The 8/8 Smash Direct had 5(!) character reveals in it, albeit 3 of those were echo fighters, but still. Given the fact that we were told literally the last time we got news before this specific direct that there wouldn't be too many newcomers in the game, this was a pretty big deal.
The characters we got were Simon Belmont with Richter Belmont as his echo fighter, Chrom as an echo of Roy, Dark Samus as an echo of Samus (who would've guessed), and King K. Rool as the big closing reveal. Overall, a pretty solid lineup of highly requested fighters (aside from Richter, I suppose, but I doubt many would have expected him to begin with). The only issue is I have minimal to no experience with most of these characters, so while I was still hyped about them and the fact that others who wanted them would be getting them, there overall was a pretty average amount of hype initially coming from me for each of these reveals. That's not to say I don't like these characters or have opinions on them, their series, or their gameplay. I just want to put that out there so y'all know not to expect the most in-depth amount of knowledge about them.
Without further ado though:
Part One: The Belmonts
So this is an interesting case because up until this point, I had heard the names Simon Belmont and Castlevania enough to know generally what was going on, however, names were the only thing I really knew about the series going into this reveal, and I just happened to make a correct assumption that this was a Castlevania related reveal (similarly to a future reveal I will cover). I distinctly remember checking my notifications on my phone at one point during the reveal, since I had to start watching this Direct a few minutes late, and saw that Nintendo tweeted "the legendary vampire hunter..." and I had no clue what or who they were talking about. I'm getting ahead of myself though. Let's give a brief history of the buildup to this reveal and the speculation that went with it.
Simon was always a popular third party pick for Smash, and for good reason. The series is very heavily tied to the NES, and with Konami already letting Snake in previously, he seemed to be a great pick for a potential second rep from the company. Like many of the newcomers, rumors for Simon seemed to come to a head going into Ultimate. Popular leaker Vergeben singled out Simon as one of the newcomers in the game one month before the full E3 reveal, and over the two-month gap between E3 and the 8/8 Direct, Simon seemed all but confirmed. Quite literally at that, as the night before the August Direct, a music track preview originating from the Castlevania series was mistakenly uploaded to YouTube by Nintendo themselves.
I was lucky enough to avoid this, as I got on Twitter that night and immediately saw a tweet that said the new character's identity was leaked and to be careful on the internet. That was the point when the laptop was closed.
So my experience with the reveal was kind of a blur, as it was in this weird in-between class break period we had at my school that year and the direct itself started roughly a minute or two before my class ended, so I was trying to simultaneously boot my phone, walk to mine and my friends' hangout spot, and try to intake as much as I could within the ten minutes I had for the break period. As such, I missed a lot in my first run through, including a whole character.
My reaction basically went like this: "Oh it's a spooky-looking castle in the rain at night. I wonder if this is that Castlevania thing that's all over my NES and SNES Classics?" "Simon? Crap, I feel like I know who this is but I can't pinpoint it." "Beelmonnnt? I think that's right. Yeah, I've heard of him before" *Skips ahead a bit so I can intake more information* "Wait, what echo fighter..?"
So yeah, obviously not the biggest Castlevania fan right here (still been meaning to try the series given I have, like, 3 or 4 entries between my classic consoles), BUT that doesn't mean I don't have respect for the characters and series. As said earlier, it's one of the biggest series from the NES, even sharing with Metroid the title of an entire subgenre of platformers. Simon and Richter are both really fun to play as too. They both play exactly the same, with the only real difference being an effect of the holy water, with Simon's being fire-based, and Richter's being aura-based. I would definitely be lying if I said I haven't had a blast playing as the Belmonts. While they aren't exactly top tiers, they can be really satisfying and you can set up some fun traps and projectile-based combos with them (again, speaking as someone who plays them super casually). Their inclusion in the game was very necessary, and quite frankly, I'm kinda surprised it took them this long to do it.
Part Two: The Echoes
I'm going to group these two together because 1: I don't have much to say about them overall and 2: I think some of what would be the Chrom-based discussion would be better fit when we eventually get around to Byleth. Same goes for Dark Samus, as I think most of the personal history with the Metroid series was already covered when I talked about Ridley. I am, however very aware of the fan requests for these two, especially Chrom.
Chrom was a character rumored to be included in Smash 4. His chances were especially popularized by the Gematsu leaks, which were a series of leaks throughout the Smash 4 reveal cycle that seemed to have very high credibility. However, when a Fire Emblem reveal eventually did come around, Robin and Lucina were the candidates chosen for the roster. To add insult to injury, they trailer deliberately showed Chrom getting injured, ending with his popular remark that he will get his chance another day, and immediately cutting to Robin's final smash, showcasing Chrom's role in it.
Dark Samus, on the other hand, I admittedly know very little about in terms of their history with Smash speculation. Before Ultimate, they were simply represented as an alt for Samus and an assist trophy in Smash 4. Outside of that, most speculation for a Metroid newcomer was almost exclusively given to Ridley.
After Ridley's reveal, however, things seemed to change in favor for both of these candidates. For one, Samus's Dark Samus alt was seemingly removed and replaced, based on the E3 build. The same went for Ike's Chrom alt. Beyond that, Dark Samus's assist trophy was nowhere to be found, and at the time, it was unknown whether or not Robin still had Chrom in his final smash. All of these clues led to speculation that the two may be included in the game, especially after the introduction of echo fighters, as both seemed like perfect candidates for clones.
Of course, the August Direct came around and revealed both back to back. They even commented on how many may have been expecting the two to show up. Quite frankly, I was pretty indifferent. I was excited about them since I knew many were speculating about their inclusion, but outside of that, yeah, it didn't do much for me.
Overall though, I'm very happy with their inclusions. While Dark Samus plays near identically to Samus, it's awesome to have a character in Smash to directly represent the Metroid Prime series.
As for Chrom, he definitely differentiates from Roy more than most echo fighters do from their counterparts, and it's really nice to have closure from the tease of his potential inclusion in Smash 4. Heck, even though he is the third rep now from FE Awakening, it makes tons of sense given that game essentially saved the FE series to begin with.
Part Three: King K. Rool
Now here's the character I was most excited about in this Direct. King K. Rool is the main antagonist of the SNES era Donkey Kong Country series. I say SNES era because after that, he slowly began to lose relevance over time, not yet even making an appearance in the modern Donkey Kong Country series. Heck, before his inclusion in Smash, his latest appearence was in 2008's Mario Super Sluggers, a game that released just over a decade before Smash Ultimate!
This was the big argument against K. Rool for a long time because even though he was up there with Ridley as one of the highest requested characters, many figured he just wasn't relevant enough anymore to be considered for a spot in the roster.
Things changed in the Smash 4 days, however. While he was never included as a fighter in that game, two big developments occurred that seemed to increase his chances (or at the very least, make it seem like he was on the developer's radar. For one, he was included as a DLC Mii Fighter costume, which indicated that the fans' desires had been recognized. This was also later shown to be a big development, as many characters that were included as Mii Costumes in Smash 4 would later become full fighters in Ultimate (Inkling, Chrom, Daisy, etc.).
The big game-changer for K. Rool, however, came in the April 2015 Nintendo Direct, in which full DLC support was detailed for Smash 4, and the Fighter Ballot was announced. The Fighter Ballot was an official survey in which Nintendo asked fans to write in their most wanted fighter for Smash, with the promise that the most requested realizable fighter would be included as a DLC fighter in Smash 4. Ultimately, Bayonetta was the winner of the ballot, and was included as the final DLC fighter in the game, however, it was also stated that the results of the ballot would also be used for future Smash products.
After the launch of Ultimate, Sakurai had even directly stated that characters like Ridley, Simon, and K. Rool were included as a result of the ballot, with that fact especially being emphasized for K. Rool in the months prior. Even when K. Rool was first revealed it was stated that his inclusion was due to high fan demand for him.
As for the reveal itself, it's actually slightly interesting from my perspective. I was still in high school at the time when that reveal happened, and as stated earlier, the Direct started in between classes for me. Due to this, I had to pause part of the way in becuase class started, and I couldn't finish it until my lunch period. During this time, I remember thinking about the possibility of K. Rool being revealed for the game, and I was thinking about just how obvious the reveal would theoretically be, as I could only visualize a K. Rool trailer heavily involving the DK characters, likely being them vibing in the treehouse and getting interrupted by K. Rool. Low and behold, that is essentially what happened, though I definitely didn't expect them to play with our expectations the way they did with the Dedede fakeout. That was a treat.
As you can probably tell by my much more extensive explaination of the history behind K. Rool and his inclusion in Smash, I already had respect for the character and source material going into this Direct. K. Rool especially represents one of the most formative eras of the Donkey Kong franchise, being the point in which the series changes focus from the traditional arcade gameplay of the original series to the challenging platforming focus that started with the Country series. While he had slowly faded from relevancy throughout the prior years, the amount of fan demand for his inclusion that raged on afterwards speaks miles about the importance of him as a character and the impact he left on the Nintendo community. He would not be the only character to undergo this kind of story though, but we'll touch on that on a later date.
Conclusion
So yeah, overall the 8/8 Direct was very big for the Smash Ultimate pre-release cycle. For one, we weren't sure just what to expect when Sakurai told us not to expect too many new fighters, so going into this, many weren't sure how many fighters to expect in this Direct. While many only expected one or two reveals, we ended up getting a whopping 5 reveals, even if three of them were echoes. This easily blew most expectations out of the water, though it would set up an unreasonable standard that would eventually come back to bite many.
The fighters we did get here, though, all serve a large amount of significance to Nintendo and the Smash series, with four of the five being very highly requested (with the other one a victim of simply not being on anyone's radars, two of which being representatives of a series many wanted to see in Smash, one being the third rep from a game that saved a now much more popular franchise, one being a more direct rep of a popular sub series of one of Nintendo's biggest franchises, and the last being another piece of proof of what high fan demand can do.
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