The full roster for Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has reportedly been leaked through some marketing material revealing new characters, but have yet to be officially confirmed.
When you have a game like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate releasing in the near future, supposed leaks are going to come out. Many are bogus, but sometimes they do prove accurate (back in May, a leaker on Reddit stated that Ridley and Simon Belmont would be featured in the game).
Another leak has been making the rounds across the internet more recently. Like always, it's important to not get your hopes up, but rather analyze it cautiously. This leak shows that Shadow the Hedgehog, Banjo-Kazooie, Isaac, Geno, Ken Masters, Mach Rider, and the Chorus Kids will be playable fighters.
The entire leaked ordeal is detailed in the ResetEra forums. Apparently, a French Snapchat user posted an updated picture of the banner featuring all the characters. Then, people did research and found out that the user seems to work for a French marketing firm, according to his LinkedIn page. This company, Marina PLV, has done work for Bandai Namco, according to the firm's page. Also, you can see a render of The Grinch from the upcoming animated movie – lending credibility that this user does work in promotional marketing.
The research is detailed in this picture here, if you wish to see how everything aligns. Below is the pic of the updated, "leaked" banner. It's blurry, but you can make out the supposed newcomers.
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The image is admittedly convincing. The newcomer renders appear to be new, and fit nicely into the picture. Combine that with all the research, there is a hint of credibility to this leak. Of course, there have been elaborate hoaxes in the past. So, it remains to be seen if this latest leak is proved true. Do these characters make sense to appear in the game?
Shadow has been a heavily requested character, and many believe he will be in the game. He was an Assist Trophy in the previous two games. Interestingly, his Assist Trophy has been nowhere to be seen in Ultimate. Also intriguing is that Knuckles, another Sonic character, has been confirmed as an Assist Trophy. With Shadow's immense popularity, it makes sense he would be included as playable, or at least an Echo Fighter. Meanwhile, Isaac is in a similar boat. Isaac was featured as an Assist Trophy in Brawl, but left out of Wii U/3DS. Isaac is a notable character from a notable Nintendo game series, Golden Sun, so many are expecting him to be announced.
All in all, these character choices do make sense, as they feature fan favorites, and unexpected, likely picks. If they are accurate, we'll likely hear about it in a Nintendo Direct before launch day.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate will be released on December 7th.