Since its release in December 2018, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has sold 25 million copies worldwide and received universal acclaim. A large part of the game's publicity came from character predictions, especially when Nintendo announced downloadable content.
Every revealed character had a YouTube trailer released on the Smash website, generating views in the hundreds of thousands and even millions. While the original Nintendo Directs and presentations also garnered impressive numbers, the individual fighter introductions were just as crucial, focusing on the characters and tributes to their original games.
Challenger Approaching Intro Video (544,000 Views)
After the first teaser in March 2018, speculation was rampant on the character roster. The first full trailer in June 2018 at E3 then arrived and revealed all the veteran characters were back. While this was enough to generate excitement, the trailer kept the momentum and hype going from the beginning to the end.
With an instrumental of Ultimate's theme in the background, famous faces like Mario and Samus were first, followed by a mix of third parties and long-forgotten fighters like Sonic and the Ice Climbers. A decloaking Snake, followed by seconds of silence, provided time for everything to sink in only for the subsequent confirmation of Pichu to prove that, indeed, everyone is here.
Vampire Killer (567,000 Views)
The first dedicated Smash Direct in August 2018 provided two new fighters: Simon and Richter from Castlevania. The trailer also offered the first look at the new Dracula's Castle stage, Dracula himself as a boss, and Alucard as an Assist Trophy. It also continued the pattern of grievous harm befalling Nintendo characters.
Luigi's presence gave the impression that a Luigi's Mansion character would be in the game, which was subverted when the grim reaper took his soul. Finally, Simon was revealed, followed by Richter, all set to arrangements of Castlevania's music. Though the game was still four months away, Nintendo kept the anticipation high thanks to trailers like these.
The Iron Fist of Darkness (837,000 Views)
Like Smash for Wii U and Nintendo 3DS, Bandai Namco Studios was partially in charge of Ultimate's development. Their presence led to Pac-Man's inclusion, but a Mii costume was initially Tekken's only representation. Then in June 2021, Nintendo revealed Kazuya as the penultimate downloadable character.
Because this was originally the start of Nintendo's E3 2021 presentation, Ganondorf's appearance was a ruse that led to assumptions that the follow-up to Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild would be showcased. Instead, it was the beginning of a running gag throughout the trailer, with Kazuya throwing various Nintendo characters off a cliff. This reference and more were dispersed throughout the trailer, evoking the feel of Tekken more so than Smash.
Heroic Encounter (1,117,000 Views)
One of the hallmarks of the Ultimate trailers is the buildup before the character's reveal. One example was in this trailer first shown at E3 2019, where Link fought and lost against a possessed Marth and Meta-Knight before being rescued by the newcomer: The Hero from Dragon Quest XI.
This trailer is also one of the few to tell a story with the gameplay and its original cutscenes. The Hero eventually gets put on the defensive against the possessed characters before the heroes from Dragon Quests III, V, and VIII arrive and attack. With its famous Overture in the background, this trailer was a grand arrival for one of the most influential roleplaying games of all time.
The Last Key (1,190,000 Views)
Anticipation and speculation for the last character went into overdrive in the lead-up to October 2021. The first 30 seconds of this trailer reflected this finality by going back to the original teaser trailer, with another minute building up the reveal on who the final character was in the pitch-black void. Mario picked up and threw the flame sword that possibly teased Dark Souls before a specific three-circled symbol and giant key made it clear: Sora arrived at last.
The influence of Kingdom Hearts was apparent right away with the music, stage, and Sora's gameplay, culminating with the triumphant shot of Sora shaking hands with Mario. It was a perfect trailer for the last character of the game after three years of support. It is still up in the air if there will be another entry, but it ended on a high note if Ultimate is indeed the end.
Ramen Time! (1,264,000 Views)
The anticipation for this trailer was unusual because Nintendo teased it in the March 2020 Direct, only providing that the character was from ARMS. The newcomer's identity led to a flurry of theories and debates, and the minuscule ARMS content already in the base game compounded matters. In the end, all that was left was to wait until June 2020, when Mr. Sakurai's thoroughly presented the chosen candidate.
The highly stylized trailer cleverly built up the guesses and anticipation through scenes of the ARMS characters fighting over the invitation envelope and Captain Falcon eating at a noodle restaurant with Kirby. All of this distracted from the fact that the newcomer was on-screen the entire time, not in their recognizable getup. The restaurant proprietor armed herself, and the newcomer was finally confirmed to be Min Min.
The One-Winged Angel! (2,333,000)
Once the 2018 Game Awards unexpectedly revealed the Joker from Persona 5 as the first downloadable character, the event became another possible avenue for character announcements. Though there ultimately was no news during the 2019 event, 2020's Game Awards certainly had a new character and immediately surprised everyone.
This was a follow-up to the original story mode trailer, with the villainous Galeem sliced in half right before it routed the entire roster. The characters' shock begged the question of who was powerful enough to do that, and the first few chords of a famous theme said it all as Sephiroth from Final Fantasy VII arrived. The trailer eventually recreated Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children's climax, taking it to a whole new level.
A New Seed! (4 Million, 214 Thousand Views)
On September 2o20, Nintendo's Twitter announced the trailer for the next downloadable character after Min Min. On top of that, Mr. Sakurai scheduled it for the following day in October. Little did many know at the time that the new arrival was so momentous that Twitter itself would suffer a 15-minute crash.
Once again, it took some time for the surprise character to show themselves, with the scenes of Mario fighting third-party characters, adding to the mystery. The full reveal of Steve set to no music emphasized the shock of Minecraft finally making it to Smash, which was further magnified by the other characters of Alex, a zombie, and an Enderman as alternate costumes.
The Rivals (4,323,000 Views)
The August 2018 Smash Direct started with a bang with the Belmonts, and it ended with another, long-requested newcomer. Following a montage of Nintendo heroes fighting their rivals, it cut to Donkey and Diddy Kong relaxing. These two already provided some expectations and guesses, with the newcomer perhaps being one of the other Kongs.
King Dedede in costume was a humorous gag that fooled nobody, before the actual King K. Rool smacked Dedede away, to the utter horror of the two Kongs. The gameplay, set to a remix of Gangplank Galleon from Donkey Kong Country, exemplified how the king of the Kremlings was a long time coming. The roster held only a few villains, and King K. Rool was a welcome addition.
Best Friends (5,990,000 Views)
This trailer from E3 2019 replicated King K. Rool's, but it handled things differently. The heroes VS villains montage and the Kongs relaxing in their treehouse happened again, except with K. Rool partaking in the events. The appearance and sound effect of a particular golden puzzle piece was enough to reveal who it was, but it was done in a way to make it a blink-and-you-miss-it moment.
The trick of the Duck Hunt dog also did not fool anybody, and they were knocked away by the highly anticipated Banjo and Kazooie, with the cheering Kongs and King K. Rool echoing the sentiment of many. Given the popularity of the original game from the Nintendo 64 and the continued love for the characters even after Microsoft purchased them, it is no wonder that the video for Banjo-Kazooie garnered the highest view counts, bordering on six million.