UPDATE: Nintendo has confirmed plans to hold a Direct presentation later this week.
Dedicated entirely to Super Smash Bros Ultimate, the Direct conference takes place on January 16 at 2pm UK time.
“Join Super Smash Bros. Ultimate director Masahiro Sakurai on Thursday 16th January at 2pm (UK time) / 15.00 CET for a roughly 35 minute-long livestream featuring an in-depth look at an upcoming DLC fighter,” Nintendo explains.
Nintendo will unveil the new fighter during the January 16 Direct, so check back for confirmation.
As you can see from the post below, Waluigi is the favourite to join Super Smash Bros Ultimate, although Crash Bandicoot and Master Chief are also getting a lot of love.
ORIGINAL: Nintendo has thrown Super Smash Bros Ultimate fans a bit of a curveball ahead of the final Fighters Pass 1 DLC reveal.
The official Smash Bros website confirms that the fifth DLC character will launch by February 2020, which means an imminent reveal is expected.
While fans overwhelmingly believe Waluigi will be added to the game soon, Nintendo may have other plans.
As part of this week’s ‘Chain the Future to Spirits’ in-game event, Nintendo will add new Spirits based on Astral Chain characters.
Kicking off on January 17 for five days, the event was announced on the Nintendo Versus Twitter account.
“Starting on 1/17 for 5 days, the #SmashBrosUltimate spirit event “Chain the Future to Spirits!” will be held,” a tweet reads. “Neuron’s newest recruits, as well as Kyle and Lappy will invade the Spirit Board! Don’t miss out!”
While the Astral Chain characters won’t be playable, it’s possible Nintendo is laying the groundwork for their introduction as new DLC.
They’re certainly not characters we thought about when posting our recent Super Smash Bros Ultimate Fighters Pass poll.
Ahead of the character reveal during the next Nintendo Direct, Express Online asked fans to predict the identity of the character launching with Challenger Pack 5.
Nintendo cult favourite Waluigi is the overwhelming favourite with readers, earning nearly 1,700 votes and a third of the overall share.
Crash Bandicoot and Master Chief are the next favourites, followed by Doomguy, Minecraft’s Steve and Phoenix Wright.
The Super Smash Bros Fighters Pass 5 poll results in full…
• Waluigi – 1,693 votes
• Crash Bandicoot – 685 votes
• Master Chief – 502 votes
• Minecraft’s Steve – 498 votes
• Phoenix Wright – 463 votes
• Doomguy – 407 votes
• Shovel Knight – 245 votes
• Ninja Gaiden’s Ryu Hayabusa – 230 votes
• Tracer from Overwatch – 191 votes
• Captain Toad – 157 votes
• Solaire (Dark Souls) – 151 votes
• Dr. Kawashima – 55 votes
Not only is Waluigi favourite among readers, but the popular character is also subject of the latest Smash Bros DLC rumours.
The rumours gained traction after video producer Brian David Gilbert campaigned for a game dedicated to the cult favourite character.
Nintendo CEO Doug Bowser would reply to the video with a clapping emoji and purple heart, which suggests we’ll see more from Waluigi soon.
With the last Nintendo Indie stream taking place in December 2019, all signs point towards an imminent Direct.
Likewise, a new GameStop leak suggests that Nintendo will announce upwards of a dozen new games during the January 2020 presentation. This includes a surprise Switch port for Metro Exodus.