One of the most unexpected surprises during the last Nintendo Direct for the highly anticipated
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, was that Piranha Planta would be joining the game's massive roster as a playable character.
The reception for the Piranha Plant announcement was rather mixed leaning towards negative, mainly because of the high expectations that some long-time fans of the series have in regards to new character announcements for
Super Smash Bros. titles in general.
Fans are not really to blame for this, however, since
Super Smash Bros. creator Masahiro Sakurai has been constantly raising the bar in terms of new additions to the roster, that go from Konami's Solid Snake from the
Metal Gear series to Capcom's Mega Man and Ryu, and even Cloud Strife from
Final Fantasy VII; so, in a way, fans have been spoiled quite a bit.
As it turns out, and as mixed the reception for this new character was, the Piranha Plant amiibo is selling out extremely fast in Japan. Pre-orders for the controversial character have already stopped at many retailers in Japan, and it looks like the reception wasn't as mixed as everyone initially thought.
Now, there are a bunch of reasons as to why the Piranha Plant is selling as well as it is; one of these reasons is the fact that, regardless of the character being playable in
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, amiibo figures are deemed as collector's items. Another reason could be that people are legitimately excited for the character joining Nintendo's crossover fighting game.
Maybe Nintendo was expecting this kind of reaction given that the character itself isn't really a character per-se, so maybe they underestimated the demand for this particular amiibo and simply decided to make less figures. Other amiibo figures previously announced like
Star Fox's Wolf O'donnell,
Splatoon's Inkling, and
Metroid's Ridley were announced a while back and pre-orders have not yet stopped.
This is only in Japan, though, so maybe the same won't happen with pre-orders in Western countries. Whatever the case, it seems that Piranha Plant joining
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate was not a bad choice for a new, and unique fighter after all.
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 will be available exclusively for the Nintendo Switch on the 7th of December.