UPDATE 12:35PM PST September 1:
According to Nintendo’s official website, the next Smash Ultimate character could be someone from an SNK title.
While nothing has been 100% confirmed, a copyright at the bottom of the page for the fourth DLC hero heavily implies that this is the case.
The Super Smash Bros. Ultimate community has been patiently waiting for Nintendo to announce who the 4th DLC character in the Fighters Pass will be, and now a leaker with a good track record claims to know who it is.
Smash Ultimate released at the end of 2018 to overwhelming praise from both critics and fans, bringing the Wii U port to new life on the Switch, with a wealth of added stages, content and the biggest roster to date for the fighting series.
However, fans were blown away when Nintendo announced the first characters for the DLC Fighters Pass, with the likes of Joker from Persona 5, and bringing back the beloved Banjoo and Kazooie from the dead. Now one leaker with an accurate track record is claiming to know who the next character is.
The 4th DLC character for Smash
In a video posted to his YouTube channel on August 30, ‘IAmShifty’ claimed that the 4th character in the Pass is none other than Ryu Hayabusa from the NES classic Ninja Gaiden.
“Yes, I do actually know who the next DLC character will be. I’ve leaked stuff for Smash Bros before, I have sources that occasionally tells me things about Smash. I leaked Piranha Plant ahead of time, I leaked when Isabelle would be announced. I even leaked Marx being a boss 5 to 6 months before the game released,” he said.
While revealing the next character, Shifty said: “The very next time you see a character reveal announcement, it will this specific character. And that character will be Ryu Hayabusa of Ninja Gaiden.”
IAmShifty also pointed out that he had hinted at the Ninja Gaiden character previously, as he had made a tweet on April Fools Day 2019.
“I made a tweet saying Ryu Hayubusa would be a character, and I did so on that date because I thought it would be cheeky,” he laughed.
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The leaker also stated that at the time he wasn’t 100% sure and didn’t want to completely confirm it just based off people talking.
“If you aren’t aware I have 2-3 sources at this point and time. Usually when they have consistency between them, I think the leak has credibility. But now I’m being told directly, Ryu will be the next character.”
(Timestamp of 00:11 for mobile viewers.)
IAmShifty has been right before
While the leaker spent some time in his video claiming his leak record was solid, internet sleuths over on the Reddit Smash community looked into it, and found that he actually does have a track record of being accurate.
Back in August 2018, Shifty uploaded a video to his channel where he leaked that Isabelle, Incineroar and Ken would be joining the fighting game, four months before it even came out. In another upload, he he also outlined Nintendo’s DLC plans long before the Fighters Pass was even announced.
Only time will tell if the leak will come true, and it goes without saying to always take this kind of thing with a grain of salt.
But this one is more interesting than your usual rumor, given the leaker has a track record of being accurate.