Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is the latest and most expansive installment in the Super Smash Bros. franchise. It includes every fighter to ever have appeared in a Smash Bros. game, as well as introducing several new fighters. In addition to the roster of characters available with the base game, there have been twelve extra fighters added in DLC.
These characters range from unexpected surprises to some of the most highly-requested additions to Smash for decades. Since they came out later and come from a wide variety of source games, there are plenty of trivia tidbits that many Smash players still don’t know about the DLC characters.
10 Pirannah Plant Is One Of The Few Playable Generic Characters
The Piranha Plant is an iconic enemy from the Mario series. It often grows out of pipes or pots to snap at Mario and friends. It has been featured in Smash Bros. games throughout the years as a trophy and stage hazard, but was finally released as a fighter in 2019. Piranha Plant is the first playable generic enemy in Smash, with every prior character being either a named antagonist or a generic player character. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate was the only game to feature a playable Piranha Plant until Dr. Mario World released in July of 2019.
9 Joker Contains Hidden Jokes In His Code
Persona 5 protagonist Joker was announced as a Smash fighter in December 2018 and released in April 2019. Smash uses codenames in its files to refer to individual characters, and Joker’s files refer to him as “jack.” This may be a reference to the fact that Joker and Jack are both types of playing cards.
This may also be a reference to the mascot of Persona 5 developer Atlus’s mascot Jack Frost. Joker’s initial Persona Arsène is referred to in the code as “doyle.” This is likely a reference to Arthur Conan Doyle, whose Sherlock Holmes stories were a big influence on Maurice Leblanc’s Arsène Lupin novels, which in turn inspired the Persona Arsène.
8 Banjo & Kazooie Are One Of The Few Non-Japanese Fighters
ERare’s hit action-adventure platformer series Banjo-Kazooie finally came to Smash in September 2019. Banjo & Kazooie were the first DLC fighters from non-Japanese games, as Rare is English. Depending on how the lines are drawn, it can be argued that Banjo & Kazooie are the first non-Japanese fighters, period. Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, and King K. Rool are all also from Rare games, but the Donkey Kong character and franchise originated in Japan. Dark Samus came from an American game, the Metroid series is Japanese.
7 Hero’s Different Forms Are Responsible For Several Firsts
The generically named protagonist of the Dragon Quest franchise was added to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate alongside Banjo & Kazooie in 2019. Hero is really four different Dragon Quest protagonists all wrapped up in one character, Solo, Luminary, Erdrick, and Eight.
This marks the first time in Smash history that alternate costumes actually replace the model with a different character. Luminary is the first third-party fighter to originate from a hand-held console game, while Eight is the first third-party fighter to originate from a sixth-generation console.
6 Terry Reps Several Brands
The protagonist of the Fatal Fury franchise, Terry made his very first appearance in the Smash series in September 2019. He is the first Smash fighter to have debuted on the Neo Geo. Terry wears hats bearing the logos of both Fatal Fury and the Neo Geo, which makes him the third playable character to wear clothing with a real-life brand. Diddy Kong wears a Nintendo hat and Banjo wears a Rare backpack.
5 Byleth Is The Newest Character In The Game
Byleth is the playable avatar for Fire Emblem: Three Houses and was added to Smash: Ultimate in January 2020. Byleth has the shortest gap between character debut and Smash debut of any fighter, as Fire Emblem: Three Houses was released in July 2019. This also makes them the only fighter to debut after the release of Smash: Ultimate. Thanks to a brief appearance in Fire Emblem Heroes back in 2017, Byleth is technically the only Smash fighter to have first appeared in a mobile game.
4 Min Min Is One Of The Few Fighting Game Representatives
The Nintendo Switch fighting game ARMS features several different fighters with elongated, helical limbs. Min Min is a character whose arms resemble ramen noodles, which is fitting as her family operates the Mintendo Noodle House. Min Min is only the fourth fighter to originate from a fighting game and the first woman to do so, preceded by Ryu, Ken, and Terry.
3 Steve Is Different From All The Rest
Steve and his counterpart Alex are the player characters from the overwhelmingly popular building game Minecraft. Minecraft developer Mojang Studios was purchased by Microsoft in 2014, but Steve goes as far back as 2009, making him the first Smash fighter to originate in a once-indie game.
Steve is also one of only three fighters to be owned by a non-Japanese company, the other two being Banjo & Kazooie, also owned by Microsoft, and Sora, owned by Disney.
2 Sephiroth Is A Truly Unique Villain
The main antagonist of Final Fantasy VII has been put back into the spotlight in recent years thanks to the popularity of Final Fantasy VII: REMAKE and his addition to Super Smash Bros. in December 2020. Sephiroth is the first character from an already represented third-party universe to not be a clone, as both Ken and Richter are clones of Ryu and Simon respectively. Sephiroth is also the first fully playable third-party villain in Smash.
1 Sora Comes From Outside The Nintendo Family
Arguably the most anticipated Super Smash Bros. fighter ever, Sora is a protagonist of the Kingdom Hearts series and the final DLC character for Smash: Ultimate. He was an option in the 2015 Smash Bros. Fighter Ballot, a feature on the official website for Super Smash Bros. 4 to determine future additions to the game’s roster. Sora was the overall highest-voted character, but Bayonetta was declared the winner among “negotiable and realizable characters.” Sora is the only Disney-owned character playable in Smash.
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