Smash Direct April 3, 2019

{Direct Opening Animation}

{Masahiro Sakurai in an office}


Sakurai: Hello, my name is Masahiro Sakurai from Sora Ltd. I’ve been excited to hear that all of you have been having lots of fun with the game, and my team is too. It took us a lot of effort to bring this game to you. However, we’re about to unveil even more upcoming content to the game in an upcoming 3.0.0 update. It’s the biggest update to the game since its launch, and there’s a lot to talk about. Without further ado,

{Screen: Returning Features!}

Sakurai: Two activities from previous Super Smash Bros. titles are making a return: Home Run Contest and Stage Builder! We had wanted to include these from the start of development, but we had to wait until post release with everything else we packed in.

{Gameplay of Home Run Contest}

Sakurai: Home Run Contest is back, with a few changes. You still get to choose your fighter, but you also get to choose a Spirit team. Choose wisely for the highest score! In addition, you may now choose which item to bring with you, allowing you more freedom beyond the Home Run Bat.

{Gameplay of Stage Builder}

Sakurai: Stage Builder has been expanded. Along with a six new backgrounds, backgrounds for stages from Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U return, bringing us up to fourteen unique backgrounds for your stage. Now, you may select up to fifteen songs that can appear in that stage, and change the chances of each song playing in My Music. We’re allowing you to freehand draw platforms or use standard blocks created by the game. Freehand draw can only be done in Handheld mode, and you can also turn on a grid so that your drawings are straight lines. There’s a lot of details in the new Stage Builder, but I’ll leave a few secrets to show you.

{Back to Masahiro Sakurai}


Sakurai: Both of these modes will be free via the 3.0.0 update to all players. But there’s some more updates about Spirits.

{Screen: New Spirits!}

{Video of the Collection screen showing each of the new Spirits}

Sakurai: Up until now, we’ve added a few Spirits for recently released games, but we’re adding a whole new batch of Spirits from other recently released games. From New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe, we have Super Acorn, Peachette, and Flying Squirrel Mario. From Kirby’s Extra Epic Yarn join yarn versions of Kirby, King Dedede, and Meta Knight. From Yoshi’s Crafted World, the Sundream Stone, and crafted versions of Baby Bowser and Kamek are Spirits. Mega Man 11 brings Block Man, Fuse Man, and Acid Man. Bowser Jr. and Dark Bowser from Mario and Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story + Bowser Jr.’s Journey are also coming in. Finally, the Equinox IV, Grax, and the Arwing’s redesign from Starlink: The Battle for Atlas are all being added as Spirits. That’s seventeen new Spirits! And we promise more will be coming in future updates as more games release.

{Screen: Character Updates!}

Sakurai: A quick mention of updates to most of the characters should be noted. They’ve been mostly focused on improving the flow of moves, but a full list of changes to every character can be found on the Super Smash Bros. website after the presentation. I’d suggest everyone checks it out.

{Screen: Joker from Persona 5!}

{Gameplay from Joker}

Sakurai: Joker is about to take his place in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. He’s a very technical fighter that relies on playing the long game and knowing to make a move, similar to the strategy gameplay of his original game.

{Gameplay of the various specials.}

Sakurai: His neutral special makes use of his famous model gun. Firing a series of fictitious, yet very effective bullets, Joker makes quick combat potential. Using a side special, Joker takes a massive swipe with his knife. It may not launch an opponent far, but it builds up this gauge on the bottom of the screen much faster than most attack. What’s this gauge for? When it’s filled, Joker can summon the power of his Persona, Arsene, to attack in tandem with him for a short period of time. Finally, his recovery isn’t the greatest, but he’s able to jump off opponents with his up special with great ease. His Final Smash is the all out attack, bringing three of his friends into the spotlight before unleashing powerful blows. Ryuji, Ann, and Morgana will all be powerful allies in this attack!

{Screen: Welcome to Mementos!}

{Gameplay on the stage}

Sakurai: In the Persona 5 universe, Mementos is the “palace” where the people’s “hearts” reside. It strangely seems to resemble a subway, and it’s here where you’ll be facing your great battles. You’ll ride the bus form of a mysterious cat called Morgana as he drives through the depths of Mementos. It’s a very mysterious and unnerving stage, but one I hope you’ll have a lot of interesting matches on.

{Screen: Persona Spirits and Music}


{Collection screen, shows respective Spirits}

Sakurai: Of course, Joker won’t come alone and more than a few Spirits will be coming from his game and series to help you out. Ryuji, Morgana (Cat Form), Morgana (Bus Form), Ann, Arsene, Yusuke, and Futaba are all helping out in your Spirit battles!

My team really loved the Persona 5 soundtrack and as such have included a whole bunch of songs, seventeen to be exact, including eight brand new remixes!

{Back to Masahiro Sakurai in his office}

Sakurai: That’s all for announcements today. The entire team is working very hard to get new content into your hands as soon as possible, so please patient until we have it out. Speaking of which, 3.0.0, including the free content and Persona 5 additions, will release on April 12th, so I’m hoping you look forward to that day. Thanks for watching.

{End of Direct}