'Smash Bros. Ultimate' DLC: Joker Release Date and Gameplay Revealed

The first official video of Joker in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate will make you sing You’ll never see it coming! On Wednesday, during a new Nintendo Direct presentation that aired at 5 p.m. Eastern, Nintendo revealed the first footage of Joker in Smash, along with an official release date for the downloadable content (DLC) character.

The second of DLC fighters for Smash Bros. Ultimate, Joker will be available on the Nintendo Switch game in April 2019 as part of the game’s 3.0.0 update.

Joker hails from the universe of Persona 5 from Atlus and brings an arresting visual style to the competitive world of Super Smash Bros. Revealed on the night of Ultimate’s release, Joker from Persona 5 is the second DLC character to arrive for the game, after Piranha Plant, who was made available as a free download in early February.

Nintendo didn’t reveal much gameplay, but we did get a first look at Joker’s new character design for Smash Bros. Ultimate, along with a few brief movements.

Joker is distinct as yet another Super Smash Bros. fighter originating from a game made available on a competing console franchise: Sony’s PlayStation. While many Smash Bros. characters, such as Cloud from Final Fantasy VII, Snake from Metal Gear Solid, and Bayonetta from Bayonetta, also debuted in games released for PlayStation and Xbox, there is at least some clear connective tissue to Nintendo; the Final Fantasy and Metal Gear games originated on Nintendo, while Bayonetta was added after a worldwide “Fighters Ballot” held in 2014.

Persona, meanwhile, is a spin-off of the Shin Megami Tensei series which did in fact originate on Nintendo’s Super Famicom systems but were never released in the US. Some of the more modern games in the Shin Megami Tensei and Persona series were released stateside, with 2017’s Persona 5 being one of the franchise’s all-time biggest hits.

Set in modern-day Japan, Persona 5 explores a group of high schoolers who access powers in order to fight monsters that manifest from people’s deepest desires. These monsters inhabit the “metaverse,” a dimension that manifests people’s emotions and psychologies into actual places.

It is currently unknown who the next fighters for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate will be after Joker. Current rumors online point to off-beat characters like Sora from Kingdom Hearts, Steve, the default character from Minecraft, and even “Doomguy” from id Software’s action-horror shooter, Doom.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate* is available now for Nintendo Switch.