Super Smash Bros For Switch Is Coming: A Community Responds

Nintendo dropped a bombshell on the fighting game community on Thursday, revealing that Super Smash Bros will be hitting the Nintendo Switch  Reactions to the surprising news poured in from all reaches of social media, varying in length and volume, and we’ve gathered some of the best right here.

If you weren’t excited for a new Smash Bros before, some of these reactions may change your mind. The purest (and loudest) reactions come from YouTube, where many recognized faces from the scene uploaded their screams of delight. We’d be remiss if we didn’t start with Desmond Daniel "Etika" Amofah, who has gained a ton of notoriety for his exuberant method of celebrating big news. His Smash Bros reaction does not disappoint:

A few Smash Bros pros got involved in the revelry as well, posting brief videos of their initial response to the Smash Ball appearing in the Inkling Girl’s eyeball. Gonzalo "TSM|ZeRo" Barrios, considered one of the best Super Smash Bros for Wii U players in the world, let us follow his journey through the entire trailer:

Juan "Hungrybox" Debiedma, a notable competitor on the ever-popular Super Smash Bros Melee scene, dropped a much shorter video of him watching the trailer for the first time, although there’s no doubting his approval of the news:

There are countless videos of these pure first moments of discovery (this video actually showcases 45 minutes of them that you should absolutely check out after reading this), but once the excitement wore off and the announcement sunk in, fans immediately started wondering if this is indeed a “new” Smash Bros game or simply a port of the previous game. Some believe this will be a brand new game due to Bandai Namco not being listed as a developer at the end of the trailer, considering how big a part that company played in the previous game:

The new #SmashBros game is almost certainly new. Bandai Namco helped develop the Smash 4, not HAL. If this was a port you’d see Bandai Namco on this, not HAL! pic.twitter.com/aM8VvtOEAd

— Dreadfury von Aegis, Omen of Retribution (@DreadfuryDK) March 8, 2018

A few “brand new game” supporters used the Super Smash Bros logo presented towards the end of the video as proof, comparing it to the logos of previous iterations:

OKAY BUT COMPARE SMASH 4 LOGO TO THE NEW ONE I THINK WE GOT OURSELVES A NEW SMASH BROS GAME AND NOT A PORT pic.twitter.com/lIfNxEltPj

— White (@WhiteTheVII) March 8, 2018

Meanwhile the “it’s a port” camp was out in force as well, like this tweet citing the strain of the development cycle on series head Masahiro Sakurai, who has openly admitted to how much making a new game takes a toll:

The new Smash Bros. game is definitely a port of the Wii U version with new characters, stages, and costumes, and I'm totally okay with that. after Smash Bros (2014), Sakurai made it pretty clear he needed a break, and the development cycle for these games are LONG.

— Jake Dekker (@jacobdekk) March 8, 2018

Of course, no social media argument would be complete without memes, and Grant Smith here uses a pretty good one to start his “it’s a port” argument:.

Saw this. Lemme address each point & why I'm still 90% sure new Smash is a port.
2018, Not 2014 - copyright for new TITLE. Probably not called "Smash bros for Wii U/3DS for Switch"
No Bandai - nothing says every character is coming back/might still be negotiating. pic.twitter.com/VDwP2Cc3EH

— Grant Smith (@MasterWuggles) March 9, 2018

Maximilian “maximilian_dood” Christiansen, longtime FGC YouTube personality and recipient of the 2015 EVO Cannon Award, offered a terrific analysis of the trailer and his thoughts on the game, where he thinks the answer to “new game or port?” is basically “a little of Column A and a little of Column B.”

 

Regardless of whether it's a port or new, Nintendo caught everyone's attention in grand form. Smash Bros for Switch has been a constant inquiry since the system's conception and now it appears that the millions of people that cried out for a Nintendo Switch version of the game can look forward to seeing it on their favorite new system. Super Smash Bros for Switch is set to arrive at some point in 2018.

Perhaps with Smash Bros' heavy presence at EVO, we can expect to hear more at the event in Summer 2018?