Super Smash Bros. Ultimate will be the latest game in the Super Smash Bros. franchise. The series has captivated fans since its first release for Nintendo 64 in 1999. Back then, the roster was made up of only 12 characters. This latest edition, the first on Nintendo Switch, will have five times as many fighters. In addition to the robust roster, there’s a host of new features coming to Ultimate and a bunch of old ones coming back. But what exactly is new? And what’s returning from games of Smash past? Here’s what we know so far about Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Last updated on Sept. 14 What is Super Smash Bros. Ultimate? Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is the newest title in the Super Smash Bros. series — crossover fighting games featuring various Nintendo and third-party characters. It will be the fifth installment in the franchise. When’s the release date? Super Smash Bros. Ultimate will be out on Dec. 7, 2018, for Nintendo Switch. Who’s on the Smash roster? Everyone! Well, all the characters that have ever been previously featured in a Smash title. This includes clones “echo fighters” — a new term for characters with similar move sets, but different appearances — like Lucina and Dark Pit, characters that were previously only available in DLC like Ryu and Cloud, and characters that weren’t present in Super Smash Bros. for 3DS and WiiU, such as Solid Snake and Ice Climbers. All the moves have been retooled and the characters rescaled for Switch. Additionally, lots of new costumes are available for the characters, including Breath of the Wild Link and A Link Between Worlds Zelda. Pikachu comes with a female version (and lady Pikachu Libre). Mario will have his wedding outfit and builder’s outfit. Pokémon Trainer can freely switch between Pokémon without being penalized and comes in a female version. Fox and Wolf will have their Star Fox Zero designs and Cloud comes with both his Final Fantasy 7 outfit and his Advent Children one. Some characters, such as Ike and Bayonetta, will have subtle differences in their sound effects and voice-overs between certain costumes. Update (11/1): The Mii Fighters will be getting a huge range of outfit and customization options, including outfits inspired by Breath of the Wild, Splatoon 2, ARMS, Chibi Robo, Custom Robo and Nintendo Labo. A special DLC outfit based on Rex from Xenoblade Chronicles 2 will be available at a later date. What new characters will be joining? Daisy will make her Smash debut as a Peach echo fighter. The Inklings from Splatoon and the much-anticipated Ridley also join the roster. Update (8/8): Castlevania’s Simon Belmont will also be playable, and Richter Belmont will be one of his echo fighters. King K. Rool, the notorious Donkey Kong villain, is also joining the cast. Fire Emblem’s Chrom will be one of Roy’s echo fighters and Dark Samus will be one of Samus’. Update (9/14): Isabelle from Animal Crossing: New Leaf is joining the Smash roster! She will have her own moveset, not an echo fighter of Villager. Update (11/1): The final additions to the lineup are Ken from Street Fighter as an echo of Ryu and Incineroar, the last evolution of Litten from Pokémon Sun and Moon. But there’s more — Piranha Plant will be available as a pre-order bonus, though the fighter won’t release till after the game’s out. There’s also going to be at least five DLC packs, which each include a character, a stage and music. They’ll retail at $5.99 individually and at $24.99 for the whole pack. How about Waluigi? No. (Though he will be an assist trophy). Will all characters be available right away? Are any of them DLC? While the full roster will be available with the game, not all characters will be available at the start. Instead, players will have to unlock them as they progress. Nintendo has said that unlocking these characters will be quicker and easier than in previous games. Update (11/1): Piranha Plant — a pre-order bonus fighter — will launch around February 2019. Additionally, there will be five DLC packs, which will each include a character, stage and a music track. On their own, they’ll retail for $5.99 and will be available as a pack for $24.99. There’s no details on which characters will be included just yet. What about stages? There will be 103 stages in total, arranged in the order they were introduced in the series. A lot of favorite stages will be returning, including Peach’s Castle, Spirit Tracks, Green Hill Zone, New Pork City, Frigate Orphan, Shadow Moses, Mortimer Island, Wrecking Crew and the infamous Big Blue. New stages include Moray Towers from Splatoon and Great Plateau Tower from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, as well as Dracula’s Castle from Castlevania and New Donk City Hall, inspired by Super Mario Odyssey. All stages will have Battlefield and Omega forms. Older stages have been redesigned, but nostalgia is prioritized for those originating in the Nintendo ‘64 style. Additionally, the stage selection screen comes before character selection. This means players can pick their characters based on the stage. There are options to let the losing player pick the next stage, to chose in a certain order, to have stage selection be a free-for-all, or to randomize it. Update (8/8): There will be a new feature called “stage morph,” which lets a single battle span over multiple stages. Players begin on one stage and after a shimmering effect occurs, the stage will change to a totally new one. Unlike previous titles, where each stage had an associated musical track, any track from the stage’s franchise can be picked to play on the specific stage in Ultimate. How many people can play at once? Are there any online options? Just like in Super Smash Bros. for the Wii U, up to eight players can join a battle. Update (11/1): Both local wireless and online play options will be available. Online play will offer matchmaking, allowing likeminded players to be played up based on their preferred rules and global smash power (essentially online leaderboards). The matchmaking system will prioritize players closer to each other. Having a high global smash power will allow players to enter elite battles. Beating players online lets you collect their personalize token, called a Smash Tag. You can also send small, preset messages before and after battles. Don’t want to battle? You can enter spectator mode and watch others. If you’re playing locally with someone on a single Switch, you can enter two-vs-two battles online. Playing online lets you set up a custom room called a Battle Arena, which will pair with the Nintendo Switch Online app. Will it support GameCube Controllers? In addition to Nintendo Switch Pro Controllers and Joy-Con Controllers, Ultimate will support GameCube Controllers, much to the joy of Smash fans everywhere. What about amiibo? All existing amiibo will be supported and their data can be transferred to the new game. Update (11/11): New amiibo for each new character have been announced, with varying launch dates. Ridley, Inkling and Wolf will debut the same day as Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. On Feb. 15 2019, they’ll be joined by King K. Rool, Ice Climbers and Piranha Plant. Later in 2019, Princess Daisy, Ken, Pichu, Young Link and Isabelle will hit shelves. Any new fighting mechanics? Ultimate will introduce some new technical moves, tailored toward the fighting mechanisms Super Smash Bros. Melee made popular. While some of these return directly from Melee, others are streamlined as more direct button presses. Directional air dodges are back from Melee and will allow players to quickly avoid attacks, though using too many in a row will eventually reduce their effectiveness. In general, using dodges repeatedly will slow them down. Short hops are smaller than the typical Smash jump and come in handy when using an aerial attack on an opponent on the ground. This move can now be executed by hitting the A button while jumping. Charge attacks can now be charged midair, but doing so will leave the player open. Consecutive dodges will slow you down and make you more vulnerable.<doc-sep>Nintendo released a Nintendo Direct presentation that focused on the upcoming Switch game Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Among many other pieces of news, the company announced that Donkey Kong Country villain King K. Rool will be a playable character in the game--the croc's first appearance in the series. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is set to land on Nintendo Switch on December 7. In addition to many other characters announced in the Nintendo Direct, it will also feature every character who's ever appeared in the entire series, giving it by far the biggest roster of any Smash Bros. game in history. Gallery King K. Rool made his first appearance in the 1994 Super Nintendo game Donkey Kong Country. He is the leader of a gang of crocodilian enemies known as Kremlings, and one of his eyes is veiny and bulging. He's a fairly goofy villain, using tactics like pretending to be defeated to get a leg up on the Kong crew. In Ultimate, he'll be able to throw his boomerang-like crown at opponents and use a blunderbuss that can fire cannonballs. Other new characters appearing for the first time in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate include Castlevania's Simon Belmont and Richter, who will be Simon's echo, meaning he'll control similar to Simon. Also announced was Dark Samus, an echo character for Samus who first appeared in the Metroid Prime series.<doc-sep>After last week’s Super Smash Bros. Ultimate-themed Nintendo Direct, Reddit user Vergeben is riding pretty high. The anonymous leaker, who also posts on gaming forum GameFAQs under the same pseudonym, essentially staked their reputation on the claim that Castlevania’s Simon Belmont would be joining the Smash Bros. Ultimate roster. They were right. Now, Vergeben is back with a pair of new Smash Bros. Ultimate roster leaks. Their track record might not be perfect, but after Simon’s reveal last week it’s probably worth checking these new tips out. Ready? Let’s-a-go! Nintendo Smash Bros. Ultimate Roster Rumors: Isabelle Late last month, Vergeben offered up a particularly blunt take on the Smash Bros. rumor scene, stating that any leak that didn’t include both Simon Belmont and Isabelle (from Animal Crossing) was probably bogus. Simon was confirmed by Nintendo during last week’s Direct, but Isabelle is still a big question mark. However, in a Reddit post over the weekend, Vergeben followed-up with a few more details on the rumored new character. They note that the exact date when Nintendo will reveal Isabelle is still a mystery, but offered up another interesting bit of info. “I only got specifics from one when it comes to whether she’s echo or unique,” Vergeben wrote. “They heard she’s an echo.” That means Isabelle won’t be a totally new character. Instead, she’ll be a slightly altered version of an existing fighter with a new skin. If we had to guess we’d say Isabelle will be an Echo of Villager (also from Animal Crossing), but there’s no info to back up that speculation for now. Minecraft Smash Bros. Ultimate Roster Rumors: Minecraft Back before we even knew what the new Smash Bros. game would be called, Vergeben was leaking new roster additions. That included several that have proven to be true: like Simon and Ridley, but there were also plenty that still haven’t panned out. However, when it comes to one of their most far-fetched leaks, Vergeben still isn’t backing down. Over on GameFAQs, the video game leaker responded to a post asking if Minecraft would still be featured in the fighting franchise. “I haven’t heard anything against it since hearing about it if that’s what you’re asking,” they wrote. Vergeben first reported that the Microsoft-owned sandbox game would make an appearance before Nintendo’s big E3 2018 reveal, and they doubled down on that claim after the event. Now, after the latest Nintendo Direct, it looks like Minecraft could still be waiting in the wings. It’s also unclear exactly what a Minecraft character would look like in Smash Bros., but one popular guess is Steve (one of two default characters players can choose from when they start). As a fighter, Steve could presumably attack with his pickaxe and might be able to make alterations to the stage. He could also use various other in-game weapons, like a sword or a bow and arrow. Of course, this is just a rumor for now, but hopefully, we’ll learn more soon. Smash Bros. Ultimate is still five months away, but you can expect at least a few more big reveals from Nintendo before then. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate launches December 7 for Nintendo Switch.<doc-sep>
The Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Nintendo Direct revealed new characters and gameplay information, but the inclusion of Donkey Kong villain King K. Rool was such an unexpected (and hilarious) surprise that now even the character's creators are getting in on the fun. Gregg and Steve Mayles are brothers from the U.K. who worked for Rare on classic games like Donkey Kong Country, the Banjo Kazooie titles, and for Playtonic Games on Yooka Laylee. They took to Twitter after the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate reveal to give fans some insight about bringing the villain to life. Gregg designed the character's actions and named him, saying on Twitter that he wished he spent more than five minutes coming up with the name. Followers replied asking what the name meant and what the K stood for. Like many thought, the name was a pun of the word "cruel" but, apparently, the initial doesn't stand for anything in particular. "It was just a way of making him seem more important, that he'd added it to inflate his ego," Gregg Mayles said posted on Twitter. "In hindsight, it could have been something tonal like 'Kremling,' or something deliberately out of character, like Keith." Gregg later posted an old naming list that the Rare team used while developing Donkey Kong Country, revealing King K. Rool was originally going to be named "Kommander" K. Rool. Check it out below. Never expected this tweet https://t.co/3IpVWMAcDU about #KingKRool in #SmashBros to be so popular. As a moderately interesting bonus follow up, an early naming sheet shows K. Rool was going to be 'Kommander' and #DKC was going to be called 'Monkey Mayhem' pic.twitter.com/SvwnOxXN2S — Gregg Mayles (@Ghoulyboy) August 10, 2018 Steve, on the other hand, was the visual designer of King K. Rool and had some interesting tidbits on his own. He revealed the powers that be told him King K. Rool "was too big" and took up too much memory, so Steve had to remove frames. King K. Rool joins the Inklings from Splatoon , Ridley from the Metroid series, and Simon Belmont from Castlevania as the newest additions to the Smash roster. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate will release Dec. 7 for Nintendo Switch. Are you excited for King K. Rool's inclusion in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate ? What was your favorite reveal from the character's creators? Let us know in the comments section below.