Super Smash Bros. Ultimate mastermind Masahiro Sakurai just used Nintendo's E3 time slot to announce that Tekken's Kazuya Mishima will be Ultimate's next fighter. An intro trailer for Kazuya shows him handling Ultimate's roster in typical Tekken fashion, mixing basic attacks with signatures to combo opponents into oblivion. He also, of course, sports his own flair, throwing his defeated adversaries over a cliff into a lake of fire below, a fate Ganondorf, Captain Falcon, and Pit unfortunately suffer.
Following Kazuya's intro trailer, Sakurai showed Smash Bros. fans the devastating moves the character utilizes in combat. As one can imagine, Kazuya's abilities come directly from the standard attacks he displays throughout the Tekken series, and so whenever he battles, it almost looks as though Super Smash Bros. Ultimate becomes a Tekken game. It's an effect similar to what characters like Minecraft's Steve and Street Fighter's Ryu produce whenever they're on the screen.
Because Kazuya's reveal happened during E3, it shared a time slot with many other Nintendo games that the publisher wanted to promote, so Masahiro Sakurai didn't have enough time to walk fans through the character's entire ability list. Even if he did have the time, though, he hasn't recorded the walkthrough video for the character yet. As a result, Sakurai opted to instead give a quick showcase of every move in Kazuya's arsenal, saving the breakdown of the character for a later date, that being June 28.
Kazuya's abilities continue the trend of new Super Smash Bros. Ultimate DLC characters fully embodying the franchises they come from; Sakurai even jokes about it before putting Kazuya's moves on display. It almost feels like Nintendo shaped Ultimate around Kazuya in Tekken rather than the other way around. The way he moves and the way his animations play out makes it seem like Nintendo plucked Kazuya straight out of Tekken and placed him in Smash. It's very authentic and satisfying, if not a little overbearing.
Hopefully, Kazuya also continues the trend of being a character that fans have fun playing around with. At first glance, it doesn't seem like anything in his move set heavily hinders players from getting creative with him; he doesn't seem sluggish or like he lacks in options. Unfortunately, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate's Kazuya showcase won't be happening for another two weeks, but when it does arrive, it should give players a better indication of how the character performs — or wants to perform — in actual combat.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is on Switch.