“And now, the end is near. And so I face, the final curtain. My friend, I’ll say it clear. I’ll state my case, of which I’m certain. I’ve lived a life that’s full. I’ve traveled each and every highway. And more, much more than this I did it my way.” - Frank Sinatra
Friends, we have reached the end of the Super Smash Fun Facts series. It has been fun, but it is now time to cover that last 11 playable newcomers and the 2 DLC fighters that we know about so far. I cannot thank you all enough for those of you who are indulging me with your time this holiday season. It feels so good to be able to write again after everything that has happened to me this year and this miniseries as part of my ongoing 12 Days of Christmas Project is doing wonders to knock off the rust on my writing skills. I certainly hope you all will continue to follow and read my blog for things other than Smash Bros. content, but I am certain that I will be back to cover other things about the franchise in the future, especially as new characters are announced. So now with these pleasantries out of the way. Let us jump in to the conclusion of our Super Smash series.
Dark Samus: The first newcomer for today is Samus’ echo fighter, the powerful yet somewhat eerie, evil Samus doppleganger known as Dark Samus. Dark Samus’ origin is a bit of a spoiler but the basic gist is that while Samus was battling a specific entity, part of her suit was ripped off near the end of the struggle. Samus had won, but the creature was not completely dead. In order to restore itself, the creature incorporated part of Samus’ suit into itself, and the resulting fusion of the creature and the suit gave rise to Dark Samus. As a Samus clone, Dark Samus shares most of its moves and abilities with Samus, but they all have a slightly sinister tinge to them and while running, Dark Samus actually floats. A really interesting part about Dark Samus that a lot of people miss about the character is that it, like Samus is the fusion of 3 separate elements. I mentioned in a previous entry how Samus is one third human, one third Chozo, and one third Metroid, well Dark Samus is one third Samus, one third Spoiler, and one third a form of energy called Phazon. This character has a lot more to it than just an evil looking alien clone of Samus.
Daisy: Daisy joins the battle as an echo fighter of Peach. Daisy is the princess of Sarasaland and made her debut in the Gameboy game, Super Mario Land, where she is kidnapped by an alien named Tatanga who brainwashes her kingdom into becoming his army. Much like Princess Peach before her, Mario must set off to rescue Daisy and stop Tatanga from taking over Sarasaland. In contrast to Peach, Daisy is much more of a tomboy, a fact that makes itself known in many of the Mario Sports titles over the years. For example, Daisy actually has one of the longest drives in the Mario Golf games and in the Mario Tennis series, she is considered to be the best Technique character in the series. If Mario and Peach are meant to be a thing, then for Daisy, she and Luigi are the mirror relationship. It has been shown in multiple games that Luigi and Daisy have soft spots for each other and I for one am glad that ‘Luiaisy’ shipping is a thing. They both deserve better treatment then they have gotten in the past and it is nice to see them be able to battle it up in Smash together.
Chrom: After suffering a tremendous blow from Captain Falcon in the Smash 4 reveal trailer for Lucina and Robin, it seemed like Chrom, the main hero of Fire Emblem Awakening, would never get his chance to Smash with best of them. In Smash 4, he was relegated to a brief appearance in Robin’s Final Smash and a very tongue-in-cheek conversation with Palutena, Viridi, and Pit, but now Chrom finally gets his chance to shine as the echo fighter of Roy. Do not be fooled though, as though Chrom is based on Roy as his daughter Lucina is based on Marth, Chrom is the most unique of the echo fighters, incorporating elements from Roy, Lucina, and Ike into his move sets. As for in his own game, Chrom starts as the leader of a small military unit called the Shepherds and is also the Prince of the Halidom of Ylisse. Due to circumstances beyond his control, he is forced to become his nation’s king and the story follows Chrom’s attempts to make his world a better place, all while fighting against the strings of a seemingly already written dark destiny, with the help and support of his friends and allies. If you could not tell from my enthusiasm, Chrom is my favorite lord in the Fire Emblem series. An interesting fact about Chrom is that he has a pretty famous voice actor backing him up. Matt Mercer is a pretty well known name in the anime community as he also provides the voices of Levi in Attack on Titan, Jotaro Kujo in JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, and Captain Yamato in Naruto.
Ken: The original echo fighter, Ken Masters, joins the fight as who else but Ryu’s echo fighter. Like Ryu, Ken also looks pretty darn good for his age considering he is also over 50 years old. The two have been best friends for years and trained in the art of Ansatsuken under Gouken, but while Ryu was the traditionalist, Ken was more of a rebel, never missing a chance to add his signature flare and aggression into his moves. In one part of his story, Ken was brainwashed by M. Bison and infused with psycho power to the point where he became known as Violent Ken, a dark counterpart similar to Ryu’s Evil Ryu form. Despite never being able to quite shake the clone character moniker, in terms of personality, Ken has Ryu beat in spades. He is a loving husband to his wife, Eliza, and is a very competent businessman. While Ryu is a lone wolf, Ken is the life of a party and his family extends beyond his wife and kid. He and Street Fighter staple Guile are brothers-in-law as his wife is the younger sister of Guile’s wife. For another cool aspect of Ken that you would not know just from playing the games, he is based on the famous American Karate champion Joe Lewis, who like Ken traveled to Japan in his youth to train before returning to success in the States.
Inkling: The squid-kids from Inkopolis, the Inklings join Smash Ultimate ready to splat the competition. The Inklings are the main characters of the Splatoon franchise, the youngest franchise to have a fighter in Smash. The unique mechanic with the Inklings is of course their ink. By inking the opposition, their competition takes increased damage. The weapons the Inklings utilize are based on all manner of brushes, super soakers, buckets, and rollers that serve as their main weapons in their games. This series has taken Japan by storm to the point where it is so popular that Splatoon is getting its very own Anime in the near future. For those of you who have listened to developer interviews, this will not come as a shock, but for those less in tune with the ways of the Squid Kids, the property that would eventually become Splatoon went through a lot of changes throughout its development cycle. At one point the game was going to use rabbits and at another point this was going to be a Mario game. The base concept used giant blocks of tofu as a proof of concept and the Inklings used to look more like squids than kids. The fact that Splatoon became such a huge hit is a testament to the hard work of the developers.
Ridley: The arch-nemesis of Samus and a character once thought by Sakurai to be “too big” to make it in Smash as a fighter, the feared space pirate dragon, Ridley makes his debut in Smash Ultimate. It is close between him and Ganondorf, but Ridley might just be the most evil and sadistic playable character in this game. He slaughtered all of Samus’ family during a raid on her home world and has brought many worlds to ruin as the muscle of the space pirates. He is also incredibly resilient as he has come back from death in one way, shape, or form almost as many times as Bowser and Ganon. One of the most common recurring pieces of trivia about Ridley is that he is named after Ridley Scott, one of the main directors of the Alien movie franchise and his slender draconic form was partially inspired by the look of the Xenomorphs in Alien, but few people have probably seen his original concept art from the original Metroid where he looked even more like a Xenomorph than he does now. This version of Ridley has the same distinctive elongated head of the Xenomorphs and is arguably more terrifying than the version we all know today.
Simon: The legendary Vampire Hunter and hero of the original Castlevania games, Simon Belmont, joins Smash ready to slay evil and dish out the pain with his signature Vampire Killer whip. Other legendary items from the series make it into Smash as well like the crosses, axes, and holy water. As a Belmont, it was his sacred duty to confront and destroy Dracula should the vampire lord ever rise again and Simon is quite possibly the most famous of all those charged with this task. He would go on to defeat Dracula twice in his time and would change the sentiment about his clan from negative to positive. Simon’s most iconic look and the one he sports in Smash Ultimate is at least partially based on Conan the Barbarian. Despite how famous Simon is now in the history of video games, players at the time of Castlevania’s first release would not have even known his name unless they stayed til the very end of the credits. Known only as ‘the hero’ in the first game, Simon Belmont did not have his name revealed until after the game was already beaten and even then, it was originally misspelled until a little bit of retconning made the last name Belmont canon. Simon’s last name was supposed to actually be Belmondo, but the name Belmont had stuck to the point where Konami just kind of owned that Belmont was the right name.
Richter: Another Vampire Hunter of the Belmont Clan, and the hero who boldly proclaimed the famous lines, “Die monster! You don’t belong in this world!” to the vampire lord Dracula, Richter Belmont also appears in Smash as Simon’s echo fighter. Richter is the hero of Castlevania: Rondo of Blood and a major character in the sequel, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. He as so many had done both before and after succeeds in his quest to defeat Dracula, but later becomes manipulated into becoming the lord of Dracula’s castle. Ultimately Dracula’s son, Alucard, fights his way to ultimately confront and free Richter from evil’s influence. It was mentioned by Masahiro Sakurai that Richter and Simon are at least in part based off of each other, making it questionable as to who is really the echo of whom. Richter notably shares his voice actor in Smash with the voice of Male Robin, David Vincent, who was completely shocked when Nintendo brought him in to record lines for Richter as his own assumption was that he was only there to record for Robin.
King K. Rool: The king of the Kremlings makes his long awaited debut in Smash Ultimate. More than any other character, King K. Rool was by far the most demanded newcomer for Smash Bros. Fans were distraught that the main antagonist of the first 3 main Donkey Kong Country games and Donkey Kong 64 had been absent from the series thus far and Sakurai must have known this because before he was officially revealed, Sakurai decided to troll everyone by setting up K. Rool’s inclusion in a video only to reveal that it was actually King Dedede in disguise. Of course, K. Rool showed up about a second or two later, but fans will never forget that feeling of saltiness when they for half a second believed Sakurai did not actually add their favorite crocodile into the game. One of K. Rool’s most common tactics is to feign defeat in order to gain the upper hand on his opponents. This is a reference to the saying, “crying crocodile tears,” which is a false display of emotion for the sake of eliciting sympathy. This is a clever reference that some may not have initially caught onto considering K. Rool is a crocodile.
Isabelle: The adorable secretary dog from the Animal Crossing franchise, Isabelle, is actually playable in Smash Bros. This dog has definitely paid her dues as the player character’s long suffering assistant in Animal Crossing: New Leaf. She is kind, but kind of clumsy at times, but always super apologetic when she makes a mistake or does something inefficient like falling asleep at her desk. This apologetic characteristic actually carries over to Smash where she give mortified expressions when she actually hurts the other characters. Her name is a play on her bell shaped head as well as being the Spanish equivalent of the name Elizabeth, which means, “God is my oath.” This can also be seen as a reference to the fact that she is both a dog, which in many cultures are characterized by loyalty, and the fact that she faithfully and dutifully helps the player character perform his duties as the mayor. That is a pretty significant amount of depth for a character who in early development of the game was simply known as “Secretary,” and whose Japanese name Shizue just means quiet in Japanese and references her species as a Shih Tzu.
Incineroar: Incineroar is the heel Pokemon and the final evolution of the Alolan starter Pokemon Litten. As would be expected of the heel Pokemon, Incineroar’s design is based on that of tigers and professional wrestlers, particularly on heel wrestlers, the “bad guys” of the ring. The taunting present after the majority of Incineroar’s moves in Smash Ultimate, adds to this Pokemon’s heel-like qualities. Despite playing the part of the bad guy, Incineroar most cares about putting on a good show which is why according to its Pokedex entries, in cannot stand weak opponents. Incineroar is also Fire/Dark type which again works with the staged nature of pro-wrestling and the fact that it is a heel and will use whatever it takes to come out on top regardless of how it looks. In terms of origins, Incineroar being based on a tiger, is likely a reference to an old manga series, Tiger Mask, where the main character, a wrestler name Tiger Mask, a one time heel, vows to turn himself into a “face,” or a hero because a young fan of his told him that when he got older he wanted to be a great villain like him. This reflects itself in an official description of Incineroar that says it loves kids and wants to do its best for them.
Piranha Plant: Following in the footsteps of other WTF characters like Duck Hunt, R.O.B, and Mr. Game & Watch, the Piranha Plant is one of the most famous recurring enemies of Mario. It will be the first DLC character to come out for Smash Ultimate and its reveal had everyone scratching their heads before coming to the conclusion that this thing is pretty awsome. They are found all over the Mushroom Kingdom and a variety of different forms. Some just pop up, but others jump out of their pipes, some shoot poison and fire. Many of these variations on Piranha Plant designs find themselves as alternate costume variations for the plant. In Ultimate, the Piranha Plant's Final Smash will transform it temporarily into the largest of all the Piranha plants in the series, Petey Piranha, who made its debut in Super Mario Sunshine. Prior to the generic Piranha Plant making it into Smash Bros. Petey was actually the only playable Piranha Plant in the Mario Franchise as he has competed in Mario Kart, Mario Golf, Mario Tennis, Mario Baseball, and Mario Basketball before making him a very talented plant.
Joker: Our most recently revealed character confirmed for Smash Bros. is the leader of the Phantom Thieves of Hearts and the main protagonist of the game, Persona 5, Joker. The Persona series is produced by Atlus, the same group that created the Shin Megami Tensei Franchise and has worked with Nintendo on a variety of projects in the past. When Joker was revealed to have made it into Smash Bros at the 2018 Game Awards, many people lost their collective minds as currently the mainline Persona series is exclusive to Sony consoles so the chances of getting a hold of such a new character that as of yet has no appearances on a Nintendo console just seemed bizarre. The actual canon name of the character, Joker, is a little bit of a contentious subject as the Manga calls him, Akira Kurusu, but the Anime refers to him as, Ren Amamiya, with neither explicitly confirmed as the canon name. Regardless, Joker leads the Phantom Thieves on a righteous quest to change the hearts of the corrupt adults who rule and manipulate their society. He and his team do this by utilizing their Personas, manifestations of their true feelings and personalities given power and form, to combat the twisted shadow versions of people’s hearts in order to change and reform their behaviors. It is only speculation right now, but it is a strong bet that Joker will be utilizing his first Persona, Arsene, in battle. For those not familiar with the series or who are but never bothered to look up the historical context of the main casts’ Personas, Arsene is based on Arsene Lupin, a fictional gentleman thief created by French writer, Maurice Leblanc, in the early 1900s. Put simply, Lupin was the roguish thief equivalent to Sherlock Holmes’ calculating detective. Arsene Lupin’s legacy was so popular, that a popular manga series based on the adventures of his so called grandson, Lupin III, has become well known in pop culture all over Japan. We are not sure what Joker is capable of yet, but one can only imagine that he will provide quite the spectacle once he officially joins the fight.