Joker - Yet Another Fantastic Addition to the Smash Pantheon
It’s finally here! After months of anticipation, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s Challenger Pack 1 has arrived, and with it, the debut of Persona's Joker, the phantom-thieving protagonist of the fifth entry in the JRPG series. Nintendo released the new DLC on April 17th, causing a spike in Nintendo eShop traffic that has reportedly been causing the store to go down. But if you were one of the lucky people given the server’s go-ahead to update the game, you were treated with that ever-exciting “New Challenger Approaches” banner, immediately unlocking Joker.
After several hours with the character, I can safely say he’s another home-run in terms of concept execution, proving yet again that Smash Bros. is king at adaptations that remain true to their original franchises. Fans of the Persona franchise will surely revel in the amount of detail Sakurai and the Smash team have added to Joker’s presentation. They’ve really gone to great lengths to capture his character. The team managed to capture some of the magic behind the Persona style, especially in Joker’s Final Smash and Victory Screen. Joker’s Final Smash sees his fellow classmates jump into the fray to help him in his signature “All-Out Attack,” launching characters off the screen. His victory screen replicates the victory lap he takes after winning a battle in Persona 5, further showcasing Smash Bros. dedication to adaptation (you can even manually change his victory screen to a Bus Morgana version). His moves, though simplistic, are mostly lifted directly from trademark commands in Persona 5, including Joker’s neutral B, which whips out his handy air soft gun. Most importantly of course is Joker’s Persona Arsene, who serves as a sort of temporary combat boost for Joker. Sakurai even went so far as to duplicate Joker’s original animations during Persona 5’s heated Palace battles.
Speaking of Palaces, the new Persona-inspired stage Mementos is another proud exhibition of the Persona style. What’s more, the dev team managed to pay tribute not only to Joker’s Persona 5, but Personas 3 and 4 as well, with Mementos changing its look based on which game’s theme music is playing. The music, ever an intrinsic part of the Persona experience, seals the deal, acting as the cherry on top of the Smash DLC pack.
Nintendo has once again delivered on the impossible, introducing the revered Persona to its pantheon of legacy franchises.
You can get Smash Ultimate’s Fighters Pass for $24.99 here. It includes the four upcoming Challenger Packs as well as the recently-released Joker Pack. You can also purchase the Joker Pack on its own here for $5.99 and get access to all current Persona content. Let me just say, you get plenty of value for your dollar with this one—every Smash fan ought to pick this up. Nintendo also released several Mii costumes that can be purchased for 75 cents apiece, and they simultaneously launched Smash Ultimate’s large 3.0 update that added Stage Building and several social media functions.
Smash Bros. continues its impressive legacy as a celebration of gaming, having united such disparate series as Metal Gear, Sonic the Hedgehog, Castlevania, Final Fantasy, Pac-Man, and now Persona. Perhaps even more impressive is the fact that, despite having such a bizarre range of additions from Mr. Game and Watch to Mega Man, each added piece feels like it’s always been part of the whole. Somehow, characters like Annabelle feel right at home next to Little Mac or (God forbid) Ridley. Joker’s seamless inclusion is just another display of the world-class design and talent behind the Smash series. We can’t wait to see the future Challenger Packs, if just to appreciate the level of detail the dev team puts into each newcomer.
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