By Zach Schanzenbach

Senior Staff Writer

Super Smash Bros. is fast approaching its Nintendo 3DS release date in North America. Japan released the game on Sept. 13, 20 days before its scheduled release date here.

Rewind to E3 2014 back in June and the hype is still real, though not as imminent.  Following the April 8 Nintendo Direct, only one character was confirmed to be returning: Ike of Fire Emblem who appeared in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.  During the Nintendo Digital Event on June 10, director Masahiro Sakurai gave fans a short trailer showcasing the various game modes available, alongside two brand new fighter options: the much-anticipated Mii Fighter, allowing you to play as your Mii in the game, and Palutena from the Kid Icarus games (particularly Uprising).

Later that evening, after a smashing tournament showcasing the Wii U version of the game, Sakurai congregated with a number of Smash fans at a round table and unveiled other aspects of the game, including a brand new fighter option that was arguably one of the overall top ten hopefuls for the game: Pac-Man.  In a historic match where the four gaming legends Mario, Mega Man, Sonic and Pac-Man faced off, the newest addition to the roster took the cake…then again, that’s probably because he was controlled by Sakurai.

Following the E3 hype, on July 14, a new trailer (my personal favorite) was streamed showcasing two newcomers: Lucina and Robin of Fire Emblem.  Of course, while Sakurai was giving us some new fighters to look forward to controlling, he decided to show us his moves and include confirmation of arguably the most popular character in the franchise’s history: F-Zero’s Captain Falcon. Later, at the start of a Japanese Direct streamed not too long ago, another newcomer was announced: Shulk of Xenoblade Chronicles.

With Shulk’s announcement, however, there was also some consternation.  Shortly before his confirmation, a supposed leak of the game’s final full roster spread across the Internet.  Shulk was seen in an image of said-roster, alongside the last two characters from the original game not yet confirmed: Ness of Earthbound and the Pokemon Jigglypuff.  Besides these three, there were some interesting characters included as well: Dark Pit (Kid Icarus), who Nintendo teased at the end of the trailer unveiling Palutena, Dr. Mario (Dr. Mario), returning from Super Smash Bros. Melee after being cut from Brawl and the infamous sniggering dog from Duck Hunt (are you kidding me?!). This list is not exhaustive, in order to not spoil the whole game for you, but it’s doubtlessly enough to make you wonder.

When the official trailer was unveiled, Shulk’s in-game artwork came with it…and it’s exactly the same as the artwork in the leak.  With this fact in mind, the leak’s credibility increased by a significant amount.  The next thing we knew, gamers in Japan got their hands on a copy of the game even before it was released and confirmed every one of the leaked characters. But is this the full roster?

Simply studying the leaked image itself will not yield an answer to that. Excluding the random option, there are 48 fighter options to choose from on that screen, leaving some unused space (oddly enough, the Mii Fighter option is absent). Are there characters that we can’t see here? Once again, there’s no surefire way to know, but one thing is for certain: none of this was fabricated.

If we look at what we know for certain, however, there’s still a lot to be excited about.  Shulk’s addition to the roster brought the total number of fighter options (excluding the Mii Fighter option) to 37. This is already two more than the full roster of Brawl, and if Sakurai’s not showing any unlockable characters, we could potentially have a 50-character roster.  This wouldn’t be surprising, given that each new Smash Bros. expands the roster, but 50 is a significant number…even if it doesn’t have any super special meaning here.

Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS will release in North America in 9 days on Oct. 3; every character officially revealed thus far (with the exclusion of Lucina) will be playable at the start.  Super Smash Bros. for Wii U will release sometime in the Holiday season.