Coincidence or intentional?
The Final Mr. Sakurai Presents for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is slated to reveal the final newcomer for the Fighters Pass Vol. 2 on October 5, 2021. During the presentation, Masahiro Sakurai will instruct fans on how to use this mysterious challenger. We’ll also learn when the character will get released.
Is there any sort of significance to this date that might clue us in on the final character’s identity? Notably, this day is remarkably close to the 20th anniversary of a certain game series.
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney was originally released on October 12, 2001 on the Game Boy Advance in Japan. It would later be ported to the U.S. via the Nintendo DS version in 2005.
Since Nintendo has obviously been taking precautions to ensure that the character’s identity remains a secret until their official unveiling, it’s quite probable that they won’t be released that very day.
Looking back, Hero, Banjo-Kazooie and Terry Bogard of the first Fighters Pass were all released on the day that they were showcased by Masahiro Sakurai. However, this trend was broken with Byleth as the Fire Emblem rep was revealed on the same day as the Mr. Sakurai Presents showcase for the fighter.
In other words, this next character will likely require some additional time before release. If this unknown combatant gets released a week later, they’ll be made available on the same day as the Ace Attorney 20th anniversary.
Does this mean that Phoenix Wright is the secret fighter behind Challenger Pack 11? It’s a big “maybe” right now.
On one hand, Phoenix Wright seems to be a frontrunner as far as Capcom characters are concerned. Devil May Cry’s Dante, Monster Hunter reps and Ghost N’ Goblins’ Sir Arthur were seemingly disconfirmed when they were made into Mii costumes.
Similarly, Resident Evil seems unlikely due to that Resident Evil Spirit Board event that happened following the announcement of Fighters Pass Vol. 2. This seems to suggest that Phoenix Wright is the likeliest of the Capcom reps.
As of right now, there isn’t even a single reference to Phoenix Wright or the Ace Attorney series in Smash Ultimate, as a Spirit or otherwise. This comes across as particularly strange considering the Ace Attorney series’ history with Nintendo, especially Nintendo’s handheld game consoles.
However, characters have traditionally not been revealed or released for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate in sync with any sort of anniversary. There certainly were opportunities to do this, but Nintendo didn’t take them.
For example, Incineroar was revealed on November 1, 2018, but Pokémon Sun and Moon were actually made available on November 18, 2016. Terry Bogard became playable on November 6, 2019 even though Nintendo could’ve waited until November 25 to celebrate the 18th anniversary for the Fatal Fury series.
How about the ARMS series? ARMS was originally released on June 16, 2017 while Min Min became a playable fighter in Smash on June 29, 2020.
Finally, Sephiroth was released very close to the 33rd anniversary for Final Fantasy (not Final Fantasy 7), but this was never highlighted or emphasized. Sephiroth was made into a fighter in Smash on Dec. 22, 2020, just 4 days after this anniversary.
Overall, it doesn’t really seem like anniversaries are really all that relevant for a character’s release window. If this really did happen for Phoenix Wright, then it would just be a special case, assuming it wasn’t just a coincidence.
Furthermore, the Ace Attorney series as a whole has sold about 8.1 million units as of March 2021. Being that the series hasn’t broken 10 million yet, Phoenix Wright might not be important enough to gaming history to be considered for that last slot.
If Phoenix Wright did join, he’d be Capcom’s 4th rep in Smash Ultimate. As of right now, there is no third party company that has more than 3 playable character in Smash Ultimate.
However, it was originally Capcom that broke a similar trend when Street Fighter’s Ryu joined Mega Man in Super Smash Bros. 4. Back then, no third party had more than 1 character playable in the Smash series. Could Capcom be the company to do this again on October 5, 2021?
As always, remember to temper expectations until that last challenger is finally unveiled.
