Aww, you were just a day away from keeping it a surprise, Nintendo.
If two allegedly leaked YouTube videos are to be believed, then it looks like Fire Emblem‘s Roy is making his grand return alongside Ryu, the face of the Street Fighter series. The two reels show what appears to be their arcade mode ending sequences, showing off small glimpses of what they have in store for their opponents once their release date comes.
From what we can tell, Roy still has similarities to Marth, the character his move set was cloned from in Melee. Still, a closer look at his animations, (namely his Up-B attack,) seem to have some slight differences compared to his past attacks. Is there a chance that Roy will be more of his own character, especially when Lucina already fills the role of a Math clone?
Ryu on the other hand, looks like he’s bringing something completely new to the Smash Bros arena. Coming equipped with his focus attacks, hadoukens, shoryukens and hurricane kicks, (feel free to spell out the Japanese name, because I’m not doing it,) most telling is the legendary fighter’s apparent ability to perform legitimate combos, something which isn’t normally possible outside of high level play. Will this change the way players approach the game? I can’t wait to find out!
Alongside these leaks, further rumors suggest new trophies for the Inkling and Ryu’s best friend, Ken, a new Dreamland 64 stage, Ryu’s iconic Street Fighter II Dojo stage, and Mii Fighter costumes, including Zero from Mega Man X, Mega Man .EXE, Akira and Jacky from Virtua Fighter, Animal Crossing‘s Isabelle and Heihachi from Tekken. At this point, we’re almost guaranteed to get the official word from Nintendo during E3 week, but it seems like the cat’s out of the bag.
While not terribly surprising for those who knew that sound files for Roy and Ryu were part of the Mewtwo update, it’s still surreal to see the biggest fighting game icon make an appearance in Nintendo’s all star brawler as the first, true original character as part of Smash’s DLC line up. Roy is a little more expected, since I felt his inclusion was an inevitability once DLC was announced, but I’m hoping more unique characters see their returns soon, (especially Wolf, Snake and Ice Climbers, although the last two probably aren’t possible.) Speaking of Snake, if copyright is an issue, can we at least slap his move set on the Mach Rider guy or something?
What’s your reaction to the news, and who would you like to see next?