Special Feature: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Gets More Ultimate with Ver. 3.0

We appear to be stuck in a humorous trend where Nintendo fans expect a new Nintendo Direct installment to arrive soon, only for Nintendo themselves to make announcements through social media and video channels instead. This recently happened with announcements for Switch games and release dates, where the port of God Eater 3 (releasing on July 12th) and a release date for Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order (arriving July 19 — yeah, they’re releasing closely) were announced on social media. The former was announced by publisher Bandai Namco first, but it would have been fitting for a Direct. This also previously happened before January.

Since we weren’t getting a Direct here, others figured a new Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Direct was bound to happen. This was only partially off the mark as Nintendo released a video on a random Tuesday night detailing the content coming with the Ver. 3.0 update, which totaled a whopping 15 minutes in length. It was long enough to qualify as a Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Direct Mini, though Nintendo doesn’t provide those for individual games. Maybe they should, though.

The highlight of the new content is the newest roster addition: Joker from Persona 5. The character’s original announcement from Nintendo was perhaps the most surprising one from The Game Awards in December last year, and there were at least two signs showing that his arrival was imminent. A small image of his character model was leaked through a Best Buy ad late last Month, and Atlus has been teasing several Persona 5-related announcements for a while. But leave it to Nintendo to surprise everyone by showcasing and releasing Joker a week before next week’s announcements.

The Smash Bros. takes as much care of third-party characters as they can, through implementing as many techniques, music tracks, and references from the game and franchise they originate from. It was clear early on that Joker would be no exception, judging from how the original trailer also featured cameos from several other Persona 5 characters with their voice actors in English and Japanese.

Joker has plenty of techniques and references from Persona 5 and the overall Persona franchise. He has his knife and pistol, and can use special attacks like Eiha. But his most important move is summoning his Persona, Arsene, for enhanced and additional special techniques from the game, franchise, and the Megaten universe as a whole. Arsene can be summoned after the Rebellion gauge has been filled through defending, charging, or taking damage, which will lead to Joker removing his mask to summon it. While Arsene is available, Tetrakarn and Makarakarn can also be used to counter physical and special attacks, respectively. Joker’s Final Smash is an All-Out Attack featuring cameos from several Persona 5 characters, down to using similar animations and reusing the same art, albeit without the blood spray at the end.

Joker also has his Shujin High School uniform as an alternate outfit, where he’ll remove his glasses instead of the mask to summon Arsene.

The Mementos stage has also been included, based off the mysterious location (to say the least) from the game. Its palette resembles the original’s in its default state, but the color scheme will change to blue and black and yellow and black to accompany the Persona 3 and Persona 4 themes. Most music tracks included are from Persona 5, along with a new remix of Beneath the Mask composed by ACE (known for their contributions to the Xenoblade Chronicles games). A few tracks from Persona 3 and 4 each are also included, with alternate mixes for “Aria of the Soul” and “I’ll Face Myself” from both respective games. Nintendo went as above and beyond to welcome Persona to the Smash Bros. games as expected. In addition to the 15-minute video Nintendo provided, a much shorter one focused on Joker was posted.

That’s not all, either. New Mii Fighter costumes are also being included, based off characters from the last three Persona games and Tails and Knuckles from the Sonic the Hedgehog games. Sega owns Atlus, so it makes sense that they’re coming together.

New features are also coming as part of this update. The Stage Builder feature is the biggest, previously leaked through a commercial uploaded by Nintendo themselves last week. Here, players can create stages using elements from others alongside new ones implemented for this mode. Crafting the stages will be easier through using the Switch’s touchscreen while in handheld mode. A Video Editor mode is also coming, where players can save and alter videos through inserting alternate music and using different transition screens.

Fortunately, Nintendo is aware of what year this is (in this case, anyway), and is letting everyone share these stages and videos. The stages and created Mii Fighters can also be downloaded, and players can press a button to “Yeah!” videos they like. Stages and videos can also be viewed in the Smash World mobile app, where players can queue up files to be downloaded the next time Smash Ultimate is booted up.

This isn’t how Smash Bros. fans expected to see a preview of the upcoming content, but they’re (mostly) not disappointed. It’s also nice that the update is coming by midnight ET, around 24 hours after the video was posted. Joker will be the first of five DLC characters coming, each of which will cost $5.99 separately (with new stages and music accompanying them). All of them can be purchased through the Season Pass for $24.99 to save around $5. The next character should be announced soon, though perhaps Nintendo wants to reduce the time between the reveal and release.