During The Game Awards this year, Nintendo surprised us all with a new character reveal for the highly anticipated
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. The Game Awards took place on the 6th of December, and
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate released the day after; with players alreadyexcited for the reveal that Joker from Persona 5 was going to be joining the roster.
Atlus and P Studios' Joker from
Persona 5 was revealed to be the first fighter to join the roster of Nintendo's
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as part of the first Challenger Pack part of the Fighters Pass for
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
Technically, the first character to release post-launch is
Super Mario Bros. series' Piranha Plant, but the first real DLC character will be
Persona 5's main character Joker; who is the first of 5 DLC characters to be released post-launch for
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
In a recent column written on Famitsu by
Super Smash Bros. series creator Masahiro Sakurai, the game's director reveals that he was asked by Nintendo whether they could include Joker from Persona 5 as one of the new characters part of the Fighters Pass for
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Sakurai agreed but, since they didn't really have the character ready, they decided to go with an animated trailer instead of gameplay footage.
"
After seeing The Game Awards’ venue, I thought about how I could make the reveal interesting. I’d eventually reach the idea that Joker would infiltrate the venue and steal its “treasure” – an invitation to Smash. I’m familiar with P5, so writing dialogue that suited the character wasn’t much of an issue. Scheduling with Joker’s voice actor – who’s quite popular – was a different story. We had fun recording the lines, though; the atmosphere in the recording studio was pretty cheerful. We only ended up with a few lines of dialogue, though… What a waste…".
When it comes to future reveals, Sakurai is hesitant to confirm that the next fighters will be revealed in the same fashion that Joker was, especially since this was something that came out of the blue for both him and his development team. He does, however, mention that he would like to do what he can to make the reveals enjoyable for fans of the crossover fighting series.
"
I’m not sure about whether or not we’ll do reveal movies for the other DLC fighters, but I’d like to do what I can (within the realm of possibility) to make sure you all enjoy them".
With
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate being as popular as it is, and knowing that Sakurai always does everything within his reach to surprise fans with every reveal—there is no doubt that whoever the next character to be revealed is...it will be a surprise worthy of praise.
Legendary game worlds and fighters collide in the ultimate showdown—a new entry in the Super Smash Bros. series for the Nintendo Switch system! New fighters, like Inkling from the Splatoon series and Ridley from the Metroid series, make their Super Smash Bros. series debut alongside every Super Smash Bros. fighter in the series…EVER!
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is currently available exclusively for the Nintendo Switch.