On August 8th, Nintendo released a Nintendo Direct video specifically for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. SSBU has already been announced and demoed at E3 earlier this year, but Nintendo continues to add to the hype by unveiling new content. Today, 5 brand new characters were announced for the game and a ton of new content.

Castlevania Joins the Frey!

Today, Simon and Richter Belmont from the acclaimed series Castlevania have been added to the insane character roster. As vampire hunters, both characters have a variety of moves and both wield a ball and chain and boomerang type weapon along with their melee style fighting. They are “Echo Fighters” essentially reskins of the same character with different sound effects and visual effects. A Castlevania stage, Dracula’s Castle, was created along with music from the original game series.

Echo Fighters: Chrom and Dark Samus

Chrom and Dark Samus appear as Echo Fighters. Chrom, a Fire Emblem character, resembles Ike. Ike’s skill set boasts raw strength but a lack of speed and aerial mobility. Dark Samus is the Echo Fighter of Samus. Other than awesome effects and a recoloring, it is still the same Samus we have loved since the Smash 64 days.

Stages and Music:

Nintendo announced that without Battlefield, Final Destination, and Big Battlefield, SSBU has 100 stages. All 100 will be released from the beginning and will not need to be unlocked. They have also brought back the Omega and Battlefield mode options for all the stages. Almost all old stages were given a new look and received balance changes. Some stayed true to the original nature as Nintendo stated they wanted to give the players some nostalgia when playing at places like Dreamland and Hyrule. A new feature was added called Stage Morph. It is an optional function, but will randomly morph to a different stage at random or in a timed interval. The option to turn off stage hazards has also been added. Stage hazards like the lava on Brinstar, Whispy’s breath on Dreamland, and more can be removed if players want. The newest stage to be announced was the New Donk City Hall stage from Super Mario Odyssey. The stage constantly moves around the skyscraper of New Donk City and adds obstacles and platforms as it moves. It even comes with the song “Jump Up Super Star” from the original game. Nintendo has brought that song and almost 900 other songs to SSBU and are available to be played through the My Music mode.

King K.Rool Takes Over!

The final announcement was the inclusion of long time antagonist, King K.Rool. K.Rool comes from the Donkey Kong series and has been included in the class of larger characters. With their hilarious cinematic, Nintendo showed off the wacky and powerful moves that K.Rool brings to the table.

SSBU is shaping up to be the biggest game for Nintendo yet. Bringing characters from all over the video game universe, SSBU combines fun, competition, and years of video game history seamlessly. The game’s release date is December 7th, 2018 and will be made for the Switch.