Well it's finally happening tomorrow morning and I'm pretty hyped to see if the Grinch leak is real. Anyone else been keeping up with leaks and excited for tomorrow? I'm feeling pretty damn sure that the leak was very much real, but either way I will still be happy with whoever makes it in. Still the idea of Banjo-Kazooie in Smash is so crazy to think about.

Adventure mode trailer.

World of Light theme.

Thoughts on this new theme song? Do the vocals add to it for you, or do nothing and you rather the song without them?

Just wanted to post a pic of the Spirits menu. So World of Light and Spirits Battle are indeed separate modes and not the same thing. Extras is another menu with things like create a set of spirits, level spirits up, summon spirits, training spirits etc.

I'd love if the "Grinch" leak was in any way true, but at this point my gut leans toward the whole thing being an elaborate fake. Mach Rider and Chorus Kids are inspired choices if it's a hoax, since they so perfectly fit the kind of retro and random-ass roster picks the series likes to dabble in. We haven't exactly gotten our Duck Hunt, R.O.B., or Shulk equivalent yet. I could see Ken and/or Shadow showing up as an echo though. Both of those seem like pretty obvious picks.

On the other hand, beyond the final roster I fully expect that Sakurai will spend his sweet time going over a bunch of neat, but ultimately inconsequential new modes and features. Remember Smash Run and Smash Tour? Remember how you played either approximately once? Will this supposed "Spirits" mode be a full-on single player thing in the vein of Subspace Emissary, or something else? Will the online actually have a decent slate of options? Guess we'll find out tomorrow.

Look, I'll be happy with any Rhythm Heaven representation, but the Chorus Kids are bad to look at and their mini-game sucks. The correct character choice is Tap Trial Girl.

Also, a Rhythm Heaven stage that bops along to the music would just be top-notch.

@arbitrarywater: My least favorite thing about Smash Tour was all the stuff that was locked behind playing it. My favorite thing about Smash Tour was that the timer for player turns made it so that you never actually HAD to play it. You just launched a game on the gamepad and played something else for 15 minutes, then got a bunch of unlocks.

That supposed leak doesn´t include any Arms characters, which seems like a significant missed opportunity, and alone makes me hope that it´s not real.

lol piranha plant

Snake just getting vaporized while hiding under the box is the funniest shit I've seen in a while.

Piranha Plant is genius.

I'm glad they're going with a season pass and are upfront about how much DLC to expect. The DLC for 4 was all over the place, especially if you wanted a character/stage for both Wii U and 3DS.

Bit of a bummer conference overall, a lot of talk about the new trophies that took a long time to explain and, at least for me, no character reveals on the level of Ridley. They started the show with a showstopper. Props to all Incineroar and Ken fans out there, but they didn't do it for me.

I'm glad they're doing DLC though(poor Sakurai). Piranha Plant was a funny reveal that I totally acknowledge, there might not be an individual piranha plant with a lot of personality, but Mario enemies are iconic. It's great that one of them has secured a spot. The story mode also looks like Sakurai usual fun stories, a lot of cute animal people fighting world-ending cosmic evils. A starting cutscene where everyone besides Kirby perishes? yeah, that's pretty great. Shoutout to the Guile Assist trophy, that's hilarious.

Anyway, while this last direct wasn't very hype, the game overall is looking like the best package you can ever get in a fighting game, and if the gameplay is at Melee's level of speed again, then I am still very hype about the game as a whole. DLC is completely justified, with 74 characters there as a base. It's a far cry from Street Fighter V's 16.

Piranha Plant is amusing, but also textbook barrel scraping.

Making a Mario mook playable is a cool idea, and the piranha plant is iconic. But a Goomba, Koopa Troopa, Shy Guy, Hanmer brother, Boo, or even a Chain Chomp would have been better choices if they wanted to do a left field pick.

So the “Kencineroar” people were right all along. That’s a little disappointing as a final reveal, but I’m way into Piranha Plant as a WTF pick and I’m glad they’re upfront about how many new (full) DLC fighters to expect. I wouldn’t be surprised if we got a couple more echo fighters along the way too. In any case, people who are somehow mad about their pet obscure character not making it into a starting roster of 74 (76 if you count Pokémon trainer’s team separately) just seems kinda crazy. That won’t stop people from getting mad though.

Spirits mode seems... about what I expected from a single player mode. I’m sure it will be fine, but I’m more interested in seeing how the online self-sorting will work out in practice. I could see it being frustrating or working exactly as intended.

Okay, the last two fighters were underwhelming, but Piranha Plant... Now we're talking. The roster size is absolutely nuts and there's more coming, so it's hard to be too disappointed. Spirits mode is a heck of a thing. Can't decide if it'll be fun or not, but it looks like it could be dangerously addicting. The adventure mode was a nice surprise, and that theme song is hilarious.

I was really hoping Sakurai would wait until the last five minutes and then say: “I’ve already told you that we’ve showed you the final roster and have no new characters to announce. But, I lied. Here is the final Smash character...”

Cue Rayman. I thought it had to happen since Nintendo and Ubi-Soft are so buddy-buddy recently, and Rayman seems like a perfect fit for Smash. Oh well, maybe he’ll be in the DLC. Piranha Plant is totally unexpected but looks really fun and unique!

I am not a fan of the free-to-play phone-game type elements. I really hope that you can’t buy gold. But I am all for the DLC.

Also: Spirits looks really fun to me, and I LOVE the hand-drawn style of that world map!

Overall: This game looks amazing. I haven't played any Smash since Melee, for some reason. That game already had tons of content, and we're getting almost all of that PLUS three new games worth of content, so this package is absolutely nuts. Especially when you consider that Smash characters typically have much more variety in their movesets than the typical fighter. How they can even attempt to balance all that is mind-boggling.

@arbitrarywater: They say in the direct that they won't do echoes for the DLC. It's all brand new characters.

@wollywoo: Rayman has been my most wanted addition for a while. I submitted him a bunch when they did that ballot for Smash 4 DLC.

I'm sure they won't do it because his amiibo is physically impossible.

I was saying I could see them throwing in at least one more echo as a freebie or extra in addition to the new DLC characters. Sakurai likes his surprises and it wouldn't be out of character for them to say *Insert Character Here* is out today! That might just be wishful thinking on my part, admittedly.

I thought the overall Smash Direct was alright to good. Ken, Incineroar, Piranha Plant, and the adventure mode were very good. Though the in-betweens like Spirits felt it went on a bit too long. The DLC characters has me the most interested, I do hope that Dante is in it after reading leaks/rumors. Hopefully everyone else is get a character they want or like for DLC. I'm overall very happy with base roster and want to get it at some point.

Bummed to not see Geno in the initial roster, but hopefully he shows up as DLC. Also, Ben pronounces his name weird on the podcast... he seems to say "Gee-no," but I always said it "Jen-oh" in my head... oh well, memories of a simpler time when games only spoke in text, not in voice acting.

Also, the set up for the adventure mode, Master Hands absorbing everyone and only Kirby surviving the apocalypse... is real fuckin' dumb, but I'm way into it. It may not be Subspace Emissary levels of fun dumb, but it looks enjoyable.

Should Smash Bros. music talk?

@rejizzle: I added the World of Light theme if that's what you were taking about.

Really like the amount of single player content. Love the idea of starting with the original cast and unlocking from there.

I never look at leaks, so I'm not feeling the disappointment a large section of the internet seems to be going through.

Good Direct overall. Neither Ken nor Incineroar mean much to me (though I am definitely a fan of the random posing), but I know people who are stoked for both. Spirits seems like a good, deeper replacement for Event Mode, and I'm sure I'll enjoy seeing what characters are technically in the game even if they aren't playable. I doubt I'll get super into the online leaderboards, but my brother and I destroying dudes in online together is something I'm 100% here for, and might be what tips me over the edge into paying the subscription fee for at least one year.

The two best things for me were definitely Piranha Plant and World of Light. I'm sooo happy to see a robust story mode come back to Smash, and this may turn out to be even better than Subspace. The opening cutscene is fantastic (so many details packed in there), and the overworked interaction looks way deeper than anything Subspace offered. My biggest issue with Smash 4 on 3DS was just how the game had nothing for single-player, especially since 3DS was way harder to make multiplayer happen with. Between this and Spirits, Ultimate has blown that concern out of the water. Now just make World of Light co-op so my brother and I can blow through it just like Subspace back in the day!

If I need to explain why I'm excited for Piranha Plant and will be going out of my way specifically to get him for free, we can't be friends.

He will be one of my mains, and you can't stop me.

It's actually kinda interesting that they went with Piranha Plant (the right choice) over Petey Piranha (the choice that seemed far more likely, given his numerous appearances as a character in Mario sports games and RPGs since Sunshine). Petey Piranha fucking sucks, nobody wants to see him and his gross lower body.

@bisonhero: Petey is the Final Smash.

Anyway this Direct was neat, Incineroar looks like he plays alright and Ken is a fun addition too (looks like you can EVO Moment 37 people) but man Chun-Li would have been way more hype and unique while still being iconic.

Piranha Plant is an inspired addition for sure, but I think I'll wait for that one hype af reveal before buying the pass.

I'm bummed Sakurai didn't flip on Waluigi. That would have been a great final surprise, even though people were shitty to him. Also bummed that Tom Nook isn't at least an echo of Isabelle at this point, the main villain of many other Nintendo franchises are present.

Oh, they could do it. Just have a bit of transparent plastic between the limbs. I mean Link is shown in mid-air, so...

Last game I get this year, for sure. Honestly.

The inclusion of an adventure mode makes it much more likely I'll buy this game.

The adventure mode sold me on this game more than anything else tbh

So it's looking like the Spirits mode is World of Light, the adventure mode. It almost seemed like they were separate things, but I don't think they are. I think they first wanted to explain the mechanics of the spirits system, and then show off the story and the map for it later. Not really sure about this though. I was just watching the gameplay clips from the spirits explanation and the trailer for World of Light and they have the same UI going on, also the same type of gameplay.

Piranha Plant is such a lovely idea, going to try to make him/her my new main.

I know it wasn't a massive success. Really surprised the ARMS characters aren't playable.
Not that I really want to play them, but its already fighting-based and a Nintendo property.

Piranha Plant is the right kind of dumb. Bit surprised it wasn't Petey just to have a name, but still great.

That World of Light trailer is 'hilariously over dramatic JRPG cinematic' as all hell. I'm glad their doing another single player thing though even if the intro to is was so dang cheesy.

I love that with all of the major characters in this game, that Kirby is the one that has to put the work boots on

Super smash is very much lovable game because of its epic characters and multi gaming mode.

Not having played a Smash game since the gamecube it makes me happy that Kirby is the hero we deserve. Also the adventure mode makes me wanting to actually play this now. I have zero interest in paying for any online service through Nintendo or playing with people online in general and I've always hated playing any kind of fighting game online anyways.