Nintendo kicked off its busy week of E3 festivities with a scheduled Direct focussed solely on new content for Super Smash Bros. for the Wii U and 3DS. Despite the information that was leaked earlier this weekend, there were still plenty of new announcements throughout the Direct to ensure the 20 minute video delivered the hype.
Two new fighters were announced today, which will join the previously revealed Lucas, as new challengers entering the battle. Marth, a returning character to the series, was unveiled with an updated look and moveset. No longer is he a clone of Marth, as Roy now stands on his own as the fifth Fire Emblem character to be featured in the Super Smash Bros. game. He also has a brand new Final Smash (which he didn’t have before) to ensure he is seen as an individual character.
The second new fighter might have come as quite the surprise to anyone who missed out on the leaks previously. Ryu, from Street Fighter, is now a playable character in Smash, and it appears that Nintendo has put quite a bit of care into making him feel as true to his original form in Street Fighter 2 as possible. Despite not having a six button layout to perform moves, players can still pull off a wide range of attacks with Ryu based on how quickly attack buttons are pushed or how long they are held for. All of his classic moves are back as well, and they look pretty devastating. Ryu will be the first fighter in Smash to have two Final Smash maneuvers, performing either a Hadoken or a Shoryuken, depending on where opponents are on the stage.
Ryu is bringing a new stage called Suzaku Castle with him, and it will be available on both platforms. That isn’t the only new stage coming to the game; a revamped Dreamland stage was shown off, as were a couple of older stages from the original Super Smash Bros. The Miiverse stage for the Wii U is on its way as well, which will continuously show Miiverse postings specific to the characters in battle throughout the match.
A handful of new costumes for Mii Fighters are being released as expected, featuring some costumes themed around two other fighting game series, Virtua Fighter and Tekken. Announced were classic Akira and modern Jacky costumes, a Heihachi costume from Tekken, as well as costumes from Megaman.EXE, ZERO from Mega Man X, the Inkling Girl and Boy and squid hat from Splatoon, and Isabelle from Animal Crossing.
New features are being implemented within Super Smash Bros. soon, including the long-awaited Tourney Mode as a part of a free update in August. The mode will actually feature two types of tourneys, Community Tourneys which “let players compete for the highest points in a certain amount of time”, and Regular Tourneys which “have a specific set of rules and only happen at select times,” as explained by Nintendo. YouTube functionality is also coming, which will allow players to upload replays of matches directly to YouTube.
While the new features and old-school levels aren’t ready for release quite yet, everything including the new fighters, all of the new costumes and three new stages are available to purchase right now from the eShop and in-game purchases. Pricing is different for each item, but you’ll save some significant cash if you bundle together the Wii U and 3DS versions of the DLC at the same time. Nintendo also warned of the servers being hit pretty hard this morning, as expected with so much new content for one game.
To get an even more in-depth glimpse of all this new content, check out our article dedicated to hi-res images!
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Written by Josh Brown
Being able to write about Nintendo is a dream come true for Joshua. While his family will always take precedent, his workaholic mindset and insomnia allow him all the time he needs for his hobbies in the wee hours of the night. He's also the co-host and producer of the Toys For Games 'Cast podcast.
