All Smash Bros. Ultimate Characters Confirmed, But DLC Is On The Way

As was to be expected from a 40-minute presentation, last week's Nintendo Direct centered on Super Smash Bros. Ultimate was a big one. It featured a ton of news about the game, and among the most important bits were the final members of the roster being revealed. We now know everyone who will be available on release day, and as you'd probably expect, the lineup will only grow post-launch through DLC. But even that isn't quite as simple as you might have thought.

The Direct started out with the reveal of two new characters. Street Fighter's Ken is an echo fighter of Ryu but is faster and has some other points of distinction. Pokemon's Incineroar also joins Ultimate's full character roster and boasts an array of pro-wrestling-inspired moves.

Although the video stated these two characters rounded out the final roster of 74, it didn't take long for that to prove not to be the case. Later in the stream, it was confirmed that DLC characters are on the way, and that these won't be echo fighters. Work hasn't yet started, so we'll be seeing these new characters added all the way through February 2020.

Nintendo has plans for a total of five DLC fighters, with each one being sold in a bundle alongside a new stage and music for $6 in the US. There will also be a $25 bundle called the Fighters Pass that gets you all five of these. Alongside a small discount over buying them individually, the Fighters Pass entitles you to an in-game outfit based on Xenoblade Chronicles 2 protagonist Rex.

But even that still didn't represent all of the character news we got. As a pre-order bonus of sorts, yet another fighter will be available: Piranha Plant. By purchasing the game digitally or physically (in which case you have to register the game card online) before the end of January 31, 2019, you'll get access to the character for free once it's ready "around" February 2019. A Piranha Plant stage and music are also in the works, and for those who don't qualify for the freebie, it will be available as DLC at some point in the future.

Alongside all of this character news, we learned a lot more about Ultimate, including details on the new Spirits mode and how online multiplayer works. Ultimate is due for release on December 7. There's no word on when we'll learn the identities of the DLC characters, but hey--at least there's reason for hope if you want to see Waluigi or Geno make the cut.