Smash Ultimate fans melt down after no DLC fighter reveal at Game Awards

Isaac McIntyre
Nintendo / The Game Awards

The Super Smash Bros community has gone into total meltdown, after Nintendo teased the royal rumble’s fifth DLC character was to be revealed at The Game Awards 2019, only for there to be no new news in the three-hour event.

With Smash fans eager for any morsel of information on who the fifth DLC character joining the Ultimate roster might be, a mysterious tweet from Nintendo pointing players towards The Game Awards could only mean one thing — a reveal.

As it turns out, there was only a handful of mentions of Nintendo’s flagship fighting game, despite being nominated for the award show’s prestigious Game of the Year gong, and actually taking home the Fighting Game of the Year title.

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In a closing segment ahead of the reveal that Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice had taken home back-to-back trophies for best game of the year, and Best Action/Adventure Game of the Year, the orchestra teased a thirty-second segment of Smash music.

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Beyond that, and of course, the award win itself, Smash fans were left disappointed, and many didn’t hold back across social media once the three-hour celebration of gaming wrapped up without a trace of Fighter 5.

“So we all just watched three hours of The Game Awards for zero Smash content huh?” ‘covasays’ said on Twitter. It was a sentiment shared by many, including Reddit’s ‘universaltool,’ who added: “I want my three night hours back.”

While some were annoyed at the way that event prioritized certain titles — “I’m sorry that you feel underwhelmed, would you like another Magic: The Gathering ad?” — others poked fun at themselves for having faith news would come.

That self-deprecating humor came in the form of one of 2019’s most famous memes: showing people as clowns to represent that they had been wrong.

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The Game Awards ended with guest appearances from veteran Fast & Furious franchise stars Vin Diesel and Michelle Rodriguez, who showed off a new game set in the high-speed movie franchise, and announced the game of the year.

The Hollywood pair were so highlighted at the end of the awards, talking about their past as gamers, and teasing a four-minute trailer for the ninth movie in the car-based franchise, that some joked they were the ones that would be joining Ultimate’s character cast.

To add insult to injury for the community, Nintendo’s tease made complete sense considering Joker from Persona 5 was first introduced to players at last year’s ceremony, before becoming the game’s first DLC character.

Alas, no new news on the mysterious fighter, who has already been confirmed not to be any of Half-Life’s Gordon Freeman, Crash Bandicoot, Tracer, Ninja Gaiden’s Ryu Hayabusa, Dante from Devil May Cry, or Geno, appeared during the event.

For the Smash community, it looks like the wait continues. Fans may have some clues about who will be joining the game at the beginning of next year, but for now, it looks like the rumors and guesses will continue for the rest of 2019.

About The Author

Isaac was formerly the Australian Managing Editor at Dexerto. Isaac began his writing career as a sports journalist at Fairfax Media, before falling in love with all things esports and gaming. Since then he's covered Oceanic and global League of Legends for Upcomer, Hotspawn, and Snowball Esports.