Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is rightfully considered a celebration of Nintendo and gaming as a whole. The inclusion of so many characters isn't even where the celebration ends since Ultimate's attention to detail is where the developers' adoration for gaming is truly apparent. Details like Palutena's Guidance giving information on every fighter, the Umbra Clock Tower telling the current time, and lightly nudging the stick left or right to perfectly recreate Megaman's NES foot shuffle all show how much thought was put into every aspect of Ultimate.
In a strange turn of events, something as straightforward as alternate costumes (A.K.A. palette swaps, colors, skins, etc.) seems to be one of the few elements in Ultimate that could have been expanded upon. Each Smash Bros. character deserved more costumes and colors, but some needed them more than others.
10 Smash Ignores Decades Of Mario's Costumes
It makes sense that complex costumes like Mario's Frog, Cat, and Tanooki Suits were skipped in Smash Bros. to spend time developing more important things. It makes less sense that there are simple variations of Mario's overall colors that could have been easily included in Ultimate.
The most obvious missing Mario costume is the red and white Fire Mario outfit from 1985's Super Mario Bros. on the NES. Others include Ice Mario from New Super Mario Bros. Wii and the red and black Flying Mario costume from Super Mario Galaxy. Even without changing the shape of Mario's 3D model, the Smash Bros. developers could have included costume colors inspired by Cloud Mario, Flying Squirrel Mario, Bee Mario, and Rock Mario.
9 Luigi Is Missing A Major Costume
Luigi's most important costume that should have been in Ultimate would be his Mr. L costume from Super Paper Mario. Mr. L was Luigi's evil, brainwashed form that faced Mario's friends in battle multiple times before Mr. L's eventual defeat and reform. Luigi also shared many powerups with Mario that are not represented in Ultimate, like Flying Luigi from Super Mario Galaxy.
Two other costumes that Luigi could have had in Ultimate are his multiplayer costumes from Mario Golf on the Nintendo 64, where one was dark green and tan, and the other was blue and brown.
8 There Are More Yoshis Than The Ones Featured In Ultimate
Fans of Mario Kart may have noticed that not all 9 of Yoshi's Mario Kart 8 Deluxe skins are costume options in Smash Bros. Ultimate. Black, white, and orange Yoshis are colors in Mario Kart 8 that could have, and should have, been costume options in Ultimate.
There was also a brown Yoshi in Yoshi's Island and a monstrous Yoshi variant from Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time called Yoob. If not change Yoshi's shape, he could have easily had a purple and green costume inspired by Yoob.
7 There Are Many Piranha Plants, Just Ask Viridi
During Palutena's Guidance in Smash Bros. Ultimate, Pit speaks to Palutena, Viridi, and others about various playable characters on the Ultimate roster. During Palutena's Guidance for the character, Piranha Plant, Viridi gives an extensive speech about the many varieties of Piranha Plant. Her excitement might have made fans wonder if any of those Piranha Plant sub-species would make good costumes for the Piranha Plant in Smash Bros.
Many Piranha Plant types share similar colors to the ones already in Ultimate, but many others would make distinct costumes for Piranha Plant including; Chewy Piranhas, Frost Piranhas, Pale Piranhas, Putrid Piranhas, SpritzBlooms, and Wild Ptooie Piranhas.
6 Ryu & Ken Could Have Represented More Of The Street Fighter Cast
Ryu and Ken both have colorful costumes that reference their alternate costume colors from Street Fighter games. However, these colors surprisingly avoid directly referencing other fighters from the Street Fighter series.
Dan's pink gi may have been the most obvious costume to give to one of Ultimate's street fighters, but Sean's bright yellow, Akuma's dark blue, and Gouken's grey and white gis would have also looked great as alternate costumes in Ultimate. Even a blue, red, white, and yellow Sakura-inspired gi could have been fitting for Ryu to have.
5 Snake Was Not Equipped With His Full Arsenal
Each Metal Gear Solid game had its own sneaking suits, disguises, and camouflage patterns, meaning there were too many to actually represent each one in Super Smash Brothers. Nevertheless, it was a shame for Ultimate to only have 8 of them.
Some of the missing camouflage patterns are humorous, like the Fly, Rainbow, Mummy, and Flower Camo. Others were practical, like the Rocks Camo and Squares Camo.
4 Daisy's Origin Suggests An Obscure Costume
Even though Daisy's appearances have been mostly limited to crossover sports titles, fans shouldn't forget that she originally showed up in Super Mario Land on the Gameboy, where everything had a monochromatic greyish-green color palette. Daisy could have had a costume color to reference her original appearance, just like King Dedede, who has a costume in Smash Bros. Ultimate with the same monochromatic color scheme.
Although he is the only one with such a costume, King Dedede showed Smash fans how these colors might have looked on other characters who appeared on the original Gameboy, like Mario, Wario, Kirby, Link, and more.
3 Sonic Has Disappointingly Simple Costumes For Such An Expansive Series
Sonic's current costumes in Ultimate are okay, but not exceptional. None of them seem to directly reference any Sonic media, although some of the cuffs from his costumes do somewhat resemble the Ark Of The Cosmos, the Crystal Ring, and Silver the Hedgehog's own cuffs.
If the Smash developers truly represented the Sonic series through his costumes, they would have included more colors for Sonic's quills and shoes. They could have used the colors of any of Sonic's hedgehog friends like Silver and Amy Rose or even the colors of non-hedgehogs like Knuckles the Echidna, Blaze the Cat, and Jet the Hawk.
2 Some Shiny Pokemon Are Missing
Smash Bros. Ultimate is strangely inconsistent when giving Pokémon the shiny forms from their original games. Some Pokémon, like Pikachu, Squirtle, Ivysaur, Mewtwo, and Incineroar have their shiny colorations as costume options. Yet others, including Pichu, Charizard, Lucario, Jigglypuff, and Greninja, do not.
The absence of some shinies might have been a reference to their rarity in the Pokémon series, but it was still a strange choice for the Smash Bros. developers to exclude such obvious costume colors.
1 Where Are Wario's Costumes?
Wario starred in a game all about costumes called Wario: Master Of Disguise. The disguises from that game would have been great for Smash Bros. costumes, but even Wario's current outfits in Ultimate, the plumber and biker ones, have colorations that went unused.
One of Wario's Mario Golf outfits was an off-white and black version of his plumber outfit, and he also appeared in Wario's Woods with a purple and white version. Warioware Get It Together had three biker outfits that put Wario in all black, pastels, and white and red. Even though Smash Bros. Ultimate limits each character to 8 costume colors, no fans would have complained if the game offered more colors.