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Smash Bros. Ultimate adds Castlevania’s Simon Belmont and Donkey Kong’s King K. Rool

Smash Bros. Ultimate adds Castlevania’s Simon Belmont and Donkey Kong’s King K. Rool

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Smash Bros Ultimate

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is getting a little more gothic. Today, Nintendo announced the addition of a new character: longtime Castlevania protagonist Simon Belmont is joining the cast of fighters. The vampire hunter features a brand-new look for the game, though he retains his iconic whip as a weapon. Alongside the vampire hunter, Nintendo also revealed that King K. Rool from the Donkey Kong Country series will be in the new game, though there are few details on the new fighter.

As for Belmont, he’s brings a new stage with him; naturally, he’ll be fighting in Dracula’s castle, complete with classic Castlevania bosses and candlesticks that give out items. There will also be a hefty 34 tracks from the series’s history featured in the Switch fighter, and Alucard will appear as an assist trophy.

Nintendo also revealed new echo fighters — slightly different versions of existing fighters — in the form of Dark Samus, Richter Belmont, and Chrom from Fire Emblem. According to Nintendo, the game will include 103 different stages, which is much higher than any game in the series’s history. Each stage will be playable from the beginning, so you won’t have to unlock them. There will also be assist trophies based on characters from Shovel Knight and Monster Hunter.

Ultimate will also feature a very strong emphasis on music. Here are all of the details from Nintendo:

For fans that want it all, My Music lets players select specific music tracks for each stage. Up until now, each stage had its own music track. But in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, players can select tracks by series. If they are fighting on a stage from The Legend of Zelda, for example, they can select any music track included from that franchise, including new additions like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – Main Theme. Counting game music tracks and other music, like in-game menus and other short musical passages, there are approximately 900 compositions — that’s more than 28 hours of video game music. When playing in handheld mode, music can be played even while the Nintendo Switch screen is turned off, turning the system into its own portable music player.

The news was first teased over the weekend, just before the Super Smash Bros. Melee finals at fighting game tournament EVO 2018, when Nintendo revealed that an Ultimate-themed Nintendo Direct would be out today. The new Switch fighter was properly unveiled back in June at E3 in Los Angeles. It’ll be the biggest entry in the long-running series to date, including every single character ever featured in a Smash Bros. game, for more than 60 fighters. In addition to classic characters, there are also new additions like Metroid villain Ridley and the Splatoon inklings.

A game this extensive has proved a daunting task for the developers. “I speak from the depths of my heart when I say it’s a lot of work,” series director Masahiro Sakurai told The Verge in June. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is coming to the Nintendo Switch on December 7th. If you missed today’s Nintendo Direct, you can watch the whole thing right here.