Super Smash Bros. Ultimatehas a big year in 2019 but 2020 is just going to make the game even bigger. There is still one more character left for Nintendo to reveal as part of the Fighter Pass, a season pass that nets the player all five characters for 25 dollars.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate originally launched in December of 2018 and over the course of a year (less so, in fact), managed to become the highest selling fighting game of all time, passing 15.7 million units sold in September. The previous record holder was Street Fighter 2 at 15.5 million and, for context, that game’s original iteration came out in 1991. Clearly, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has proven to be another successful entry in the Smash series and Nintendo knows how to capitalize on that success, having released a steady stream of DLC characters and gameplay updates all throughout 2019 (and which it will continue to do for the rest of 2020).
With the Fighter Pass coming to an end after the eventual release of the mysterious fifth character, one could assume thatSuper Smash Bros. Ultimateis eventually on its way out as well but Nintendo’s dedication to the game is far from over and 2020 seems like another fresh year for it to thrive.
5th Character Pack
Not much is known about the future ofSuper Smash Bros. Ultimatebut a fifth character pack will soon be announced for it. As for who, or what, the character will be, there are only enough clues to determine what the character is not going to be - a Nintendo character.
Nintendo made a surprise announcement during The Game Awards 2018 thatPersona 5’sJoker would be joining the roster. The reason it was so surprising was because, althoughShin Megami Tenseigames have released on Nintendo platforms in the past, thePersonaseries has been primarily a PlayStation exclusive franchise since the first game in the series. Joker eventually released in April, which was followed byDragon Quest’sHero in July, Banjo and Kazooie in September, and most recently,Fatal Fury’sTerry Bogard in November.
There are two important things to note about these four characters that could potentially narrow down more information on the fifth one. First, all four characters are from franchises that are considered third-party franchises by Nintendo. None of the games, that these characters are from, were published by Nintendo. Second, there is a release pattern of about two to three months. With this information, it can be assumed that the fifth DLC character will be a non-Nintendo character that will be releasing within the next month.
Some characters that were rumored to be the 5th character include Dante from theDevil May CrySeries, Sora fromKingdom Hearts,Lloyd fromTales of Symphonia,the doom slayer fromDoom,and Geno fromSuper Mario RPG,to name a few. Some characters that are on a lot of fans’ wishlists, such as Dragon Ball's Goku, have been repeatedly labeled by Nintendo as non-video-game characters, as in characters with origins in mediums other video games. It has also stated that such characters will not be featured inSuper Smash Bros. Ultimate.Another popular request, Waluigi, seems to be doomed as an assist trophy forever but anything is possible.
A Second Fighter Pass
During a Nintendo Direct in September, Nintendo confirmed to its fans that more DLC characters will be added toSuper Smash Bros. Ultimateafter the first Fighter Pass filled in its five slots. Besides giving fans an indefinite opportunity to speculate about future characters, Nintendo is truly staying true to the “ultimate” inSmash Ultimate.Including Piranha Plant, the Fighter Pass characters, and counting Pokemon Trainer as one character, the game is set to soon have a hefty 80 characters in its roster. With the confirmation of more characters on the way, the roster as it stands might need a second page on the character selection screen.
A second Fighter Pass might not necessarily follow the same blueprint as the first and could differ significantly. It is possible that when Nintendo says there are more characters coming, it only means three more for example. Additionally, not every future character will be exclusively plucked from a third-party franchise.
A Standalone DLC Character?
If Piranha Plant has taught players anything, it is that Nintendo loves releasing DLC and games out of left field. Going by this logic, a random character that no one is expecting to be inSuper Smash Bros. Ultimate could very well make its appearance in the game. Fans can also expect to see this mystery character appear outside of any Fighter Pass, such as the second one earlier predicted to be announced this year, as Piranha Plant was a somewhat surprising announcement earlier in the game’s life cycle.
When Piranha Plant was first announced, its gameplay trailer was pretty much set up as comedic relief, and the plant was not taken too seriously by theSmashcommunity. Nintendo announced it as a pre-order bonus for the game, furthering the idea that Piranha Plant was just a throwaway character.
When the character finally dropped almost two months after the game’s launch though, it was clear that Nintendo does not make throwaway characters forSuper Smash Bros. Ultimate.It had gotten the same level of dedication from the development team as every other character in the game, if not more so due to its Nintendo origins. It fights just as well as a bulk of the other characters and is still consistently placed as a mid-tier character in a lot of people’s tier lists, albeit toward the lower end of the mid-tier usually.
Gameplay Updates
Nintendo has updatedSuper Smash Bros. Ultimateregularly throughout 2019 with major updates hitting the platform at the same time as the DLC characters in the Fighter Pass. It has recently been updated beyond version 6.0 and it is safe to assume that Nintendo will keep updating it as 2020 progresses. As with any fighting game, besides bug and glitch fixes, these updates bring changes to various characters and their movesets in order to bring more balance to the game. These changes have ranged from slight tweaks to significantly altering a character’s particular moveset which affects the way the characters feel in the meta game.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is available now on Switch.
