“It would be difficult to push it any further than we have”
I’ve said this on smash forums before and had the toxic side of the fanbase lose their shit over it, but the next Smash Bros iteration should be a complete reset on the roster and that roster’s movesets. e.g. Samus Aran should be reworked to incorporate skills from Samus Returns, Fusion, the Prime series and Dread. Right now her moveset is stuck on her Super Metroid form. Link should be reworked to be more based on BotW/TotK. Mario should be reworked to incorporate Odyssey, Galaxy and Wonder.
I LOVE the Smash franchise and have devoted thousands of hours of my life to the series - but that doesn’t change many characters growing stale and being trapped in their pasts. Right now Smash celebrates gaming legacies, but it should be changed to celebrate more than just the distant legacies. The last 10 years of most characters are completely ignored by the current roster. It should celebrate those characters’ futures too.
It would also be nice if celebrated a larger percentage of the non-Japanese side of things, if they go back to guest characters. Other than better netcode, the way you make a smaller roster make sense is if you flip the game on its head with a new set of universal mechanics, like how Street Fighter 5 to Street Fighter 6 is acceptable because everything is about the Drive system.
Peach is getting a new game that would justify an entirely new moveset too.