Super Smash Bros Ultimate Minecraft



© Provided by Geekwire (YouTube screenshot)

Minecraft

2 days ago  New triple jump tech discovered for Steve in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate might mean the Minecraft character just got a lot stronger Posted by John 'Velociraptor' Guerrero. 7 hours, 44 minutes. 15 Stock Team CPU BattleStages: Minecraft World and Mushroom Kingdom U Red: Steve, Mario, Megaman & InklingBlue: Sonic, Robin, Corrin & BylethRequested by El.

The next downloadable character for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate will be the protagonist from Microsoft’s Minecraft, Nintendo announced Thursday morning.

Like a few other Smash characters, the Minecraft character will be available in several different versions, to account for their nature as a character-created avatar. This includes Steve and Alex, the typical male and female Minecraft default characters, as well as the option to play as monsters like Zombies or Endermen.

Steve & Alex’s fighting style involves the use of traditional Minecraft tools like picks, swords, and bombs, as well as being able to place solid blocks throughout the fighting arena. While there isn’t much information available right now beyond what can be seen from the short reveal trailer (below), a more in-depth presentation on the characters is planned for Oct. 3 at 7:30 AM Pacific, in advance of this year’s Minecraft Live online show.

Minecraft is the most popular video game in the world. The news that Minecraft was getting into Smash is probably why Twitter crashed early this morning, as social media lit up over the reveal.

Initially created in 2009 by Swedish developer Markus “Notch” Persson, Minecraft is a notoriously open-ended creation game, where players are placed into a randomly-generated open world to harvest materials, dodge monsters, and build whatever they like. Persson later co-founded Mojang Specifications with Carl Mannneh and Jakob Porser to continue to develop Minecraft; in 2014, Mojang was acquired outright by Microsoft and rebranded as Mojang Studios.

Steve and Alex from @Minecraft are joining the #SmashBrosUltimate roster! Get ready to mine and craft your victories on the battlefield! pic.twitter.com/CtBNfENjEE

Super Smash Bros Ultimate Minecraft

— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) October 1, 2020

Since then, Minecraft has been ported to virtually every operating system and active console in the face of the planet, and is still famously platform-agnostic despite being owned by Microsoft; Minecraft is available even on competitors’ hardware, such as OS X and the PlayStation 4. As of May of this year, Minecraft had sold over 200 million units worldwide, which makes it the best-selling game of all time by a significant margin; nothing else even comes close.

This is only the second character in Smash Bros. Ultimate’s cast to come from a Western studio, after Banjo & Kazooie’s debut in September of 2019. Notably, Banjo & Kazooie are also Microsoft-owned, as they were created by the British studio Rare, which Microsoft purchased in 2002.

The Minecraft character crossover is the first announcement of any kind about Smash DLC from Nintendo since June 22, following the debut of the previous character, Min Min from the Switch-exclusive brawler Arms. This is an unusual period of silence from the Smash team, but the game’s producer Masahiro Sakurai has noted before that due to COVID-19 restrictions in Japan, his team has largely been working from home for the last eight months or so. Most of Sakurai’s trademark presentations this year have been recorded from his living room.

© Provided by Geekwire Masahiro Sakurai, producer of Smash Bros. Ultimate , speaks for us all. (YouTube screenshot)

According to Sakurai, the introduction of Steve/Alex forced the Smash team to have to rework many of the game’s background stages to account for the character’s ability to place blocks, which is unique among the cast. While Steve and Alex still use the trademark rectangular Minecraft models, which meant they didn’t require complicated animation or voice acting, designing their Smash versions to account for Minecraft‘s trademark construction abilities was a “massive challenge.”

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate debuted in December of 2019 as an exclusive title for the Nintendo Switch. While it’s slightly controversial to call it a fighting game in fan circles, as it eschews many of the typical features of the genre, it’s nonetheless considered to be the best-selling fighting game of all time, with over 19 million units sold as of June of 2020. As the Switch itself has sold around 63 million units at time of writing, this means that almost a full third of Switch owners also have a copy of Ultimate.

Steve & Alex, like other DLC characters in Smash, will be automatically downloaded on release to players who already own the second Fighter’s Pass. If they’re priced like previous characters, they’ll be available individually for $5.99, which will include a new background stage and some remixed music.

© Image: Bandai Namco Studios, Sora Ltd., Mojang/Nintendo

The cast of Minecraft — namely Steve, Alex, Enderman, and Zombie — is coming to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Game director Masahiro Sakurai confirmed the fighting game’s next add-on characters during a video presentation on Thursday.

Smash Bros.’ Minecraft DLC will include many of the abilities seen in Mojang’s popular sandbox game, like building, explosives, mine carts, and flying wings. Sakurai promised to reveal more about the Minecraft DLC for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate during a presentation on Saturday, Oct. 3, at 10:30 a.m. EDT/7:30 a.m. PDT, right before Mojang’s Minecraft Live event kicks off.

Super Smash Bros Ultimate Minecraft Stage

“Even I didn’t think this day would come,” Sakurai said during the video revealing Steve, Alex, and company. “When thinking about new fighters for this game, we don’t just pick my favorites or draw from a hat. More often than not, these discussions start by Nintendo approaching me with an idea. Of course, if I can’t do that idea justice, I’ll tell them no.”

Sakurai explained that adding Minecraft characters to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is a “massive challenge,” saying that the development team will “rework all our existing stages so that blocks can be placed in them.”

Super Smash Bros Ultimate Minecraft Music

The humanoid cast of Minecraft is the second of six additional characters coming to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as part of the Fighters Pass Vol. 2, following Min Min from Arms, who was added to the game in June. All six characters — plus new stages and music — will be released for Ultimate by Dec. 31, 2021, Sakurai announced during a Nintendo Direct Mini presentation in January. The first Fighters Pass added Joker from Persona 5, Hero from the Dragon Quest series, Banjo and Kazooie, Terry from Fatal Fury/The King of Fighters, and Byleth from Fire Emblem: Three Houses to Ultimate as paid content.