Smash Bros. on Switch 2 Could Look Completely Different—Here's How
Super Smash Bros. has always been a time capsule, freezing Nintendo’s biggest franchises in amber for each console generation. But the Switch 2 era is moving fast—Donkey Kong Bananza, Splatoon Raiders, Pokémon Pokopia, and Yoshi and the Mysterious Book have all reinvented classic series in just over a year. When the inevitable next Smash game arrives, its roster won’t just be a greatest-hits compilation; it will be a map of where Nintendo is going. For handheld players who log most of their matches on the go, the real question isn’t which characters make the cut—it’s whether these changes will make portable play feel fresh or fragmented.
New Blood: The Mechanic, Tomodachis, and a Pokémon Spinoff Star
The strongest predictions in Polygon’s analysis come from franchises that have finally found their mechanical identity on handheld hardware. The Mechanic from Splatoon Raiders wields a toolkit so distinct—Splatchet, Bombloons, Booyarang—that it could dethrone the vanilla Inkling as the series’ default Smash rep. On the Switch 2’s screen, that gadget-swapping playstyle could look chaotic but read beautifully, especially if the game takes advantage of the system’s higher resolution and potential 120Hz mode. Meanwhile, the idea of replacing Mii Fighters with Tomodachis from Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream is a stroke of genius for portable players who love importing their weirdest creations. And Ditto from Pokemon Pokopia—a noodly, shape-shifting weirdo—would be the kind of off-kilter fighter that handheld sessions thrive on: unpredictable, expressive, and perfectly suited for quick joy-con matches.
Veteran Overhauls: Donkey Kong, Samus, Yoshi Get the Switch 2 Treatment
Some of the most exciting possibilities involve rewrites of series staples. Donkey Kong’s Bananza-inspired moveset—ripping chunks out of stages, surfing debris, and transforming for his Final Smash—would fundamentally change how he plays on a handheld. That kind of stage manipulation could be a blessing on the small screen, where visual clarity matters; if implemented well, DK could become a zone-control monster. Samus gains psychic abilities from Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, including the Control Beam, which would add a steering projectile to her arsenal—a welcome depth for players who master her on the go. Yoshi’s new power-borrowing mechanic from Yoshi and the Mysterious Book opens up a dozen special attack possibilities, each of which would need to feel distinct at 720p or 1080p without cluttering the screen. Nintendo has a long history of making complex fighters readable on handhelds, but the Switch 2 generation will test that design philosophy like never before.