No new DLC planned for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate beyond second Fighter Pass

By Giovanni Colantonio February 19, 2020

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate received a sixth downloadable fighter on January 28, and another batch of characters is in the works, but the 2018 release is nearing the end of its life span. Game director Masahiro Sakurai confirmed that the upcoming Fighter Pass Vol. 2 will be Ultimate’s final DLC.

The information comes from Sakurai’s latest column for Famitsu where he outlined the end of Smash’s content plans and said Nintendo isn’t working on the next Super Smash Bros. installment, either. That makes sense considering that there has never been more than one Smash Bros. game per Nintendo system.

The Fighter Pass will feature another six downloadable characters, all of which are chosen by Nintendo, according to Sakurai. All of the new characters will come to the game by January 31, 2021, meaning the game’s life cycle will span three years.

By Nintendo’s standards, three years is a long time for Switch games. Splatoon 2 got regular updates for a year and a half following its release while Arms stopped receiving new content after six months.

Despite the generous timeline, the revelation may make fans wary. With only six characters left, Nintendo only has a few opportunities to grant players’ loftiest wishes. Ultimate’s first fighter pack ended with a whimper when Fire Emblem: Three Houses’ hero Byleth became the game’s 75th character. Many fans were disappointed by the announcement, and Sakurai agreed there are too many sword characters.

Even with the end looming, the final characters won’t spell the end for Nintendo’s hit multiplayer game. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is still a staple of the competitive fighting game circuit, and it shows no signs of slowing down in popularity. It will once again grace EVO’s stage this year, replacing Super Smash Bros. Melee for the second year in a row.

As for the game’s director, Sakurai is free to move on to new projects once Ultimate support ends. In his column, Sakurai notes that he was unable to work on anything else during Smash Bros. development. The last non-Smash project that Sakurai worked on was 2012’s Kid Icarus: Uprising, so hopefully, the beloved director will get a chance to work on something new in 2022.

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Giovanni Colantonio

Section Editor, Gaming

Giovanni is a writer and video producer focusing on happenings in the video game industry. He has contributed stories to…

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All Super Mario Bros. Wonder power-ups, ranked

Mario turning into Super Mario.

Super Mario Bros. Wonder is perhaps the Mario franchise's most colorful and unusual game to date, featuring all manner of dream-like themes and near-endless amounts of creativity. Like any new Mario game, though, it also comes packing some brand-new power-ups alongside a handful of returning classics that everyone knows and loves. All of the power-ups have their unique uses that can help you fend off baddies, reach new areas, or simply create hilarious hijinks, but some are notably more exciting than others.

Here are all of the Super Mario Bros. Wonder power-ups ranked. They'll all come in handy when you're tracking down all of the badges, medals, and Special World entrances.
All Super Mario Bros. Wonder power-ups, ranked
6. Super Mushroom

Gaming

Wonder no more: the new voice of Mario has revealed himself

Wiggly pipe in Super Mario Bros. Wonder

Genshin Impact voice actor Kevin Afghani revealed himself as the new voice for both Mario and Luigi in Super Mario Bros. Wonder.
Earlier this year, we learned that longtime Mario voice actor Charles Martinet would be taking a step back from the role and become a Mario Ambassador. At the time, Nintendo said that it would not reveal the voice actor before the game's launch; instead, it encouraged people to check out the game's credits when it dropped. That hasn't stopped people from speculating, though. Many thought it would be frequent Iron Man voice actor Mick Wingert, but Wingert denied that was true. Now, Kevin Afghani has revealed himself as the new voice of Mario and Luigi one week before the launch of Super Mario Bros. Wonder.
"Incredibly proud to have voiced Mario and Luigi in Super Mario Bros. Wonder," Afghani wrote on Twitter. "Thanks to Nintendo for inviting me into the Flower Kingdom!" Afghani is best-known as the voice of Arnold in Genshin Impact. This is certainly the most notable game role Afghani has had yet though, and he may be the new name that we associate with the Mario Bros. for years to come.
https://twitter.com/KevinAfghani/status/1712900880218181648
IGN corroborated Afghan's claim, and we've also reached out to Nintendo to confirm that Afghani is the new voice of Mario and Luigi in Super Mario Bros. Wonder. We will update this article when we get a response. Super Mario Bros. Wonder launches exclusively for Nintendo Switch on October 20.

Gaming

Play these 3DS and Wii U games before Nintendo shutters their online features

Captain Falcon in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U.

In April 2024, Nintendo will discontinue online services across its Wii U and 3DS consoles. While the eShops for both systems were shut down in March 2023, this will remove the online functionality of many apps and games, making gaming on either of these platforms an almost entirely offline experience. As a result, many games on those systems will lose important features and never be quite the same to play afterward. So, you'll need to get some gaming time in by next April if you want to refresh and preserve the memories of playing online on these two underdog Nintendo platforms.
While the aforementioned eShop closures make it impossible to buy new games digitally, plenty of games that you likely already own physical copies of or already had downloaded have online features that won't work properly come April 2024. As such, we recommend you play the following games online before the discontinuation of those services next year.
Kid Icarus Uprising

Kid Icarus Uprising is mostly remembered for its entertaining story, charismatic characters, and odd controls, but it also features a surprisingly fun multiplayer experience in Together Mode. In multiplayer, up to six players can use powerful weapons and abilities from the main adventure in one of two modes. Free-for-all lets players loose on a map, tasking them with racking up the most kills within a set time limit. Light vs. Dark is more complex, as two teams of three face off until enough players are defeated that one respawns as an angel; when that powered-up angel is killed, the match is over.
While far from balanced, Kid Icarus Uprising's Together Mode is one of the most entertaining competitive multiplayer experiences exclusive to 3DS. It can be played locally, using bots to fill in empty spots, so thankfully it won't stop working entirely. Still, it's not easy in 2023 to come across multiple people near you who have copies of Kid Icarus Uprising and want to play. As such, check out this cult classic 3DS game's hidden gem of a mode before praying that the rumors of a remaster eventually become true.
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