The recent reveal of Minecraft's Steve as the next DLC fighter in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate lends credence to an old leak claiming to confirm the identities of several upcoming additions to the game's roster. Smash as a series has been consistently driven by its characters, and the DLC additions, slowly teased out over the past several months, are always big events. Steve is no exception; his reveal actually brought down Twitter.
If there's one thing in the Smash community that's more popular than learning who the next DLC fighter is, it's speculating about who the next DLC fighter could be. Debating the pros and cons of one's favorite character appearing in the legendary fighting game is almost a bigger pastime than actually playing the game. Just about every fan has a roster of beloved fighters they want to see in the game, and that includes fans who are actively working on other games. For instance, the official Tetris Twitter account posted a Tweet joking about a tetromino appearing as a playable fighter. As preposterous as it seems, if there's room for Steve, Persona 5's Joker, and even a Piranha Plant, there might be room for a collection of four cubes.
As the speculation continues, leaks have been springing up constantly to help fan the flames of debate and influence predictions. Some of these leaks are more credible than others, but as Game Rant reports, there's one in particular that's getting more and more likely all the time. The leak originated on Japanese website 5channel, and predicted four characters who would be added to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate through DLC. These four characters were Erdrick from Dragon Quest, Minecraft's Steve, Ryu Hayabusa from Ninja Gaiden, and the Doom Slayer. Erdrick was essentially confirmed later through a conglomerate of multiple Dragon Quest protagonists. He was the only one from this prediction that made it into the first wave of DLC characters, though, so the leak was largely dismissed. Now that Steve has been confirmed, though, the old leak is being taken a lot more seriously; it's been 50% confirmed.
Both of the extant characters would make a lot of sense as Smash fighters. Ninja Gaiden is a legend from the early days of video game history, and Ryu has been the face of that franchise since the first game's release on the NES in 1991. Furthermore, a store listing seems to have confirmed a remaster of the Ninja Gaiden trilogy set to release in March. The timing could coincide well with Ryu's addition to Smash. And while Doomguy is an infamously gory character, he's also a fan favorite. 2016's Doom is already available on Nintendo Switch, and the widely acclaimed sequel, Doom Eternal, is set to follow suit by the end of the year. The brutal demon slayer is at the top of a lot of Smash fans' wishlists, and while he might not mix well with Mario and Kirby, Nintendo has to release how much people are clamoring for him.
Ultimately, a leak is just a leak, and fans shouldn't consider this one gospel. Two characters from this internet prophet's list appearing in the game could still be a coincidence, albeit a striking one. But there is a lot of strong evidence to back these characters up, even outside of a leak from Japan. Whatever new characters do end up getting added to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, they're bound to surprise and entertain a lot of players.
Source: Game Rant