Character
Character Synopsis
Sam Porter Bridges (shortened to Sam in Smash) is the main character of Death Stranding, a game where you travel west across America, making deliveries and trying to help reconnect a post-apocalyptic America during an event known as the “Death Stranding”, where the world is now infested with monsters known as BTs, which are born from the death of a human. Sam is a very unique person known as a Repatriate, incapable of staying permanently dead, and coming back to life eventually. This plus an allergy known as DOOMS that allows him to sense BTs has made him the most famously known porter (cargo delivery man) in America.
Anything else I could mention, including his fetus friend, would be a spoiler, so I won’t say much else and hope that whoever reads this decides to play the game.
Character Series Icon
I chose this as the series icon because it's a good representation of the handprints BTs leave behind when they move, as well as represent Sam and Lou, and their close relationship, that acts as a large narrative point for Death Stranding. Hand imagery in general is also very apparent throughout the game.
Overall Strength, Speed, and Jump Height
With no cargo, Sam is deceptively fast and can jump very high, thanks to the exoskeleton attached to his suit, but he's also somewhat weak and featherweight without cargo to weigh him down. All of these highs and lows reverse continuously, the more weight that’s added onto Sam’s overall cargo. Sam with the maximum of 200 kilograms of cargo is the polar opposite of himself with no cargo, in that he's incredibly slow and can barely jump, but is also incredibly strong and durable.
Main Gimmick: Weight Capacity and Cargo Carrying
The biggest objective of Death Stranding and the main thing that ties it all together is the fact that Sam spends most of the game making deliveries across America, to reunite them into the United Cities of America.
In order to properly represent this, Sam will be able to carry multiple items on his back (as further explained in his down special) like cargo, somewhat similar to Villager and Isabelle, but with far more capacity, depending on the items he puts on his back. He can also hold basically any item as cargo, which includes food, battering items, guns, explosives, and even a Smash Ball if the player chooses.
Keeping a Smash Ball as cargo can keep another one from appearing as long as Sam has it kept in the cargo on his back. If Sam is carrying anything explosive, enough damage sustained to him or the cargo on his back will result in the cargo exploding and destroying all the cargo he has on his back, as well as him taking damage from it.
Each item has an assigned weight that will add onto the amount Sam is currently carrying. The weight Sam is currently carrying will show over Sam whenever he decides to carry or toss cargo, similar to Banjo and Kazooie whenever they use the Wonderwing ability. Sam will be incapable of carrying any cargo if it pushes his weight past 200 kilograms.
The more cargo Sam is carrying, the heavier he will become, and the slower his attacks will be, but his attacks will be stronger, and when up to 100 kilograms, he will start to have super armor, which gets stronger the closer it gets to 200 kilograms.
Sam’s cargo has its own hit-box and can be attacked to knock off his cargo, which will immediately revert back to whatever item was in it when it gets knocked off. Sam will also lose whatever cargo he most recently stuck on his back each time he gets launched by an attack, which of course, also turns back into whatever item it originally was before being stored.
Finally, Sam starts each fight with 200 kilograms of cargo in no item matches, to let the gimmick still exist. However, despite varying weight in each container thrown, they’ll all be empty when broken. In a no items match, each stock will start with 200 kilograms as well.
Potential Extra Gimmick: Lou and the Scanner
Given how iconic Sam's B.B. Unit is for Death Stranding, it would be a shame not to include it in some fashion, so I thought of a sufficient way to incorporate it that feels faithful but isn’t too essential to Sam’s success in a fight that he has to balance two different gimmicks.
Lou has been shown to have control over Sam’s scanner when connected to his suit, for the main purpose of being able to detect BTs. While such a thing could never be used in the context of Smash Bros, it also has full control over the movement of his scanner and once used it to block bullets that would have otherwise hit Sam.
As a result I thought it’d be nice to make it so Lou can on random occasion, use Sam’s scanner to block a projectile, so long as he’s facing it, taking no damage. Assuming the projectile is a Pokeball or bomb, this will not cause it to become Sam’s as it is not a reflect. Thus it won’t be of much help if it’s being used against a bomb that explodes on contact.
In Smash, right above Sam’s character icon at the bottom of the screen, there will be Lou’s happiness meter. It will go up more for the amount of damage Sam is dishing or if he KOs another character, while it will go down more for the amount of damage he takes. It can also go up if Sam taunts, albeit in very small amounts.
If it goes down all the way, Lou will go into auto-toxemia, as indicated by the BB Pod turning pitch black. When this happens, Lou will be unable to help Sam for the rest of the stock.
Down Special: Cargo Load
The move that allows Sam to pick up cargo, it will place any items he’s holding, or facing on his back in the signature Bridges package look it has, obscuring whatever items he’s currently carrying from both him and the enemy, requiring a good memory and perceptiveness to remember what items he currently has in his cargo.
This is not like the pocket move in the sense that it can catch projectiles thrown toward him, regardless of whether they’re physical or energy based.
Side Special: Throwing Packages
Sam’s only means of getting rid of cargo without getting hit by an enemy, this will act as a physical projectile move that changes speed, distance thrown, and damage based on the item’s assigned weight. The cargo will immediately break open upon contact with anything after being thrown, revealing the item that was inside, unscathed. This could prove to be a double edged blade naturally if you end up throwing cargo at an enemy only to give them a free Pokeball. Throwing cargo with an explosive item inside will result in immediate explosion upon contact with anything.
Standard Special: Bola Gun
The Bola Gun is the first weapon you acquire in Death Stranding, and represents the series wonderfully since the game largely advises against ever killing a human enemy to avoid them becoming a BT and triggering a voidout, capable of destroying an entire city. It restrains an enemy, albeit for a brief amount of time, until they break free and begin to get back to attacking.
In Smash, it will function largely similar, by restraining a character in place for a brief second, until they’re able to break free. This can be used to give Sam an opportunity to safely close space between him and his opponent, allowing him to attack while they’re restrained. To add onto this, the more damaged the enemy is, the longer it will take for them to be able to break free from the restraints.
This could prove to be extremely dangerous to an offstage opponent by restraining them while they’re still falling in midair, similar to Yoshi’s Egg Laying.
Lastly, if you hold b while using this move, you can aim the gun and walk around while doing so. Letting go of the B button will result in him firing. This is not a charged up version of the move so much as a way to be able to aim it or prolong when you shoot.
Up Special: Sticky Gun
Admittedly, this move works extremely similarly to Joker’s grappling hook. It shoots diagonally upwards and will allow Sam to recover from offstage as long as it shoots near the ledge. If used on a person above Sam, just like Joker, will pull them down toward him as an attack. If it manages to hit an item above him, it will pull it into his hands and automatically let him equip it.
Up Smash: Ladder Deployment
Sam places a ladder in front of him that auto extends upward at an astounding height, similar to Palutena’s up smash. What separates this one however is that him placing it down counts as a hit, so it becomes a multi-hit Up Smash. This also leaves the ladder in place until it is eventually broken or breaks on its own in a short duration of about 20 seconds. It can be climbed like most ladders in Smash by anyone.
Side Smash: Cargo Smash
Sam pulls out the most recent cargo he’s put on his back and smacks the enemy with it, of course, the speed of the attack and the damage it deals depends on the item that’s inside. Immediately after it hits something or someone, the cargo will break and the item inside will be released. If the cargo contains an explosive item, it will automatically blow up on whatever or whoever it hits, but will leave Sam unharmed.
Down Smash: Kick Stomp
Pretty basic Smash attack, Sam stomps downward like he’s gonna kick your head in. Comes from the move where he does exactly that to anyone on the ground.
Grab: Strand
Sam’s grabs involve restraining an enemy with his Strand, a rope made out of his blood. The pummel will be him kneeing the opponent while restraining them, like what's shown above. His forward throw has him punching his enemy straightforward after restraining them. His back throw just has him throw them behind him. His down throw is basically the gif above, and finally his up throw is an uppercut to the jaw after restraining them.
Final Smash: BT Burial
The start-up for the Final Smash will be a BT appearing in front of Sam, stomping forward as depicted by the geysers of tar shooting up. Similar to Terry's Final Smash, if an enemy gets hit by any of the 3 tar geysers that pop up ahead of Sam, they'll be pulled under the tar and enact the Final Smash's cutscene. During it, they get shot with a laser like the one shown here:
The laser from the lion BT will shoot the opponent into the mouth of the whale BT, ending with them diving into the tar and ground below, as shown here:
Taunts
Sam’s up taunt will be him rocking Lou before quickly attaching him back to his suit. Sam must do this a lot throughout Death Stranding to console Lou whenever he's crying and both raise his happiness meter and keep it from lowering into auto-toxemia levels. This, along with all the other taunts, can be used to make Lou a little happier, raising his happiness meter.
For his side taunt, Sam will pull out a Cryptobiote and quickly eat it. These little water-bear-esque creatures are often eaten throughout Death Stranding to raise Sam's blood levels, basically healing him. Of course performing this taunt won't actually heal any lost health.
Lastly, for his down taunt, Sam’s scanner will pop out and spin while he swerves his head left and right to sense for BTs. Once the taunt is over the scanner will retreat back into the suit.
Victory Poses
Being Death Stranding's notable quicksave method, Sam will be lying on the ground with his cargo keeping his back somewhat upward, while he holds and soothes Lou.
This victory pose will be a little weird so allow me to explain. It will take place in the normal setting for victory poses, but in front of Sam will be a terminal. He'll stick his Q-Pid in it and begin to float in place as it goes through the activation process. The victory pose ends on this and Sam just remains floating in midair while a tear streams down his face due to his Chiral Allergy.
Finally, Sam's third victory pose will be affectionately holding Lou up to his face and turning it towards the camera, so it can give a thumbs up, referencing the iconic scene of the baby giving a thumbs up inside of Sam's throat whenever he repatriates, as shown in the gif above.
Stage
Bridges Distribution Center
The stage to represent Death Stranding will be based on the Distribution Center west of Capital Knot City, since it’s probably the most open and vast area in the game and really helps put forward the kind of setting you deal with throughout the game. The fight will be somewhat set off distance from the actual building, pretty similar to what’s shown in the picture above. One thing that will be added but is not shown in the picture is a Timefall Shelter in the center of the stage, which looks like this:
Each of the three large disc canopies will act as separate, unchanging platforms for the stage.
Eventually, after a certain amount of time, “Timefall” will occur, as indicated by a massive rainstorm and a rainbow over the horizon. Within Death Stranding, Timefall causes any matter hit by it to go through rapid aging or decomposition, essentially fast forwarding time for them. In the context of Smash Bros, this will cause whoever isn’t under the Timefall Shelter to be constantly taking damage from the rain. This will bring an interesting challenge of players getting territorial for the area under the shelter, likely trying to knock each other out of it.
As time progresses even further, BTs will start to appear and then cause a good section of the stages floor to be almost flooded in tar, like every BT fight. Here's a gif to give an idea of how this looks in Death Stranding:
This will drastically slow the movements of any character standing in it, similar to the goo used in some spirit matches.
Aside from this however, the BTs will not actually be harming or interacting with the players throughout the match, and will be depicted as fighting against Bridges members in the background, until they’re “defeated” and disappear, along with the Timefall, making the stage peaceful once again.
In the background of stage you will of course see random Bridges members walking around and fighting off the BTs when they appear, as well as maybe a Mule Truck driving in the distance on occassion. Sometimes, in the distance you’ll also see Fragile near the inside of the Distribution Center before teleporting away, probably posing like this:
Death Stranding Spirits
Fragile
Fragile’s spirit fight will be against Daisy in her black and green alt. She favors her up special throughout the fight to represent Fragile’s iconic “umbrella”. She also is equipped with a Unira item to represent the spikes on Fragile’s suit that shoot up whenever her DOOMS acts up. During the fight, an Abra will also appear to try and teleport you for the duration of the fight, to represent her ability to teleport between Beaches. She’s a 2 star spirit battle, so she’s relatively easy to deal with. Her fight should take place on Shadow Moses Island to represent the looks of the inside of Bridges Distribution Centers. She's also a shield type spirit.
Die-Hardman
Die-Hardman will be represented in a spirit battle by Meta Knight in his Dark Meta Knight skin. He’ll be carrying a Ray Gun to represent the handgun he’s been seen using, and throughout the fight, many healing fields will appear to represent the fact that he’s seen throughout most of the game in the form of a hologram. He’s a 2 star spirit battle, so like Fragile, he’s fairly easy to deal with. He’ll be fought on New Donk City, to represent the United Cities of America. Die-Hardman is a shield type spirit.
Heartman
Heartman will be represented by a blue Dr Mario, not because he’s a doctor (he isn’t), but because of his backstory being tied to a hospital and being surrounded by medical equipment for reasons I won’t spoil. During the fight, he’ll fall asleep every 30 seconds after waking up. There will also be 1-up flags falling throughout the fight to represent his passion for giving things “likes” on social media. He’ll be the only 1 star spirit among this group, for being incredibly easy to defeat. The fight will take place in the Living Room stage, to represent his living room, where you’ll first meet him in person. This is an attack type spirit.
Deadman
Deadman will be represented by 4 Miis. Three of them will look different, with one similarity to Deadman the others are lacking (one has the business suit body, another has his hair and beard, and the last one has his sunglasses). After those 3 are defeated, a 4th one will appear, having all of these similarities combined to make a Mii that looks considerably like Deadman. This is a 2 star spirit fight since you’re fighting alone against 4 decently challenging Miis. His fight should take place on Midgar, simply because it carries a similar sci-fi tone to some areas within Death Stranding. Deadman is a grab type spirit.
Mama
Mama will be represented by the brown and light green Ice Climbers, for spoiler reasons I won’t get into. The leading Ice Climber will be equipped with a scythe to represent the cord cutters she developed for Sam’s Cuff Links, which allow him to permanently sever BTs’ umbilical cords. They will also favor the up special for reasons I, once again, cannot say. Her fight will take place on Shadow Moses Island to represent her lab, and she’ll be a 2 star spirit battle. She is also a shield type spirit.
Higgs Monaghan
Higgs is represented by a yellow Joker due to his unique quirk of constantly wearing a mask to conceal his face as well as the fact they both use firearms. You only need to kill Joker to win, but he’ll be supported by a giant black dress alt Princess Peach with unflinching super armor, making it pretty much impossible to kill. The fight is also a stamina match, with you having 250 HP and Joker having the same, while the giant unflinching Peach has 999 HP. The match will have multiple x-bombs scattering frequently across the stage as well. The fight will take place at the Bridges Distribution Center stage. This is a 3 star spirit battle, and is a shield type spirit.
BTs
BTs will be represented by 7 Mr Game and Watch’s. Throughout the fight, a Kyogre and Suicune will constantly spawn in an attempt to kill you. The fight is a stamina match and while the player has 200 HP, the enemies all have 50 HP. The fight takes place at the Bridges Distribution Center, and is a 3 star spirit battle. This is an attack type spirit.
Clifford Unger
Clifford Unger is represented by 12 Snake’s that show up consecutively in teams of 4. The first team is the normal costume Snake with 100 HP as well as 3 red camo Snakes at 50 HP. The second is the dark green camo Snake with 200 HP as well as 3 more red camo Snakes at 100 HP. The final team is black suit snake at 300 HP with a team of 3 red camo Snakes at 150 HP. Finally, your character will have 300 HP. All of the 12 Snakes come equipped with a Charge Scope. The fight takes place on the Castle Siege stage to represent the active war zones you fight him in. This will be a 4 star spirit battle, not only because of Cliff’s importance, but because of how difficult his fight will be, given the number of opponents you have to defeat with no assistance. This is also an attack type spirit.
Amelie Strand
Amelie will be represented by a red dressed Princess Peach to reference her meme worthy line of calling Sam “Mario” and saying she’ll be “Princess Beach”. She also has a giant black dressed Peach on her side, but you only need to kill the red dressed one to win. The fight is a stamina battle where both the red and black Peach have unflinching super armor for all attacks. The red Peach has 100 HP while the giant black Peach has 999 HP. Your character will also have 100 HP. The background will be obscured by mist unless you have a spirit to negate this. The red Peach will be constantly avoiding you while the giant black Peach will be aggressively attempting to attack. You’ll have 30 seconds to defeat the red Peach or else the match will result in failure. The fight takes place on Wuhu Island’s beach section and will stay there for the duration of the match. This is a 4 star spirit battle due to Amelie’s importance to the plot and the fact that her spirit battle will be incredibly tough to pull off. Amelie will be a grab type spirit.
Music
Death Stranding has the issue that a lot of its music is very atmospheric and not very good for a fighting game like Smash Bros (and a lot of the good lyrical tracks are copyrighted by bands), so that limits the options significantly, however I’ve decided on 7 songs that can be added to Smash Ultimate and decided on which of them should be remixed.
B.B.’s Theme
Cargo High
"Cargo High" is a pretty good action packed song within the original soundtrack for the game. Thus it needs no changes. Fits well enough as is.
Decentralized by Nature
Similar to "Cargo High", "Decentralized by Nature" is a very action-y track, but with more hints of suspense than the former. Just like the song before it, does not need a remix.
Mules
Just listen to this and read my description for the two other songs above and apply them here, more or less.
Demens
Same as the last 3. Action packed, doesn't need a remix, etc...
Fragile
Similar to "B.B.'s Theme", this song has some importance (albeit not as much) but has the problem of not being action oriented at all. However it has a lot more catchy and recognizable notes than a good amount of the game's atmospheric soundtrack, so I could see someone taking this song and remixing it to hell and back into a good action track.
Flower of Fingers
Unlike the other action-y tracks that don't require a remix, "Flower of Fingers" feels more properly orchestrated (given it was used for a boss battle), and yet I feel like because of that, it could largely benefit from a remix.
