Bandai Namco has registered a trademark that has a suspiciously similar name to a forgotten Smash Bros. wannabe.
Bandai Namco is no stranger to the crossover fighting game, with countless Shonen Jump games coming out over the years – most recently 2019's stinker Jump Force, and Tekken and Soul Calibur have both featured crossover fighters. But most notably, Bandai Namco Studios is co-developer of Super Smash Bros. for 3DS, for Wii U, and Ultimate.
As noticed by Gematsu Bandai Namco has filed a trademark for "World Fighters" in Japan. And given that Bandai Namco has quite a few fighting game franchises under its belt, this has the gears turning in people's heads. The GamingLeaksAndRumours subreddit is speculating that this could be some form of crossover fighter, whether that be a Bandai Namco-wide crossover game or a new version of the Jump Stars/Jump Force list of crossover anime fighting games. Or, it could be as simple as something like a subtitle for a One Piece or Dragon Ball game.
However, interestingly, the name World Fighters has been used for a crossover fighting game before – that being 2003's forgotten Japan-only Smash Bros-like fighter DreamMix TV World Fighters from Hudson. This saw Hudson, Konami, and Takara team up for a fighting game roster that featured the likes of Metal Gear's Solid Snake, Castlevania's Simon Belmont, Bomberman, and Optimus Prime (three of which featured in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, we're through the looking glass here people).
"Finally the sequel to DreamMix TV World Fighters for PS2," one Reddit user speculates, responding to the new trademark news, as another adds: "Optimus Prime is gonna throw hands with Bomberman again."
Now, granted, it is extremely unlikely that Bandai Namco is working on a new DreamMix TV World Fighters game for a number of reasons, first of all being the game was published by Hudson which was absorbed by Konami. But on the off chance that the two publishers are teaming up on a new crossover fighting game revival (they aren't), I want to be the first to say I called it.
If you play a pirated Super Smash Bros exactly 69 times on N64, Nintendo's "sneaky" anti-piracy measure will "lull the illegitimate user into a false sense of security" and trap you as Mario forever.
