If the footage floating around right now is legit, it looks like both a Fire Emblem favorite and one of the most iconic fighting game characters in the world might be joining the Smash Bros. roster soon.
Back in April, there were reports that claimed Reddit user shinyquagsire23 datamined Smash Bros. sound files that seemed like they came straight out of Street Fighter, or referenced Ryu. Reports also said Smash Bros. players discovered sound files belonging to Roy, from Fire Emblem. At the time, it was difficult to verify the veracity of these claims. But today, there is finally footage that seems to support them.
Here’s a short clip that appears to show Ryu in Smash Bros., courtesy of TripleXero:
[Update 10/9 2:24 PM: video was struck down for copyright reasons by Nintendo]
You’ll note that this footage looks a lot like the sort of clip you get when you beat Classic Mode in Smash Bros. in terms of style, tone, and length (here’s a real one, for comparison’s sake). Additionally, it looks more elaborate than your typical Smash Bros. hoax—it’s not just a video of the character select screen, nor is it static. So while we cannot say for certain that this is real yet, it certainly looks convincing.
That’s not all. There is also similar Classic Mode-type footage for Roy, a character that was last playable in Melee (thanks, MemeScreen)
In addition to this, there are also some other errant assets that players claim was datamined from a Japanese update to Smash Bros. recently:
As well as a supposed new stage for Ryu:
And finally, there are screenshots that purport to show new trophies and costumes for Mii fighters:
Nintendo hasn’t commented on any of this, but the company previously announced that Smash lead creator Masahiro Sakurai would be hosting a Nintendo Direct scheduled for 10:40AM EST on Sunday. In it, he is expected to detail new content coming to the game. Shortly after that Direct, a new title update was at least expected to add Lucas from Earthbound to the fighting game’s roster.