Why Slime and Chocobo?

Here is my essay of sorts:

A lot of you may feel this to be a strange suggestion, but in reality this would be a wonderfully unexpected choice. You may ask yourself, "why two random characters and not someone like Cloud, Sora, Chrono, etc..." Truth is either of these, apart from Black Mage, are the best and most likely choice for a Square Enix character.

I can break down why each character fare's a good chance, and why they'd be best as a team.

Chocobo:


He and Slime share one thing in common, they are both the mascots of their series. Both characters have their own spin-off series and titles. Finally both series are large, iconic RPGs that many fans throughout the world enjoy. Chocobo has had a decent amount of support that stretches back as far as Melee. The reason I point towards Melee as the beginning is the results from the Japanese Melee poll from many years ago showed something peculiar... Under the section of "third party characters" Chocobo received the most amount of votes, ahead of Sonic and Megaman. While the sentence may appear quite drastic it really is benign, obviously it doesn't mean Chocobo is more popular than those characters, but what it does show is or at least was a level of support for him.

Melee poll data:

Non-Nintendo
1. Chocobo (9)
2. Doraemon (7)
3. Bomberman (5)
4. Crash Bandicoot (4)
5. Sonic (3)
6. Megaman (3)

Obviously within the Final Fantasy universe he faces some competition between Black Mage and other protagonists from various titles, notably Cloud. In all truth, and this will disappoint some, we are more likely to receive a mascot (Chocobo, Black Mage, Moogle, etc) than an protagonist (Cloud, Cecil, Onion Knight, etc). If you don't believe me look no further than Mario Sports Mix or Mario Hoops 3-3, the rosters for both game's were obviously Square and Nintendos' decision. So given that precedent and how well they mix with the Mario universe, I feel we are more likely to see a character of that caliber versus "another swordsman".

Some of the astute might already be thinking, "but wait, Chocobo wasn't a playable character in either titles?! Would that not hurt his chances? Is your example even valid?" Yes, he wasn't playable in either titles, which is strange given how high profile of a mascot he is currently. Still, outside of those games he remains a face of Final Fantasy whenever large promotions occur, such as you can see in the very first picture at the very beginning of this thread. Yes, the example still proves what it does. You see, there was another character who WAS playable in Mario Sports Mix...

Slime:

The mascot of the Dragon Quest series. A popular character, so much so that he placed 4th on Famitsu's top 100 characters of all time. Despite not performing as well as big sister Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest is still a huge series, so much so that it's fanbase is almost the entire country of Japan! You may think that is hyperbole, but once you are familiar with how massive this series is in Japan you will understand why it isn't as much of a joke as you think...

The funny thing is, this series stands a better chance of making it's way into Smash than even Final Fantasy! Reason being Nintendo's investment into this one third party series. Back during the development of Dragon Quest IX Satoru Iwata and the president of Square Enix had a meeting where Iwata publicly stated Nintendo's desire to expand this series into the West. An unprecedented move on Nintendo or any other companies account. They have spent their own money localizing, advertising, publishing, and translating the latest Dragon Quest games overseas. Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Sky, Dragon Quest VI: Realms of the Revelation, in the future Dragon Quest X and Rocket Slime 2 (Slime's spin off series), soon Dragon Quest Monsters Joker 2 and Fortune Street. Let me touch on that last game, Fortune Street.

Take a look at these screenshots and tell me what you see?

If you said a Dragon Quest/Mario crossover title you would be correct. The game is essentially Mario Party/Monopoly/Kingdom Hearts Deckboard rolled into one. It is a fun title [so even if you aren't a fan of Dragon Quest I'd recommend the title, if for no other reason as it has WiFi] that will be hitting our shores this Holiday season. But this is actually quite a remarkable thing considering how many series Mario has crossovered with which has only been with very few series (Sonic the Hedgehog and Tetris).

On a minor note Nintendo even developed a Dragon Quest title. Dragon Quest Wars, a DSIware game was developed by Intelligent Systems. The developer behind the Mario RPG series', Fire Emblem and Advance Wars.


After this discussion of relevance and popularity, lets get to the main question. Why a team? Why Super Smash Bros.?

Barbecue while both characters are popular on their own rights many (though incorrect) assume neither one could be a fighter on their own merits. Even though apparently he is able to play  4 different sports and morph his body to kick and slap opponents, Slime's lack of limbs make him ineligible to be a character. Again, even though he can play sports, carry small and large items, cast magic, and morph and twist his body. Chocobo receives the same treatment to a milder extent. So some of us around the net have created this idea of this team, Slime and Chocobo. Kind of a physical avatar for the union between Square and Enix. Two characters, one team. Both bringing something very unique to the Smash Bros universe. How they would function is something I can cover in detail another day, for now I wanted to lay this suggestion before you all.

There is no ignoring inevitable issue, the fact that this characters doesn't exist nor have Slime and Chocobo ever really come together such as in this case. Despite this I still support this character idea and bring it before you all here. When fans come together they can affect many things. There are always one of two options. Sit there and do nothing, or try. Try to push your idea as much as you can, because there is no telling what can happen. So if you enjoy this topic and/or agree with my thoughts, support these characters. They'd be great additions and would bring a whole lot of fun with them. :)

If A Slime Met A Chocobo

What would happen if Dragon Quest's most famous slime encountered Final Fantasy's most famous bird? Yuji Horii, father of Dragon Quest, must know the answer.

"Maybe Slime hops onto Chocobo," Horii told Kotaku last week through a translator during an interview tied into the U.S. launch of Dragon Quest IX on the Nintendo DS.

"Would they fight?" Kotaku asked.

"Maybe they would fight," Horii replied. "Did you want them to?"

Um, I don't know? I explained that these are the kinds of final questions one thinks of after sitting in a conference room with Horii at a table on which there was both a plush Slime between us and a small plastic one tethered to his cell phone. I had Slimes on the mind, and, hey, we were done talking about serious stuff like how long role-playing games should be.

We didn't get far with the Chocobo Vs. Slime question, but I still asked one more question that I knew I'd be even less likely to get a solid answer to...