What if Bandana Waddle Dee joined Super Smash Bros?

Kirby’s brave little spear-bearer feels like the missing fourth chair at Dream Land’s Smash table.

Bandana Waddle Dee might be one of the safest bets left for a future Super Smash Bros. roster.

That does not make him boring. If anything, it makes him satisfying. Like Inkling, Ridley or King K. Rool in Ultimate, Bandana Waddle Dee would not be a shocking reveal. He would be a long-anticipated “finally” moment. Not quite as chaotic as Waluigi’s endless Smash campaign, perhaps, but still the sort of newcomer who makes everyone nod, smile, and quietly admit that, yes, this probably should have happened already.

He has the ingredients. He is recognisable, marketable, tied to one of Nintendo’s most enduring franchises, and popular enough to have become a constant presence in Smash wishlists, fan rosters and community polls. He is also not just “a Waddle Dee with a hat”, even if that is technically quite close to the premise. Over time, Kirby has turned him into something more specific: King Dedede’s loyal little soldier, Kirby’s dependable ally, and the closest thing modern Kirby has to a fourth core hero.

That rise was not immediate. Bandana Waddle Dee’s first proper recognised appearance came in Kirby Super Star on the SNES in 1996, where he showed up in the Megaton Punch sub-game as Kirby’s first opponent. Not exactly a legendary entrance. More “local orange sphere suffers immediate humiliation” than “future Smash candidate arrives”.

Kirby Super Star Ultra on Nintendo DS gave him more shape in 2008, particularly through Revenge of the King, where he appeared as one of Dedede’s most loyal underlings. He was still not presented as powerful, which is part of the charm. The point was that he stood up anyway. In a series full of cosmic horrors, ancient artefacts and suspiciously cheerful round creatures, Bandana Waddle Dee’s early appeal came from something much smaller: he was brave despite being completely outmatched.

Then Kirby’s Return to Dream Land in 2011 placed him alongside Kirby, Meta Knight and King Dedede as one of the four playable heroes, a role reinforced by Return to Dream Land Deluxe in 2023. He also became a familiar helper presence in games like Kirby: Triple Deluxe and Kirby: Planet Robobot, before playable appearances in Kirby Star Allies, Kirby Fighters 2 and Kirby and the Forgotten Land strengthened his modern role. Most recently, Kirby Air Riders kept him visible as an unlockable rider in Kirby’s wider playable cast.

That is not a cameo trail. That is a promotion.

Dream Land Has Been Saving His Seat

The easiest argument for Bandana Waddle Dee is also the strongest. Modern Kirby already treats him like he belongs beside the big three.

Kirby has been part of Smash since the Nintendo 64 original. Meta Knight joined in Brawl and promptly became the character competitive players still talk about like he was a natural disaster with wings. King Dedede arrived alongside him, bringing a hammer, king-sized bulk and the confidence of a monarch who has never once questioned whether his plan is terrible.

Since then, Kirby’s Smash representation has stayed frozen in place, even as the Kirby series itself has kept moving.

Bandana Waddle Dee now feels like the missing piece of that set. Kirby is the hero. Meta Knight is the rival. Dedede is the king. Bandana Waddle Dee is the loyal underdog who somehow earned his spot through sheer persistence, courage and one very useful spear.

There is also a funny Sakurai wrinkle here. Kirby and Smash are both central to Masahiro Sakurai’s legacy, and Bandana Waddle Dee’s first proper appearance came in a Sakurai-directed Kirby game before later Kirby teams turned him into a much bigger recurring ally. Perhaps Smash has avoided expanding Kirby too aggressively because of that closeness. Fair enough. Nobody wants the roster to look like someone left Sakurai alone with a Dream Land sticker book.

But at this point, not adding Bandana Waddle Dee almost feels like reverse nepotism. Smash has found room for plenty of extra Pokémon, Fire Emblem fighters, third-party icons and sword users of every possible fringe length. A fourth Kirby representative, especially one so cleanly established by the source series, would hardly be indulgent.

It would be housekeeping.

The Problem With Being This Sensible

There is one fair criticism, though. Bandana Waddle Dee might be too safe.

Smash reveals thrive on energy. Ridley had years of “too big” baggage. Banjo & Kazooie had impossible-dream nostalgia. Steve was so mechanically alien to Smash that his reveal felt like someone had modded the broadcast. Bandana Waddle Dee does not have that same shock factor. He is cute, popular and obvious. That is a good roster pitch, but not always a thrilling one.

That is also what separates him from a Smash Deviation pick like SpongeBob SquarePants, where the whole argument begins by testing whether Smash should even stretch that far. Bandana Waddle Dee has the opposite problem. He belongs so neatly that the debate becomes whether neatness is enough.

Kirby also has stranger options. Marx would bring cosmic jester horror. Magolor has magic, betrayal and a full redemption arc with theme park management on the side. Gooey is… Gooey. Depending on your tolerance for adorable blue confusion, that may be an argument by itself.

So yes, there is a world where Bandana Waddle Dee looks a little plain next to Kirby’s weirder bench. There is also a harsher question hiding under his popularity. Is this genuine support, or a fallacy trapped inside the Smash Bros. echo chamber? Do fans want Bandana Waddle Dee because they love him, or because the community has collectively decided he is the next logical Kirby pick?

That is not a fatal flaw, but it means his case cannot rely on completionism alone. “He should join because Kirby needs four characters” is not enough. The fighter has to justify the slot in motion. It is the same basic challenge that sits behind any good Smash Speculation pitch, whether that means proving Crash Bandicoot belongs as more than a nostalgia mascot or making sure Shadow the Hedgehog would not just become Sonic with darker lighting.

Luckily, Bandana Waddle Dee has a long, pointed answer to that.

The Pointy End of the Argument

Bandana Waddle Dee’s biggest advantage is not that he is cute. It is not even that he is popular.

It is the spear.

A spear gives Bandana Waddle Dee an identity no other Kirby character can touch. Smash has no shortage of blades, but a spear changes the conversation. It is not about sweeping arcs or flashy sword trails; it is about reach, timing and the tiny satisfaction of keeping an opponent exactly where the pointy end wants them.

There are also bows, guns, whips, hammers, explosives, psychic powers, alien tech and whatever Mr. Game & Watch is doing with a turtle.

What Smash does not really have is a fighter built primarily around spear combat.

That gives Bandana Waddle Dee a niche before the moveset even starts. Kirby is built around versatility, copy abilities and the famous inhale gimmick. Meta Knight is about speed and blade pressure. Dedede is about weight, hammer swings and royal slapstick power. Bandana Waddle Dee would be smaller, lighter and more precise, fighting from just outside normal close range with pokes, thrusts and careful spacing.

The contrast is perfect. He is a tiny orange underdog carrying a weapon that lets him fight bigger than he is. The spear makes him brave without making him powerful. It gives him reach without stripping away the round, soft Kirby charm. He can be adorable and genuinely annoying to fight, which is exactly the emotional range Smash was built to contain.

The source material already supports it, too. Kirby’s Return to Dream Land gave him a clear spear identity. Kirby Fighters 2 made that identity battle-ready. Kirby and the Forgotten Land used him as the second-player partner with his trusty spear, while Air Riders keeps him visible as an unlockable rider in Kirby’s wider playable cast. Smash would not have to invent a personality for him. It would just need to sharpen the one he already has.

So the design problem is refreshingly clear. Bandana Waddle Dee should not become Kirby with a weapon, Dedede without the bulk, or Meta Knight with less theatre. He should feel like a small, steady spear skirmisher: brave enough to challenge much larger fighters, light enough to stay mobile, and precise enough to make every inch of reach matter.

With that in mind, here is how Kirby’s fourth fighter and Smash’s first fighter built primarily around spear combat could work.