It seems like I chose the perfect time to reflect on Smash 4 trailers along with Mr. Sakurai. Right after that article came out, in which I said that I doubt he’d do the same thing for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Nintendo released a post on their official website with Sakurai’s commentary on exactly that. I’m so happy to have been wrong.
Just like the last article, we’re gonna go over all of the new trailers, with me providing my commentary and opinions on each one, along with some of Sakurai’s. Again, you should definitely go to the article to see his opinions alone, as well as all of the subject trailers in one place, by clicking on this link. But with that out of the way, let’s get started.
Super Smash Bros. is coming to Nintendo Switch!
This trailer was absolutely perfect. It felt like they knew exactly what to show to get people excited, especially with Link’s design from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. While some immediately knew it was Smash, I hadn’t even thought of it as a possibility; I was thinking it was some Splatoon movie or something. Whether you knew it from the beginning or not, I don’t think anyone can deny that seeing the Smash symbol in Inkling’s eye was hype-inducing. I still get excited from seeing it today.
A Piercing Screech
After it was revealed that all past characters would be returning (which is a trailer that wasn’t included in this blog post, sadly; if you’d like to see it yourself, here’s a link to that video), I knew for sure Ridley had to be here as a new character. And sure enough, at the end of the presentation, he was! The team behind the trailer nailed the “dreadful” atmosphere at the beginning, and Ridley looked even more menacing and ruthless than usual. I’m curious about what Sakurai had in mind when he says he wanted to make Ridley taking out Mario and Mega Man more “intense”… It’s so funny that they gave him a taunt that’s just him standing up straight though.
Vampire Killer
Two Castlevania reps, Simon and Richter Belmont, to start off the second Smash Ultimate presentation. I’m pretty sure this trailer was truly the start of the “Everyone is Dead” meme revolving around Smash. It’s even funnier if that’s the case, due to how Sakurai comments on Luigi not being lucky enough to be saved in time. I was pretty neutral about their inclusion, but I remember my younger brother being ecstatic because he loves Castlevania. Despite not caring that much about them, I popped off over seeing Simon’s whip move freely like Sheik’s chain in Melee.
I’m pretty sure it was after this trailer that Sakurai revealed two highly requested characters joining the roster in the form of Echo Fighters: Chrom and Dark Samus. The trailers are very quick and simple, which is probably why they were exempt from the post as well, but click the link attached to their names if you’d still like to view them (thank you CyberWorld9000 for actually having them).
The Rivals
Smash was always on the low side when it came to villain characters (and reasonably so), so I’m glad they not only got the spotlight at the beginning of this trailer, but we also got a new villain character. I wasn’t gonna use him, but King K. Rool looked like he’d be fun to play, and I was happy for whoever wanted him (because so many people did at that point). The whole trailer in itself was also very good, especially with the King Dedede fake-out at the start. It was very nice of Sakurai to include him, especially in efforts of making it seem like a collaboration. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, it’s the interactions like that that make me really love Smash.
A Hard Worker’s Dream
At this point, I’ve played two years straight of Animal Crossing: New Leaf on the 3DS, so you can probably guess my reaction to seeing Isabelle make it to the roster as her own character. I remember so much controversy surrounding her inclusion, with many people calling her an Echo Fighter and a “wasted slot.” Me though, I was just so happy. And I’m still happy, as she’s my main in this game. I think Digital Frontier did pretty well mimicking the Animal Crossing-style movements.
Fighting Fire with Fire
Here we go, the trailer that killed the infamous “Grinch Leak.” With Street Fighter’s Ryu added as DLC in the last game, it only made sense that Ken or Chun-Li would join the roster in the next game. It’s unfortunate that Ken’s inclusion in Smash Ultimate, much like Ryu’s inclusion in Smash 4, got leaked, but it was still an entertaining trailer. What made it even more entertaining was seventh generation of Pokémon’s Incineroar looking from the shadows to eventually jump into the ring after Little Mac got KO’d. Ken being classified as an Echo Fighter is insane though.
Piranha Plant joins the battle!
I don’t know a single person that saw this trailer and thought that Piranha Plant was a character before the splash screen came up. All I remember is confusion, shock, and people coping with the reality that a plant in a pipe made it in the game as a playable character before Waluigi or Geno. Etika’s reaction to the Plant remains my absolute favorite. Personally, I thought it was absolutely hilarious. #PlantGang.
Piranha Plant was announced as an early purchase bonus after Sakurai announced that paid DLC would be coming to the game in the form of a new character, stage, music tracks, and Spirit battles. All the characters from here will be those paid DLC characters.
The Masked Rebel
This was actually the second Smash trailer for Persona 5’s Joker, which showed his gameplay and the stage. The first trailer, which was at the Game Awards 2018, was the announcement trailer (the link to which is here), so I’ll focus on that. I wasn’t really paying attention to The Game Awards that much, and I honestly didn’t know of its existence before that day. I’m not sure how I ended up watching it, but seeing the first Smash Ultimate DLC character revealed in such an amazing way, on top of seeing Reggie come on the stage in his Ridley shirt, made me not regret it one bit. I haven’t even played Persona before and I was still screaming in the middle of the night.
Heroic Encounter
Apparently Sakurai showed Dharkon thinking that nobody would be spoiled from Smash Ultimate’s adventure mode, World of Light, since the game’s been out for so long by E3 2019. However, very few people actually knew who Dharkon was because nobody really played it, or at least not halfway through. On to the characters though, I love the scene with Link fighting Marth and Meta Knight because of how smooth and fast it was with the action. When the Hero from the Dragon Quest series came to save the day… I had no idea who he was, but he used magic, so I thought he was cool. Then the Heroes from the other Dragon Quest games came along and they used even more magic so I thought they were even cooler. I ended up using Hero a lot after that day, and I got interested in playing the Dragon Quest games afterwards.
Best Friends
Well, Nintendo’s post taught me that the call-back format of a joke is known as a tendon in Japan. So that’s neat.
On to the trailer though, even as somebody that didn’t care that much for Banjo and Kazooie, I was so hyped for this reveal. It was cute seeing King K. Rool just chilling with Donkey Kong and Diddy like they aren’t mortal enemies or anything. It was also cool seeing Duck Hunt make its way into the trailer the same way King Dedede did before. This was at the end of the same E3 presentation that announced Hero as well. I’m pretty sure that was the only time we’d get two DLC character reveals at one time.
The Legendary Wolf
Much like the Dragon Quest heroes, I had no idea who Terry Bogard was. But I was familiar with some of the characters that appeared throughout the trailer, trying to grab the invitation. Looking into Terry’s past, I’m surprised by how much he fell under my radar. In terms of Smash, he looked really cool to play, and the stage was the most unique one we’ve gotten so far. He also looks like he was fun to animate, especially with the way he switches his hat before and after the Power Dunk. I also love how the trailer gave us Kirby’s costume when he copies Terry’s ability.
The Ashen Demon
Here we go… honestly, everything about this trailer has already been said. It sucks because not only do I really like Byleth in Smash, but their inclusion was the thing that actually pushed me to play Fire Emblem: Three Houses. Even with all those things, and looking back at the trailer after so long, it’s still just…not good. Not even from the standpoint of it being another Fire Emblem character, it’s just the way everything was presented felt so weak compared to the others. Like I said though, everything about this trailer has already been said so I won’t harp on it too long. The “too many swordsmen” line from Sothis is probably the best thing to have come out of the entire DLC pack though.
Byleth was the final character in Fighter Pass Vol. 1 of Smash Ultimate. It was revealed at the end of Terry’s presentation that there’d be a second Fighters Pass; the end of Byleth’s presentation revealed that there’d be one more character than usual, meaning that there’d be six characters in the Fighters Pass Vol. 2. Here are those six characters.
Ramen Time!
This is probably biased due to the fact that I guessed this character (because Nintendo announced that the next fighter would be from ARMS), but I love Min Min and this trailer. The battle for the invitation was fun, and the music during the gameplay portion was catchy. I also like how they changed up the style, similarly to what they did for Little Mac (which Sakurai points out). I’m sure many will agree that the best thing was seeing Captain Falcon in the ramen shop uniform at the end. I don’t use Captain Falcon but if I could get that outfit as an alt, I’d definitely pick him up.
A New Seed!
The trailer that granted Sonic the power to punch people into Minecraft. Sakurai says it was memorable how Twitter reacted, but last thing I remember was Twitter crashing due to all the reactions flooding in. What I do remember is telling my little brother that Steve and Alex would not work in Smash on that day, then seeing his reaction to the familiar zombie growl in the cave. Not that I was wrong, because Sakurai needed to rework all the stages just for their block mechanic, but still. Needless to say, he was happy out of his mind, and I was rethinking my life.
One-Winged Angel
Besides one friend of mine that predicted it (and I’m not even sure if he was serious about it), I don’t think a single soul expected Sephiroth of all characters to be revealed. Like Joker, this was also shown at the Game Awards. Also like Joker, Sephiroth’s reveal left me screaming in the middle of the night. It was also the fact that he was coming so soon after Terry’s release that year. It’s really cool they tried matching the impactfulness of the FINAL FANTASY movie.
One day, Pyra just disappeared
This trailer was a perfect way to start the Nintendo Direct that they were announced in. Funny enough, I purchased Xenoblade Chronicles 2 a bit before this reveal happened, just because I had nothing else to play at the time. Little did I know that I’d eventually be able to play Pyra and Mythra in Smash. I did think Rex would be in it though, but what we got works perfectly fine as well.
The Iron Fist of Darkness
Many knew who it was from the landscape. Those who didn’t knew who it was from the river of lava at the bottom of the cliff. Those who didn’t knew who it was from the face of the man that dropped Ganondorf in the lava…and those who didn’t from that, because they get the two younger Mishimas confused, would know from the splash screen that Kazuya and Tekken was finally in Smash. Sakurai recognizes that there’s a lot of in-game footage, which makes sense because this character came with more moves than any character in the game, utilizing eight directional inputs in different ways.
The Last Key
People can feel however they want about Sora’s inclusion, but I’m sure no other character than the most requested ever could’ve given the game a proper ending. And what better way to end it than where it all began, with the fiery Smash symbol in Inkling’s eyes. This time though, all the characters were here, including the DLC. I’m sure all the characters in the background while Mario and Sora shake hands will go down as one of the biggest moments in videogame history, and I’m glad I was there to witness it that day.
That’s it for all the Smash Ultimate trailers, and all the Smash trailers in general. Much like last time, this was a lot of fun, especially since the trailers were more fresh in my memory than that of Smash 4’s. Now that that’s over, all that’s left is to enjoy Smash Ultimate while Sakurai enjoys his well-deserved break and cat posts on Twitter.
I’m gonna go ahead and ask the same questions I did last time: what do you think of these trailers? Did you like any of them in particular? Were there any that you disliked? Why is that? Which of these characters did you end up maining, if any? I’d love to hear your thoughts.