It’s already been four months since Super Smash Bros. Ultimate was released. We already know that the game is due for another update — version 3.0 — sometime in April. In other words, the patch can drop any day now.
As anyone can imagine, there’s a lot of anticipation behind this upcoming update. In the past, Nintendo has dropped small nuggets of hints about the contents of version 3.0.
On April 15, 2019, Reggie Fils-Aime will be retiring as Nintendo of America’s president and chief operating officer. It has been rumored and speculated that he’ll take part in some Nintendo Direct that reveals new details about the patch before this upcoming date.
The last Nintendo Direct was featured on February 13, 2019. Considering that Fils-Aime’s departure is a bit of a special occasion and we are due for a new update later this month, the timing seems plausible.
Not much was shown for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate during this last Nintendo Direct, but it was where we first heard that this 3.0 update was coming. “What are we adding,” asked the narrator of the presentation. “You’ll just have to wait to find out.”
Still, the community has been speculating on what little was shown during this sequence.
So what do we know about Joker in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate? Currently, not a lot.
With his back facing the camera, we’ve only seen his landing and crouching animations. Nothing about his moveset has been revealed thus far.
We are aware that Joker is supposed to be released before the end of April. It’s extremely likely that Joker will be packaged with the 3.0 update.
This especially makes sense because Piranha Plant was suddenly made available with the version 2.0 patch. This is setting a precedent where a new character will be made available for download whenever the highest part of the version number is updated.
Assuming Joker will be made available for download on the same day as the 3.0 patch later this month, then there’s a possibility we might learn about the identity of the next fighter.
As of right now, we know there will be at least six DLC characters that will be added to the 74 character launch roster. Although Piranha Plant is one of them, it’s not one that is included with the Fighter Pass.
Since we already know about Joker from Persona 5, this means there are are still four unannounced characters. To encourage players to purchase the pass, Nintendo could have one character identified at a time until February 2020.
Remember that Joker was revealed very shortly before the game was officially released. If Joker is about to be released then the hype train might be rolling at full steam ahead within the foreseeable future.
Going from version 1.X.X to 2.0.0 marked the game’s biggest balance patch to date. In fact, this was the first time that Nintendo released detailed patch notes for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
More than likely, this 3.0 update will feature a number of buffs and nerfs for most of the game’s current roster. Given, this isn’t going to be the main focus of the update like new content.
The meta has been developing for the past four months now. It’s likely that the Smash balance team have been monitoring competitive and casual play for changes to implement.
We could be seeing major shifts on the tier list after 3.0 live. This didn’t really happen with 2.0, but the possibility is still present.
During the last presentation, Nintendo showed us two blurred screens. This was somewhat bold considering that the community was able to deduce a “Spirits” mode the last time they did this.
The theory that’s been going around is that Nintendo is bringing back the Home Run Contest and Stage Builder modes.
Since Super Smash Bros. Melee, players have been able to compete for knocking the sandbag the furthest distance with the baseball bat item with only 10 seconds to build up its damage. This mode’s absence has been felt by the community.
Meanwhile, Super Smash Bros. Brawl introduced the Stage Builder mode. Players were allowed to construct their own stages to battle their friends on.
Bringing these modes back will certainly add to the number of casual ways to play the game.
