How and when to watch the Smash Bros. Ultimate Fighter 77 reveal
The cavalry's here ... maybe.
It's been three long months since Nintendo released Min Min as the latest fighter in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and the company announced Wednesday that Game Director Masahiro Sakurai would confirm the next contender very soon. This seemingly confirms a rumor from earlier in September that the next fighter would be revealed because of a specific ad that expires on October 4.
This news comes mere days after some supposed leaks claimed a beloved character from Blizzard's Overwatch might be the next DLC character added to the game, but could it possibly be true?
Here's everything you need to know about this week's reveal, including when and where you can watch — along with a few exciting possibilities for what character may be confirmed.
When is the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate DLC 7 Fighter reveal?
Official Nintendo social media accounts confirmed that Fighter 77 would be revealed on October 1, 2020 at roughly 10 a.m. Eastern. It will involve a 3-minute video presentation that will probably be some kind of cinematic reveal trailer followed by clips of combat featuring the new character.
After that, Sakurai himself will deliver a "brief message." Based on all this, it sounds like this whole presentation will be less than 10 minutes long, which is a bit surprising.
Similar presentations for Byleth and Min Min ran around 39 and 35 minutes, respectively. Even the presentation for Dragon Quest's "Hero" ran more than 21 minutes in July 2019. This one seems like it may just be a character announcement with a more thorough presentation to come later.
How to watch the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate DLC 7 fighter reveal?
Fans can watch the new fighter announcement over on Nintendo's official live presentation on YouTube — which is also embedded above.
As of right now, the title just reads Mr. Sakurai Presents "???" so there's no telling who it might be.
When is the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate DLC 7 fighter release date?
Typically, Sakurai's fighter presentations are announced less than 48 hours beforehand, and then we're given a lengthy showcase fully unveiling the new character. Within two weeks after that, the character is released. Min Min, for instance, was released a week after her showcase, but assuming the October 1 presentation remains on the shorter side, then the longer showcase for the new character will have to happen at a later date.
Things seem a little bit different for this particular presentation and character, but there's still a strong possibility that Fighter 77 will be released by mid-October. This does align with our previous predictions.
Is Tracer from Overwatch the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate DLC 7 fighter?
Tracer as she appears in 'Overwatch.'
In a now-deleted thread on GameFAQs (h/t Dexerto), a user going by the name "Slayersfan" claims that this next Super Smash Bros. Ultimate character will be Tracer, the spunky British operative from Overwatch whose molecules have been desynchronized with time following an accident with experimental technology. By all accounts, she's essentially the game's flagship character, appearing on the box art and disc.
The leaker claims that Nintendo and Blizzard signed the contract in early 2020 but that finalizing things for the character took longer because of production delays related to Covid-19. Sakurai himself has previously hinted at Fighters Pass 2 delays due to the coronavirus, so that makes sense.
He'd also said during a January 2020 Nintendo Direct that all of the Fighters Pass 2 characters had been chosen at that point in time. Therefore, the timeline doesn't necessarily match up with Slayersfan's claims, but it doesn't exactly disqualify Tracer either.
"Tracer plays like a fast agile fighter," Slayersfan writes. "She has every move from her game, so shooting her pulse pistols, blink, and recall."
In Overwatch, Tracer has a short-range teleport that could be similar to Fox's "Fox Illusion" move in Smash. She can also rewind time several seconds to reverse damage and teleport back to her previous position. Her primary attack is a pair of short-range automatic pistols. Several Smash Bros. characters — like Fox, Falco, Bayonetta, and Joker — already have gun-based mechanics, so it's not too much of a reach for Tracer's weapons to translate over well.
Slayersfan also makes some very specific claims about the reveal video as well: "The reveal video shows almost the entire cast of current Overwatch playable characters," they write, "and towards the end we see Tracer receiving the Smash envelope digitally on her computer screen at the [Overwatch] operations base."
This could be little more than spirited fan fiction, but it also feels like exactly the way that Nintendo would announce Tracer as a character in Smash Bros.
We'll just have to wait and see.
Nintendo will reveal Super Smash Bros. Ultimate's 77th character on October 1.
