If you're a fan of punching trees for wood and punching Mario in the face, then today was a good day for you. It was announced that Steve from Minecraft will be the newest fighter joining the roster of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Not only that, but he'll be accompanied by Alex, Zombie, and Enderman who will all be coming along as Echo Fighters.
While it's not a surprising choice considering Minecraft's immense popularity, it is a strange one since the art and play style of Steve is very different from just about everyone else on the Smash roster. This addition may have opened up the door for even weirder fighters in the future. Like a Tetris block for example.
Shortly after the trailer for Steve dropped the official Tetris Twitter account posted this tweet. Via a gif of a thirsty Jim Carrey as Lloyd Christmas in Dumb & Dumber, it seems like the block-dropping series is still hoping that one of their tetrominoes could become a playable character in Nintendo's video game all-star brawl.
It's not the dumbest idea for a potential new fighter. While not an official Nintendo property, Tetris is an extremely beloved game series that has a long history with the makers of Mario and Zelda. Its legacy stretches all the way back to the original Game Boy where it sold millions of copies. It continues to show up on Nintendo systems to this day, with Tetris 99 being a free game given away to subscribers of Switch Online. It almost feels like you can't have a portable Nintendo console without some kind of Tetris title.
Of course, it's hard to fathom how a Tetris piece would actually fight in Smash. Steve may be an odd, stiff block-man, but his use of a pickaxe and explosives at least make sense when it comes to creating a fighting game moveset. Tetrominoes are just combinations of blocks with the sole purpose of falling from the sky and disintegrating upon forming a horizontal line. Even the all-powerful Sakurai might have trouble thinking of what a decent short-hop attack for an L-block would look like.
It's obvious that the people running Tetris' social media accounts are just having a little fun. They even sent out a tweet afterward acknowledging the unlikelihood of seeing legends like Orange Ricky or the appropriately named Smashboy in the next Smash fighter reveal trailer. They also pointed out that Tetris blocks are already in the game as collectible Spirits, although being a Spirit doesn't disqualify a character from graduating to a fighter later on.
We'll find out more about how Steve plays in Ultimate during a special presentation on October 3rd. As for Tetris, we'll all have to wait and see if Rhode Island Z ever becomes the newest member of the Smash family.