« Smash Ultimate adds Ken Masters, Incineroar, Piranha Plant, DLC offerings, online options and other modes of play detailed »

During the Nintendo Direct on Nov. 1, Nintendo released a multitude of details about the upcoming Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Starting off, Ken Masters from Street Fighter and Incineroar from Pokémon will round out the game's base cast, with Ken joining as an echo fighter of Ryu. However, they won't be the end of the roster, as there will be post-release characters such as Piranha Plant, who will be available for free sometime after the game's release to players who register their game online before Jan. 21, 2019, and paid DLC. Each paid DLC character will come with their own stage and one music track and cost $5.99, or players can opt for the Fighters Pass and get all five of the planned combatants for $24.99. According to Nintendo, all DLC in the Fighters Pass should be finished by February 2020.

Online play too will see new features as lobbies and voice chat will be part of the Smash Ultimate experience. Voice chat will be used via phone as it is in other Nintendo Switch games such as Splatoon 2, and there will also be an upcoming service called Smash World which will allow players to post and watch videos. Both For Glory and For Fun will be gone in Smash Ultimate, as matchmaking will be based on the gameplay options players select as well as location and skill ranking.

The Direct also showed plenty of new characters—such as Guile from Street Fighter, Yuri Kozukata from Fatal Frame, Akira from Virtua Fighter—who will be making cameos in Smash Ultimate either as new Assist Trophies or via the new Spirit feature and mode that seems somewhat similar to stickers in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

Much more about the game's other modes, including the game's single-player "World of Light" story, can be found in the Direct, which readers can check out below. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate launches for the Nintendo Switch on Dec. 4, 2018.