Some marketing material may have spoiled the list of new fighters from the upcoming Super Smash Bros Ultimate. Much debate has been had over who will be the final announced characters, but if this is true, the newcomers are clearly there. As with all rumors, take this will a grain of salt until Nintendo or Sakurai himself confirms it.
Posted online was a rolled up poster that may or may not have a completed mural for the game, which may be part of a display to use within stores. Fans that have been watching the announcements for Ultimate know that there is a massive mural being added to for the promotional image that includes every fighter. Gaps are filled in each time a new one, like Isabelle or King K. Rool, is announced. This version of the poster, however, has no gaps.
The characters filled in have been identified by fans. In a quick cursory glance of the image, it's incredibly easy to spot Banjo Kazooie (from their self-named series) and the Chorus Kids from Rhythm Heaven. But, funs have also found Ken Masters (from Street Fighter), Shadow the Hedgehog (from the Sonic series), Issac (from Golden Sun), Mach Rider (from, well, Mach Rider), and Geno (hailing from Super Mario RPG).
Every character in this potential leak appeared on the infamous Smash Ballot. The Ballot was used to help the Super Smash Bros team determine what fans our want to appear in the (at the time) future Smash Bros game from the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS. Three fighters that made it to the ballot have already been announced as playable in Ultimate: King K Rool, Isabelle, Ridley, Simon, and Inkling.
Earlier this year, a 4Chan post claiming to know all incoming fighters offered cryptic clues about who would be added to the game. So far, those that have been announced have had links to this list, albeit out of order of when the leaker said they would happen. For instance, "King" turned out to be King K. Rool, Secretary is Isabelle, and "Prime Ribs" may be Dark Samus. Simon and Richter may be "Folklore" or "Warrior".
While it's hard to tell which would be which, "Mech" may be a play on "Mach" for Mach Rider. "Rhythm" is clearly in reference to the Chorus Kids ("Chorus Men" on the Ballot). "Doll" is definitely mean to mean Geno, which is, in fact, a doll. "Warrior" may be alluding to Street Fighter II: The World Warrior for Ken (which could also work for "Ponytail" due to his new look in Street Fighter 5), who was rumored to be attendance recently as well in a potentially leaked image. Looking for additional clues, however, for Shadow or Isaac make the theory fall apart when the only remaining clue is "Archer". Who knows. We sure don't.
Of note, the six "leaked" characters here follow a particular pattern to the original ballot. Four of them (Isaac, Geno, Chorus Kids/Men, and Mach Rider) appear in the "Frontrunners" section, Shadow comes from the "Already Appearing" section, and the last one, Banjo & Kazooie, comes from "3rd Party Characters". Ken Masters was not on the ballot, but he would make absolute sense to add since Ryu is already in the game and could be a direct Echo Fighter (clone character) to him.
Interesting additions came recently to the Smash Bros-esque Brawlhalla. While playing incredibly different, the gameplay works similarly to Smash Bros. Two of the members of the Smash Ballot made their way to the fighting game too. Shovel Knight and multiple characters from his series made it in as skins for Legends in the game, making them their own characters. Additionally, Rayman is making a showing on November 6th during their big update. So, the Smash Ballot is multi-faceted for FGC fans.
Super Smash Bros Ultimate is coming December 7, 2018 to the Nintendo Switch. Are we likely to see these leaked characters over the next month? Was Sakurai lying when he said that the announcements would slow down, or are we about to see a huge influx of newcomers right befor ethe game launches in about a month? As always, take it with a grain of salt until confirmed, but we can dream, can't we?
