanashi would easily fall into the "mage" archetype - perhaps with some similarities to Super Smash Bros.'s Robin, albeit without the use of a sword. Not only this, but to represent the different Arsenals (effectively your own "deck") in the game, Nanashi would be able to effectively be a stance-change character - using Down Special, you would change between what I can best describe as a "White Mage" and "Black Mage", the former having more defensive potential with a variety of buffs, the latter being more offensive with elemental skills but being more of a glass cannon to offset this.

Nanashi's pretty cool, Phantom Dust has a decently interested fanbase by this time, and this could be an opportunity for us to basically do what I can only describe as "Corrin in a good way." He'd be awesome.

And, as for my third-party candidate... a more obvious one.

Character Name: Doom Slayer
Character Origin: DOOM (1993, DOS)

Considering this is 2016, I think we have on our hands a fairly obvious candidate. For context, while the DOOM series has been a long-running one dating back to the 1993 release of the first game on DOS, it saw a massive revitalisation in the 2016 reboot - a multi-platform release published by Bethesda. Now, with the benefit of hindsight, we know Bethesda eventually gets acquired by Microsoft anyway - but even at this point, the two companies have a good working relationship already. Also, as for why Doom Slayer over a character from Overwatch - I think it's a little too soon for the latter, but this works well as both a historical and cross-promotional pick for one of the biggest games of the year.

In terms of moveset, while the Slayer wouldn't necessarily make blood spew from his enemies (considering that said enemies include characters like Blinx), he'd have a pretty hardcore heavyweight feeling to him that'd really differentiate him from the other green power-armour wearing space marine on the roster - relying less on actual ranged tools, and more on powerful close-up to mid-range weapons such as the infamous shotgun and chainsaw, as well as iconic and powerful tools for his meter attacks, most prominently the BFG9000.

He'd be an undeniably iconic pick with a lot of pedigree to him. Plus, if we wanted, we could even give him a "classic" costume resembling his appearance in the earlier PC games, tying him back (in one way or another) to Microsoft's history even before the Xbox.

 

[nirvanafan]

Will give a another day for nominees. In the meantime will add mine below.

Agent Cobalt

Mojangs 1st home console published game outside of Minecraft. Game kind of went under the radar if i remember correctly but im sure some Mojang fans anticipated this one & maybe this can give the ip a little boost shortly after release.

Commander Shepherd (Mass Effect)

Was brought up before but Bioware did have Microsoft did publish Jade Empire & the 1st Mass Effect. Andromeda is due to release next year. Would have waited but have another idea for when we get there plus we really dont have to wait if we are mainly using content from the original trilogy anyway.

 

[darkvortex]

Joule
From the open world puzzle game Recore, which released this year. Joule Adams, one of the first volunteers for the utopian colony of Far Eden, who wakes after centuries in cryo-sleep to find that nothing has gone according to plan. With her three robotic machines known as corebot companions, Joule ventures throughout Far Eden to uncover the secrets behind the failed mission.

Recore didn't set the world on fire, but I think as a character she makes sense as a promo for in pick and could have some fun gameplay with her being able to summon out the different robots.

Ezio Auditore Da Firenze
We have had Sam Fisher as part of our roster since game 1 so I think it only makes sense to add an AC rep. Ezio is the most popular. He would be a stealth based fight who could use his hidden blades and hide around the stage.

 

[TORNADO BUS DRIVER]

Jack Joyce
Quantum Break is a game published by Microsoft that they really pushed around this time. He would have time travel abilities and could play around with the stage, pulling random objects out. It's developed by Remedy, who we already have repped in our game with Alan Wake.

Lilith
Borderlands is a game series I associate with Xbox weirdly, it did have DLC that was timed Xbox live exclusive. We already have 2K in the game with Bioshock too. Lilith is a really popular character from the popular Siren class and would have the moves of that class.

 

[Northsouthmap]

First Party: The Player (Sunset Overdrive)
Don't know much about the game, but from what I've seen, he would be a ranged fighter.

Third Party: Captain Price (Call of Duty)
The Modern Warfare Trilogy were hits on the previous console, and Microsoft would purchase the developer.

 

[nirvanafan]

Time to vote

Nominees (1st Party)
Nanashi (KneeOfJustice99)
Joule (darkvortex)
Jack Joyce (TORNADO BUS DRIVER)
FizzCo Janitor (Northsouthmap)
Agent Cobalt (nirvanafan)

Nominees (3rd Party)
Doom Slayer (KneeOfJustice99)
Ezio (darkvortex)
Lilith (TORNADO BUS DRIVER)
Captain Price (Northsouthmap)
Commander Shepherd (nirvanafan)

Vote for your top 3 in each category most votes in each will be added as DLC in 2016.

1st Party
1 FizzCo Janitor
2 Jack Joyce
3 Nanashi

3rd Party
1 Lilith
2 Commander Shepherd
3 Captain Price

 

[darkvortex]

1. Nanashi
2. Joule
3. FizzCo Janitor

1. Doomslayer
2. Commander Shepherd
3. Lilith

 

[Qwerty UIOP]

1. FizzCo Janitor
2. Joule
3. Agent Cobalt

1. Doomslayer
2. Sheperd
3. Ezio

 

[DragonRobotKing26]

1. FizzCo Janitor
2. Jack Joyce
3. Joule

1. Doom Slayer
2. Ezio
3. Shepherd

 

[KneeOfJustice99]

1. Joule
2. FizzCo Janitor
3. Agent Cobalt

1. Ezio Auditore
2. Lilith
3. Commander Shepherd

 

[TORNADO BUS DRIVER]

1. Nanashi
2. Joule
3. FizzCo Janitor

1. Doomslayer
2. Commander Shepherd
3. Ezio

 

[Mamboo07]

First Party: The Player (Sunset Overdrive)
Don't know much about the game, but from what I've seen, he would be a ranged fighter.

There's a huge variety of weapons in the game for moveset potential, here:

Weapons

Weapons are a key part of the gameplay of Sunset Overdrive. They can be used to defeat the Overcharge Mutants. You’re only as good as the company you keep, so good thing you keep a fully-stocked arsenal of deadly and unconventional weapons. The apocalypse has inspired you to cook-up new ways to...

sunsetoverdrive-archive.fandom.com

 

[nirvanafan]

Results (Most Votes Added)

1 FizzCo Janitor 13
2 Joule 10
3 Nanashi 7
4 Jack Joyce 4
5 Agent Cobalt 2

1 Doom Slayer 12
2 Shepherd 10
3 Ezio 7
4 Lilith 6
5 Price 1

Doom Slayer & FizzCo Janitor are added.

Job 62 - Nominate a stage for Doom & Sunset Overdrive.

Will submit my nominees later.

Also how should we handle our assist for Sunset Overdrive, normally include one with DLC but Fizzle was in base game, should we add a 2nd, a different 1st party series, nothing at all, or any other ideas?

 

[KneeOfJustice99]

Job #62
Stage Name: Old Factory District
Stage Origin: Sunset Overdrive (2014)

A stage based on one of Sunset City's districts, specifically the starting location of the game. You'd fight atop two large warehouses that are connected with several "wires", which every character can grind across. Additionally, you'd be able to see plenty of scenery from the rest of Sunset City in the background.

Stage Name: Kadingir Sanctum
Stage Origin: DOOM (2016)

A stage based on the sixth level of the game, and the first to take place within Hell. The stage's layout would actually be a little anachronistic, as while it would feature the gigantic statue in the background, the layout would instead pull from the area generally referred to as the "final arena" later in the stage (which interestingly shares a lot of elements with DOOM 64's 17th level, Watch Your Step.

Discussion Round: I think we could go either way, and it'd work fine - though, I'd probably say it'd be neat to introduce another first-party assist if only to get a wider breadth of representation as opposed to having to pull from just the one game.

 

[Qwerty UIOP]

I think we should add an additional assist rep for Sunset Overdrive.

 

[Mamboo07]

I think we should add an additional assist rep for Sunset Overdrive.

Fizzco robots maybe?

Save the OD AKA Overcharge Drinkers for hazards as stage enemies.

 

[darkvortex]

Wondertown Land
I remember the theme park level begin a big part of the game's promo material. You'd fight inside and there would be various rides you could stand in and destroy.

I think having it be just a general first party job that also allows people to submit Sunset Overdrive assists is a good idea.

 

[Northsouthmap]

We could add assists from other Insomniac games like Ratchet & Clank and Infamous.

 

[darkvortex]

We could add assists from other Insomniac games like Ratchet & Clank and Infamous.

I feel that's be weird. I know we have a lot of third party ip but those are sony properties (Insomniac getting bought by Sony in 2019 is something well need to address in future but I think e can work around it)

 

[nirvanafan]

Spoiler: My Nominees

Sunset City

The city the hame takes place in, will be like Delfino/Skyloft & have a dropoff point at each of the 4 districts.

Foundry/Nuclear Plant

Doom 2016 has levers which unlock classic levels. Think it would be cool to use this to have a stage to rep both new & classic doom. Guess the stage will be like Reset Bomb Forrest starting on foundry before the lever is automatically pulled & you are transported to the unlocked classic stage Nuclear Plant temporarily, then repeat.

Stage Nominees

Sunset Overdrive
Old Factory District
Wondertown Land
Sunset City

Doom
Kadingir Sanctum
Foundry/Nuclear Plant

Votes for your top 2 in each category, can self vote wherever, most votes overall will be added for each.

1 Wondertown Land
2 Old Factory District

1 Kadingir Sanctum
2 Foundry/Nuclear Plant

Job 63 - Nominate 2 assist, one for each of the below categories.

Doom
1st Party/Sunset Overdrive/Fuse (owned by Insomniac or EA, other Insomniac games owned by companies not here like Sony & ABK which i agree seems like a stretch)

Will submit my nominees later.

Good point brought up by darkvortex, agree it can be worked around & can imagine some extra promotional material around FizzCo Janitor returning in the next game considering the messy rights situation but we can address more specifically later.

 

[darkvortex]

1. Wondertown Land
2. Old Factory District

1. Kadingir Sanctum
2. Foundry/Nuclear Plant

Cacodemon
Will float around the stage and shoot green fireballs out from its mouth. It moves much like it's game of origin.

Marius Titus
From Ryse: Son of Rome. He will use his shield to protect the fighter who summoned him, and when someone tries to attack he will counter it with a sword strike.

 

[KneeOfJustice99]

Stages:
1. Wondertown Land
2. Old Factory District

1. Foundry/Nuclear Plant
2. Kadingir Sanctum

Assists
Assist Name: Imp
Assist Origin: DOOM (1993)

While the Cacodemon is probably the objectively correct choice, I may as well submit another reasonably iconic demonic enemy from the series - the humble Imp, weaker than most. When summoned, it'll do one of two things depending on its distance from an enemy - if at a distance, it'll charge up and then throw a fireball at the enemy with a weak explosion on contact, but if close up, it'll leap at them with its claws extended and slash at them. The design of this Imp would, of course, be based on its appearance in DOOM (2016).

Assist Name: Joule & Mack
Assist Origin: ReCore (2016)

A pick suggested earlier for a playable role, but one I still think would work well as an assist to cross-promote ReCore. Joule & Mack would effectively be a package deal - when summoned, Mack will slowly walk forward while putting up an energy shield, behind which Joule fires forward. Then, if they get close enough to an opponent, Joule will use her rocket pack to dash through the shield and slam into the opponent while Mack fires a laser into them. While not a perfect interpretation of ReCore's gameplay, it does a good job at getting the ideas of the gameplay loop across.

 

[Northsouthmap]

Revenant
Flies over the stage and launches rockets.

Captain Smiley from Comic Jumper
Attacks with his gun when enemies are a distance.

 

[nirvanafan]

Spoiler: My Nominees

Rifle Bot

Will throw a FizzCo robot in just in case anyone wants to got that direction. Havent played the game buy Rifle Bot seemed to be the top result when googling.

Icon of Sin

Iconic series character, made cameo in 2016 game before having a bigger role in the next currently unreleased game. Also a bug part of the classic games.

Voting time

Nominees
Marius Titus (darkvortex)
Joule & Mack (KneeOfJustice99)
Captain Smiley (Northsouthmap)
FizzCo Rifle Bot (nirvanafan)

Cacodemon (darkvortex)
Imp (KneeOfJustice99)
Revenant (Northsouthmap)
Icon of Sin (nirvanafan)

Vote for your top 3 in each category, self votes in 2nd or lower, most overall in each will be added.

1 Marius Titus
2 Joule & Mack
3 Captain Smiley

1 Cacodemon
2 Revenant
3 Imp

 

[KneeOfJustice99]

1. Captain Smiley
2. Marius Titus
3. FizzCo Rifle Bot

1. Cacodemon
2. Revenant
3. Icon of Sin

 

[darkvortex]

1. Captain Smiley
2. Joule & Mack
3. Marius Titus

1. Imp
2. Revenant
3. Cacodemon

 

[Qwerty UIOP]

1. Captain Smiley
2. Joule and Mack
3. Marius Titus

1. Cacodemon
2. Icon of Sin
3. Imp

 

[Northsouthmap]

1. Marius Titus
2. Captain Smiley
3. Joule and Mack

1. Cacodemon
2. Revenant
3. Icon of Sin

 

[nirvanafan]

Results (most votes added)

1 Captain Smiley 11
2 Marius Titus 10
3 Joule & Mack 7
4 FizzCo Rifle Bot 1

1 Cacodemon 13
2 Revenant 8
3 Imp 5
4 Icon of Sin 4

Job 64 - Nominate a 1st Party & 3rd Party fighter (2 Nominees allowed) to be our DLC for 2017.

Below is a list of Xbox releases from that year published by Microsoft. Does not need to be from that list, is just a reference of what might be getting a marketing boost around the time.

Spoiler

Halo Wars 2
Phantom Dust
Minecraft Bedrock Edition
Forza 7
Zoo Tycoon Ultimate Animal Collection
Super Luckys Tale
Cuphead

Yikes how short this list has become is depressing for the Xbox brand, was also a couple Disney games but 4th party content is ineligible.

Will submit my 2 nominees later.

 

[darkvortex]

What does Cuphead count as?

 

[nirvanafan]

What does Cuphead count as?

Good question, im leaning towards 1st party unless anyone objects, we did count other games with heavy Microsoft support as 1st like Alan Wake & Sunset Overdrive despite neither seemingly being owned by Microsoft. Feel like each is still heavily associated with Xbox plus the lack of other options for this timeframe helps this case imo.

EDIT - I also realized I never posted the results for our latest DLC stages, my apologies, here they are with the winner in each category being added.

1 Wondertown Land 6
2 Old Factory District 3
3 Sunset City HM

1 Kadingir Sanctum 5
2 Foundry/Nuclear Plant 4

 

[KneeOfJustice99]

Job #064:
Character Name: Atriox
Character Origin: Halo Wars 2 (2017)

While I'm aware we do have quite a lot of Halo characters by now, Atriox specifically is in a uniquely good position to make a lot of sense at the moment. He's the central antagonist of Halo Wars 2, and was well-recieved enough to the point that he was made into Halo: Infinite's central antagonist midway through development. Plus, not only this, but he'd fill a role we're somewhat lacking in this series - a particularly hard-hitting heavyweight that pulls absolutely no punches, due in part to his use of the Chainbreaker (a mace partially built out of a Gravity Hammer) and a power gauntlet as part of his armour. Not only this, but the Jiralhanae have been a decently large part of the Halo Wars series specifically.

Character Name: Classic Sonic
Character Origin: Sonic the Hedgehog (1991)
Third Party: SEGA

Okay, this one's probably a little weird, but I think it actually makes a lot of sense. Firstly, SEGA's been involved in these games for some time, considering Beat was the last DLC candidate in the last game and returned for this one. However, one of SEGA's more prominent franchises is obviously the Sonic series, but some would argue, "Sonic's in Smash, this would just be cheap". To that, I suggest two things - firstly, we could easily differentiate the two, and secondly, who said we had to just go with Sonic? Sure, the easy answer might be going with a secondary character (such as Shadow, who was apparently planned for PSASBR?) but I think Classic Sonic would work well - especially considering that 2017 is the release year of Mania.

With that in mind, this interpretation of Sonic would be based more closely on the "classic" series - that is, pretty much anything prior to Adventure as well as Mania. This'd be an easy way to differentiate him from Smash's interpretation of Sonic, plus he'd have plenty of potential for a unique moveset, unique content, and a generally fresh feel overall! After all, there's more than enough to pull from there - and we wouldn't need to just make every single attack of his him curling up into a ball and then have both of his stages basically be Green Hill Zone. Ahem.

And if you wanted to think about the future... well, Sonic's got a lot of potential for clones in the next game, if you wanted to consider that possibility.

Side note, but I reckon we'd just refer to him as "Sonic" in terms of marketing and in-game content, rather than making a point of calling him "Classic Sonic" - mostly because calling him "Classic Sonic" all the time kind of makes it feel more like he's sort of a concession rather than a celebration of his past.

 

[darkvortex]

Job #064:
Character Name: Atriox
Character Origin: Halo Wars 2 (2017)

While I'm aware we do have quite a lot of Halo characters by now, Atriox specifically is in a uniquely good position to make a lot of sense at the moment. He's the central antagonist of Halo Wars 2, and was well-recieved enough to the point that he was made into Halo: Infinite's central antagonist midway through development. Plus, not only this, but he'd fill a role we're somewhat lacking in this series - a particularly hard-hitting heavyweight that pulls absolutely no punches, due in part to his use of the Chainbreaker (a mace partially built out of a Gravity Hammer) and a power gauntlet as part of his armour. Not only this, but the Jiralhanae have been a decently large part of the Halo Wars series specifically.

Character Name: Lu Bu
Character Origin: Dynasty Warriors (1997)
Third Party: Koei-Tecmo

While I've already suggested Lu Bu in the role of a boss, I actually think this is a perfect time for him to become playable, too - with a lot of elements coming together in unison to form what I can only describe as a perfect storm.

Firstly, Koei-Tecmo have been involved in the Xbox Legends series from the very beginning, so it wouldn't necessarily feel out of place to include a new character from their library... who also just so happens to be one of the headlining characters from, arguably, one of their single biggest franchises (if not their actual largest, by this point.) Not only this, but the Warriors series is really coming into the public consiousness in Western markets by 2017, and it's the series' 20th anniversary in 2017 too (leading to the release of Warriors All-Stars, a Koei-Tecmo crossover featuring characters from all kinds of Koei-Tecmo franchises... including Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden.)

That's not even mentioning that, in terms of moveset, Lu Bu would have a lot of potential. The Warriors franchise is characterised primarily by its hack-n-slash action, and Lu Bu's use of a halberd coupled with an implementation of the series' powerful combo-based mechanics would work wonderfully - plus, having him use a mechanic where he can use EX abilities to enhance his strikes, or even having him being able to switch between his default halberd or his DW6 voluge if you wanted to go in that direction, would easily differentiate him from other candidates.

Also... he's honestly just pretty cool. And he's another villain for our roster, which is always good.

worth noting we did add a LuBuu boss