By Isaiah Shim
Sports Editor
Some thought it might be Crash. Some thought it might be Sora. But they were all wrong. Steve is in Smash.
On Oct. 1, the official Super Smash Bros. YouTube channel posted the video that would reveal the second Downloadable Content (DLC) character in their second Fighter Pass. Fans of the series were shocked to see that Steve, the unofficial mascot of the popular game Minecraft, was revealed to be coming to the game.
After the announcement, people swarmed to social media to voice their opinions, so much so that the Twitter servers shut down for a short period of time. It is safe to say that the inclusion of Steve in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate left a major impact.
Minecraft is the best selling game of all time, selling over 200 million copies worldwide and the Super Smash Bros. series has always been about bringing the best characters in gaming together to duke it out. So regardless of how well the announcement was received, Minecraft fits the criteria of being iconic in the video game landscape.
After the reveal, director of Smash Ultimate Masahiro Sakurai briefly spoke about the challenges that Steve’s inclusion brought on to him and his team. According to Sakurai, it was Nintendo who wanted to put Steve in the game, and not him. When they asked about whether or not Steve could be put into the game, Sakurai told Nintendo, “It is impossible. I can do it.”
It is also nice to see these major companies like Nintendo and Microsoft getting along. Steve’s inclusion to Smash is the second Microsoft representative to be put in the game alongside Banjo-Kazooie, a character that before their inclusion was one of the most wanted characters.
This announcement was more than likely going to be revealed at this year’s E3 Conference, which was cancelled due to COVID-19. Alongside game announcements such as the Mario 3D All-Stars collection, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, Paper Mario: The Origami King, and Pikmin 3 Deluxe, this could have been one of Nintendo’s best E3 presentations yet.
After the reveal, the biggest question people had was “When will Steve be available to play?’ That question got answered two days later during a 45 minute showcase of the character’s abilities. In that presentation, Sakurai revealed that Minecraft Steve would be available to purchase and play Oct. 13.
