User:PanchamBro/Sandbox

Rumors about Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Vergeben Leaks

The Vergeben leaks are a series of insider info from the user Vergeben, a well known leaker coming from a history of predicting fighting games, like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Starting before E3 2018, Vergeben's leaks were undoubtedly infamous on which characters would make the cut for this new alleged game. While most people have argued over the legitimacy of these leaks, almost all of what Vergeben told was predicted right, with his only fault being that a Square Enix character would be the first one revealed as downloadable content.

Base Game Rumors

Super Smash Bros. 4 port

On 28 January 2016, Dr. Serkan Toto, CEO for Japan-based consultant firm Kantan Games, Inc. and lead writer for a blog on the Japanese mobile game industry, tweeted that Bandai Namco had been working on several titles for Nintendo's then-unofficially announced console, the Switch, codenamed NX at the time. One of these titles was reportedly intended to be Super Smash Bros. game as a launch title. A few minutes later, he added that his source was unclear on whether or not it would be a completely new game in the series or simply a port of Super Smash Bros. 4, though he still defended the veracity of the source.

About eleven months later, a tweet was posted on December 6th by Liam Robertson of Unseen64 and "Did You Know Gaming?". He claimed new characters would appear in the next entry, though the number would be a small amount, with a separate source from "Source Gaming" reporting there are at least 2 new characters in development . "Source Gaming" later followed up on the rumor, claiming that the game is a "director's cut" of Super Smash Bros. 4; that is, the game contains content from both versions (e.g., a combinations of stages, game modes, etc.), which includes the game's DLC announced back in April of 2016. The rumor quickly spread after this annoucement, with multiple gaming sites, including IGN, reporting on it.

In February 2018, game developer and industry insider Emily Rogers also claimed that Super Smash Bros. was coming to the Nintendo Switch in some capacity, and that it would have brand new content, as well as some reworked content from the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS versions. However, it is unclear to her if the game will be marketed as a "director's cut" of sorts or a full sequel. Later in March, a Nintendo Direct showed that there is a new game for the Switch with the Inklings looking at the Smash roster and the Smash symbol. The announcement caused the rumors of the title being a port to lose credibility, as it showed Link in his design from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. In addition to that, the trailer shown did not show gameplay for the game and did not show the original release date in its copyright, which would be unusual for a port’s announcement trailer, and the game's title was listed as a tentative title on the game’s website. Other fans have pointed out the presence of a unique background music (which later revealed to be Lifelight), as teaser trailers of Smash games since Melee have a tradition of playing a variant of the menu theme, which acting as the main theme of each game; by that logic, it would be a new game. Despite these, the debate still continued until Nintendo of America denied the rumor on June 14, 2018, two days after the game's reveal at E3 2018, where Nintendo Treehouse localisation manager Nate Bihldorff stated as follows:

“	It's definitely not an update. It's a brand new game built from the ground up. As far as it being a 'sequel,' I don't really think of Smash Bros. games as being sequels, they're just new Smash Bros. games. Everything has been built brand new. Of course, you see returning characters and returning movesets, but that's sort of the nature of a fighting game.	”
—Nate Bihldorff

Codenames "leak"

The Codenames "leak" refers to a popular leak stemming from a thread on 4chan’s /v/ board on July 1, 2018 over eleven new characters rumored to be in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, which gained an unusual amount of notability on other websites, mainly due to the post's use of codenames when referring to the characters. The user used codenames instead of the characters' actual names in their post. According to the post:

• In July, the characters “King” and “Ponytail” would be revealed in a mini Nintendo Direct.
• In August, the character “Old Man” would be revealed at EVO 2018.
• In September, the character “Archer” would be revealed in a Nintendo Direct of some kind.
• In October, the Characters “Warrior” and “Secretary” would be revealed in a Nintendo Direct centered around Ultimate.
• In November, the character “Mech” would be revealed in a surprise character announcement.
• The Characters “Rhythm”, “Folklore”, “Doll”, and “Prime Ribs” wouldn't get reveal trailers until post-release.

The post was immediately subject to debate, due to its cryptic nature. Users on the original thread shared ideas on who the various characters could be until it was deleted.

After the thread was closed, the thread quickly gathered attention among the media, with Inverse first posting about the leak on July 6th, 2018. This caused it to be picked up by various Smash Bros. discussion boards and community sites, inspiring credulity due to the legitimacy of the previous the 4chan E3 2018 leak. It was further spread to news websites such as Kotaku before it started trending on YouTube, with many users posting discussion videos which would gain tens of thousands of views in a matter of days.

A few days later, an anonymous Twitter user reportedly claimed that the rumor, while not entirely inaccurate, contained some misinformation. According to this user, Ponytail would not be revealed until after launch and would be available via a free update, while Doll would instead be announced alongside King at a "Super Smash Bros. Ultimate event happening in just a few days" (speculated to be the Shonen Jump Victory Festival or San Diego ComicCon, both of which passed without any character announcements) along with a character not implicated in the original rumor codenamed "Soul". Warrior, Folklore, and another new character codenamed "Fake" were promised to be revealed in a Nintendo Direct in September. The user then claimed that they were unaware of the other characters' reveal dates. Similarly to the other codenames, there was much discussion on who Soul and Fake might have been.

Ultimately, the information provided in these leaks was proven false, and while some characters that were implicated by the leak were confirmed (such as King K. Rool, presumably "King", and Isabelle, presumably "Secretary"), none were revealed in the indicated month or pattern.

Loz18 leaks

On June 11th, 2018, GameFAQs user Loz18 made a thread about Ultimate before its E3 reveal. In the first post, he stated the following:

• All previous characters will return.
• Inkling's ability to recharge ink and their special moves being Super Jump, Splattershot (albeit referred as "Tentatek Attack"), and Splat Bomb (albeit referred as "Bomb Attack").
• Ganondorf's outfit is based off of Ocarina of Time and his up smash changed from a kick to a sword attack.
• Zelda's outfit is based off A Link Between Worlds.
• Link's moveset is almost unchanged, but the Bombs from Twilight Princess are replaced with Remote Bombs from Breath of the Wild.

Two days after the E3 reveal confirmed all of this information to be correct, Loz18 made another thread about a Nintendo Direct in August stating:

• The Nintendo Direct will come around August.
• Info will be shown from the title screen to the menu options.
• Three modes will be shown besides All-Star Mode.
• Tournament mode is returning.
• The new mode will be revealed and it will be the primary way to unlock characters.

About a week before the August Direct, he made some more posts mentioning a cutscene with a heroes vs. villains theme, but not part of a story mode.

Despite the leaker's apparent credibility, much of the information regarding the Direct was wrong. While several menu screens, three new modes, Tournament Mode, and the heroes vs. villain cutscene (at the start of King K. Rool's reveal trailer) were indeed revealed, the title screen, All-Star Mode, and the mode to unlock characters were nowhere to be found.

Loz18 has made several posts (such as here) stating that Skull Kid is probably playable. A few days after the Direct, he closed his GameFAQs account, but not before stating on Twitter that Dixie Kong has a high chance of being playable, and possibly Isaac (these tweets have since been deleted), though he would retract his statements on Isaac on a Discord server. However, none of his new predictions came true, aside from his final statement on Isaac.

amiibo Unlock rumor

On Best Buy of Canada's website, the Ridley amiibo has the following text in its description: "Simply tap the amiibo accessory to the NFC touchpoint on your game system to unlock this draconic Space Pirate." Wolf's has the same, but without the "draconic" part, and Inkling's has "trouble-making resident of the city of Inkopolis" in place of "draconic Space Pirate". All of these imply the amiibo can be tapped to instantly unlock the character.

It should be noted that the respective descriptions now all say "Simply tap the amiibo accessory on the NFC touchpoint on your compatible system or accessory and enjoy fun in-game extras in compatible games." except for the Inkling page, where it says "Simply tap the amiibo accessory to the NFC touchpoint" instead.

This was proven false upon the release of Ultimate, as tapping an amiibo only adds a Figure Player, not the actual fighter.

Dante rumor

Shortly after the reveal of Devil May Cry 5 at E3 2018, an anonymous 4chan user posted a thread claiming to have information related to the game and several other projects related to the franchise. Namely, that Dante, the protagonist of the series, would be a playable character in Ultimate. Throughout the year, several of the poster's claims would be verified, such as several story details, the existence of a training mode and the way that the character Nero purchases upgrades. Perhaps adding to the leak's credibility, a Netflix series based on the franchise was announced later that year, just as the poster had claimed. Users would go on to discover that a poll run by Hideki Kamiya, the original creator of the Devil May Cry and Bayonetta franchises, asked fans which version of Dante they'd prefer to see collaborate with Bayonetta. Users pointed out that the date of the poll, early 2016, aligns with the period of time which Sakurai had stated early development on Ultimate had begun, and that the version of Dante that won the poll was the same version that the 4chan poster had claimed would be in the game. In early August, Matt Walker, the producer of Devil May Cry 5, posted a suspicious tweet that seemed to allude to something related to the Nintendo Direct that would air during that week. Later in the year, Kamiya would meet up with Hideaki Itsuno, the current director of the Devil May Cry series at TGS 2018, adding fuel to the rumors. Eventually, the rumor had circulated enough that Walker took to Twitter to debunk Dante's presence in Smash.

As both Ultimate and Devil May Cry 5 released with Dante absent from the former and the latter being inconsistent with much of the original 4chan post, it's very likely that the original poster simply made several very lucky guesses that were bolstered by a series of coincidences. Additionally, Itsuno told the press that he'd prefer to see the Devil May Cry series debut on Nintendo consoles before considering Dante as a playable fighter in Smash. On May 6th, 2019 a port of the original Devil May Cry was announced to be coming to Nintendo Switch, leading to further speculation following the comments made by Hideaki Itsuno.

4chan Render hoax

On August 30th, 2018, an anonymous user on 4chan posted photos of what appeared to be the faces of 7 characters not yet announced for the game. The reported list of characters identified on the site includes:

• Shadow from the Sonic series
• Isaac from Golden Sun
• Skull Kid from the Zelda series
• Ken from the Street Fighter series
• Chorus Kids from Rhythm Heaven
• Isabelle from Animal Crossing
• Agnès from Square Enix's Bravely Default series
• A question mark, similarly to the ESRB leak

About an hour later, another image was posted, a VS screen showing Wario and the aforementioned Shadow, Chorus Kids and Agnès. A picture of Isaac on the character select screen was posted as well. Both of these would show the new renders in higher detail.

The origin of the renders was unclear, though their authenticity as official renders was doubted, given some inconsistencies both between each other and with Ultimate's artstyle, such as Skull Kid resembling his Super Smash Bros. for Wii U model. Other details were pointed out, such as the VS screen misspelling Agnès' name (naming her Agnés) and the emblem for Rhythm Heaven being a "RH", alluding to the series' American name (The series has a different name in Japan, Europe and Korea).

On September 1st, 2018, the leaker revealed himself over Twitter and confirmed the leak was fake, apologizing for anyone angered over the fake leaks that circulated, while also revealing the renders in full.

Before the leak was debunked by the creator, many images were created under the guise of being by the original poster. The most popular of these fakes would be the image primarily shared throughout Twitter, in which the question mark was swapped with a fake render of Lloyd Irving from Tales of Symphonia. This edit was mentioned by the creator of the original fake renders on Twitter following the confession, noting that it was not created by them.

Japanese Fighter Playlist leak

The date which the Japanese playlist was updated. The image is dated October 2nd, 2018.

On September 30th, 2018, the Japanese playlist of fighter exhibition video trailers was updated once, then updated again later that day, suggesting that one or more videos exhibiting possible new fighters were added to the playlist and then later removed. Similar events had happened in the past: the playlist was updated on July 29th, 2018 (prior to the Ultimate-centered Direct) and again on August 27th, 2018 (prior to the Nintendo Direct that was planned for September 6th and later delayed to September 13th due to an earthquake in Hokkaido, Japan). Seeing as both the Ultimate-centered direct and the September 13th direct were announced 9 days after the playlist was updated, the updates on the 30th suggested that another direct was to be announced on October 9th, 2018. However, nothing was announced that day.

Similar rumors spread on multiple other occasions throughout Ultimate and its DLC's development, as the official Super Smash Bros. YouTube would be marked as updated with no new videos available, spreading across the internet in a frenzy as fans speculated on whether this meant an announcement would be soon. While the new announcements would eventually come, no consistent timing of the updates to the channel and the announcements has been identified, meaning the speculation is more-or-less pointless.

“The Grinch Leak”

The images of the alleged finalized banner.

On October 24th, 2018, an image quickly circulated around the internet of the apparent final version of Ultimate's character banner; in it, Isaac, Banjo & Kazooie, Shadow the Hedgehog, Ken Masters, the Chorus Kids from Rhythm Heaven, Geno, and the Mach Rider can be seen. Images of the banner were apparently posted from an unknown artist's Snapchat, and quickly spread across the internet, before getting deleted by the original poster. It seems that the post was intended to be a leak, as a caption in the image reads "nique ninteno [sic] mdrrr", which translates from French as "fuck ninteno [sic] lol" ("mdr" in French is short for "mort de rire", or "dying of laughter", an equivalent to the English "laughing out loud" or "lol"). The validity of the pictures of the banner was difficult to disprove, as, much like the ESRB leak, renders of the new characters have not been found elsewhere on the internet.

The leak has been dubbed the "Grinch leak", as a thought-to-be previously unseen render of the Grinch can be seen in the bottom right corner in one of the pictures, and another render of the Grinch with his dog, Max, can be seen at the top of another picture. The particular renders are promotional material for the then-upcoming 2018 film The Grinch, which supported the leak's validity, as few believed that a constructor of a fake banner would also put in the time and effort to associate it with an unrelated film.

Hours after the leak's emergence and popularity, several fans noted that there were inconsistencies with an official picture of the background seen in the banner, as well as the fact that one could easily photoshop characters out of the picture entirely, and started to doubt its legitimacy. It was also revealed by French graphics company Marina PLV that the leaker used to work for them, and left the company in 2016; this, while true, was countered by the fact that the company the leak came from is ACP-PLV, where the leaker currently works.

In the Nintendo Direct on November 1, 2018, Ken and Incineroar were revealed as the final fighters in the base roster, contradicting the banner's rumored characters. Shadow and Isaac were shown in the direct, but as Assist Trophies, while Mach Rider, Geno, and the Chorus Kids were later revealed as Spirits. Additionally, Ken's artwork is slightly different than the leaked banner's and in a completely different location. Banjo and Kazooie are the only characters in the leak that didn't make an appearance in the base game in any shape or form, although they were revealed as the third DLC fighter in the Fighters Pass Vol. 1 on June 11th, 2019. While he didn't get a spot on the roster, Geno's Mii Costume (mostly unchanged from its appearance in the previous game) would also be revealed as DLC on December 17, 2020.

Fighters Pass Vol. 1 Rumors

Milk-BOSATU leak

On October 11th, 2018, Twitter user Milk-BOSATU (later named Team NepDon, and then later deleted and returned as @TeamNepDon_Lead) posted a few leaks for the then-upcoming Ultimate, such as the upcoming release of some form of VR, as well as the inclusion of Dragon Quest's Hero characters without any female costumes. This was followed up on December 14th, 2018, with a claim that a female character would be appearing as a playable DLC fighter in the Fighters Pass.

Sometime later in 2019, Milk-BOSATU made another tweet claiming that the 5th fighters pass fighter would be from a franchise that is already represented in the Super Smash Bros. series.

In April of 2019, Nintendo announced that the fourth Nintendo Labo kit would include VR. This kit was eventually made compatible with Super Smash Bros. Ultimate in an update released on May 30th. As part of Nintendo's E3 presentation for 2019 on June 11th, the Hero was announced, consisting of four different hero characters from the Dragon Quest series, but without any female versions, despite other popular rumors at the time claiming otherwise.

Later, on June 15th, 2019, he made another tweet claiming his sources came from his friend named Mr. H who visited Nintendo and saw the female character in development, claiming that she looks like she comes from a game of the fighting genre. A day later, Milk-BOSATU claimed that Mr. H said that the character wasn't Reimu from Touhou Project.

The next day, he made another tweet stating that she holds a throwing weapon like a hammer or a boomerang. Two days after that tweet, he followed it up with another tweet about the female character's model that Mr. H saw but she doesn't have color at all and he didn't see her face, however speculation goes on that the model may had come from a 3D software.

On September 1st, 2019, Source Gaming staff member, NOKOLO talked to Milk-BOSATU on Twitter via chat and he claimed that she wears Japanese clothes and she is possibly not Nakoruru from Samurai Spirits due to her lack of relevancy outside of Japan. Two days later, he made a tweet claiming that Mr. H doesn't know if the female character is Nakoruru or not and later claimed that they both share features that are common with each other. A day later, in the September Nintendo Direct 2019, it was revealed that Nakoruru made a cameo appearance in Terry's trailer, confirming Milk-BOSATU's claim that the female character is not Nakoruru. She later appears as a spirit.

While no concrete info has arrived regarding the leaker's claims, two character would confirm some part of what they transcribed. On January 16, 2020, the final fighter of the Fighters Pass was revealed to be Byleth, confirming the leaker's information regarding the 5th fighter coming from an already represented franchise, Fire Emblem. On June 22, 2020, Min Min was announced as the first fighter of Fighters Pass Vol. 2, confirming the description of the female character being from a game in the fighting genre, ARMS. However, it should be noted that Mr. H's description of Min Min wearing Japanese clothing is inaccurate, and Min Min does not have a proper throwing weapon of her own, although the Ramram could be interpreted as such.

Adeleine Fighters Pass Rumor

On December 9th, 2018, an anonymous user (using an image of Adeleine from the Kirby series) posted on 4chan the alleged roster of the DLC Fighters Pass.

The user claimed the roster would consist of:

• Dragon Quest III, IV, VIII, or XI Hero with alternate skins based on the rest of the series.
• Banjo & Kazooie
• Doomguy/Doom Slayer using the Doom 2016 design, however altered with elements of the Doom Eternal design including exposed biceps and an arm blade.
• Monster Hunter with Male and Female alternate skins each wearing a different armor set.

This leak is notable in that it not only correctly claimed both Hero and Banjo & Kazooie as playable fighters, but also correctly claimed the character title Hero, with the exact alternate skins. However, the original poster eventually clarified that it was a fake; they had simply taken guesses that coincidentally turned out to be true.

RaySquad DLC Leak

On December 31st, 2018, a user by the name of RaySquad posted a thread on GameFAQs, claiming he had a reliable source with information on Super Smash Bros. Ultimate DLC.

The claims by RaySquad included:

• Piranha Plant, Joker, Erdrick, Banjo & Kazooie, Lloyd Irving and Crash Bandicoot would be DLC fighters.
• Old and new Mii costumes would be featured as DLC
• Extra modes would be added to the game e.g. Home-Run Contest
• New Spirits to be released for events. Specifically mentioning Metroid Prime character Sylux as a future spirit.
• Confirmation of only one Fighters Pass currently planned.
• Any potential second Fighters Pass would not happen immediately.

RaySquad also noted that while Crash Bandicoot seemed likely as the 5th DLC character in the Fighters Pass, there was some uncertainty. However the user still claimed that Nintendo wanted to pull through with the character. The user would also claim that they were confident that the other characters would be included.

While Piranha Plant and Joker had already been confirmed at this stage, Erdrick (who would later be revealed as a skin for Hero) and Banjo & Kazooie would later be revealed at E3 2019. However, Terry was revealed in a September Nintendo Direct instead of Lloyd Irving or Crash Bandicoot, making this rumor seem like lucky guesses.

5channel DLC leak

On January 4, 2019, a separate leak was uncovered that was also posted on 5channel. This leak stated everything the 12/15 leak claimed along with the rest of the DLC fighters, but what also interested people was that it was posted on December 9, before the other leak. According to the newly discovered "leak", the rest of the DLC characters are:

• Ryu Hayabusa from Ninja Gaiden
• Steve from Minecraft, with Alex and Master Chief as alternate costumes
• The Marine protagonist (popularly known as "Doomguy" or "Doom Slayer") from Doom, with his appearance from Doom 64 as an alternate costume.

Other allegations related to the DLC include:

• Steve and the Marine will be revealed at E3 2019.
• Steve was originally going to be in the base roster, but he was moved to the Fighters Pass in order to promote DLC for Minecraft Dungeons.
• The Marine is intended to be a promotion for Doom Eternal.

It also included the claim that Persona 5 Royal will be released in 2019. On December 30, 2018, Atlus ended up announcing this title, leading many people to believe these leaks are real. It should be noted, however, that P5R was already rumored before this leak due to Atlus registering a domain for it in 2017.

Unlike the leak that surfaced on December 15, this one stated that its source is Reddit, edited in the rumor momentarily, noting Erdrick's English name along with his Japanese name, Roto, and also doesn't mention Granblue Fantasy: Versus. It also claimed that Persona 5 Royal will be releasing in the first half of 2019, opposed to the later 5channel rumor, which is still not confirmed at the moment. It's unlikely that they were posted by the same person.

The claim that Persona 5 R (later revealed to be Persona 5 Royal) would release in the first half 2019 was proven false on April 24 2019, where Atlus announced that the game would release in Japan on October 31 2019, which is in the latter half of the year. While this did not necessarily hurt the credibility of this leak's claims, the leak was ultimately debunked when Banjo & Kazooie was announced as the third DLC fighter instead of any of the fighters listed from the leak. Even so, the claimed Steve and Alex prediction coincidentally came true with Fighters Pass Vol. 2, though without Master Chief.

Extra character slots datamine

On March 12, 2019, it was discovered that there were 16 character slots found for Adventure Mode, one of which was currently being used for Piranha Plant. While the next five are known to be part of the Fighters Pass (including Joker), the other ten are unknown. This has lead to speculation that there will be future DLC characters beyond the Fighters Pass. While a Nintendo Direct on September 4th, 2019 would confirm that there would be more DLC characters, later in September 24th, 2019, Source Gaming released a video with help from decompiler jam1garner which they discovered that Joker took a placeholder slot just like Piranha Plant but Banjo and Kazooie and the Hero did not take any of them, suggesting that two more fighters were added later in development of DLC, the exact number of additional DLC characters, and thus, the amount of slots they'd use up, is currently unknown.

IAmShifty/Brew Elfen Ryu Hayabusa Rumor

On August 30th, 2019, a YouTube user by the name of IAmShifty posted a video claiming that Ryu Hayabusa from the Ninja Gaiden series would be joining the Fighters Pass for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. According to the user, Ryu would be the fourth character to be announced for the Fighters Pass. Previously, he had supposedly correctly leaked Isabelle, Ken, Incineroar and Piranha Plant as playable characters, in addition to Marx appearing as a boss character in the game.

IAmShifty's claim was proven false on the September 4th, 2019 Nintendo Direct when Terry was revealed to be the fourth fighter in the Fighters Pass instead of Ryu Hayabusa, although whether or not the character would appear as a DLC fighter has yet to be seen.

On October 15th, 2019 IAmShifty reiterated by claiming that Ryu Hayabusa would be the fifth character in the Fighters Pass. Lining up with a leaker called Brew Elfen, who also claimed that Ryu would be the fifth character. That claim was also invalided by the January 16, 2020 presentation when Byleth was revealed instead.

Brew Elfen had previously leaked Piranha Plant on November 1st, 2018.

PapaGenos/Sabi Crash Bandicoot Rumor

On October 18, 2019, Smash Bros YouTuber PapaGenos revealed that a source on his Discord had claimed that Crash Bandicoot from the Crash Bandicoot series would be the fifth fighter in the Fighters Pass. PapaGenos noted with a screenshot, that on July 19, 2019, this source had correctly leaked Mii Costumes for Goemon, Zero, Protoman and the Team Rocket Grunts. The Mii Costume leak also mentioned Mii costumes for Chocobo from the Final Fantasy series and Mallow or Smithy from Super Mario RPG, and it was also supposedly verified by three other people. PapaGenos also claimed that the source had correctly leaked both Banjo & Kazooie and the Luminary (later revealed to be the default for Hero).

A day later, Smashboards member Icedragonadam made a post stating that a supposed NOA source claimed that Crash Bandicoot and Tracer from Overwatch are not in the game, at least for the 5th Fighters Pass spot. They would later post a screenshot from PapaGenos two days later, claiming that the character in the 5th Fighters Pass spot is not a "front runner" like Crash Bandicoot, a Resident Evil character, and Ryu Hayabusa. Smashboards member Hinata also posted a screenshot from leaker Sabi, who claimed that the 5th character in the Fighters Pass would not be Ryu Hayabusa or Crash Bandicoot.

By the time of the January 16, 2020 presentation, the counterarguments were confirmed to be legitimate, as Byleth was confirmed as the fifth fighter in the Fighters Pass. It is unknown if the leaker had valid information or had some very lucky guesses.

Doom/Super Mario RPG Mii Costume leak

The leaked picture of the two Mii hats.

On November 4th, 2019, an anonymous user on 4chan posted a thread which included a picture of Ken, and a Mii Brawler and Mii Gunner wearing headgear based on Mallow from Super Mario RPG, and a Cacodemon from the Doom series, respectively, on Yggdrasil's Altar. Later, the same user would post two videos demonstrating said characters during gameplay. The picture shows similarities with the image shown in a previous leak from 4chan that revealed Ken as a playable fighter: it features every character within the scene taunting—including Ken using his up taunt—and takes place in a Time match with the match timer frozen at 2:30, further demonstrated in the videos.

The latter point suggested that a developer build similar to that in the Ken leak was used for the media (and later memes with Ken's taunt, dubbed "Thumbs Up Ken", being photoshopped onto future leaks and other unrelated media), and along with the remaining similarities raised speculation over the leaker being the author of both threads. Furthermore, it had also generated speculation over the addition of Geno and the Doom Slayer as downloadable characters. Reversely, some have considered the headgear to be Mii costume mods, particularly citing the possibility of a Smash 4 mod being ported to Ultimate. The creator of the mod alleged to be ported has also uploaded a Cacodemon hat mod as well, further implying correlation. Early on some members of the Ultimate modding community noted the difficulty in modifying Mii costumes for the game, adding further credibility to the supposed leak. Evidence to the contrary proved otherwise however, giving weight to this explanation for the rumor. It is worth noting, however, that all attempts from modders to recreate the Mallow and Cacodemon Mii Hats have yet to be of the high quality shown in the leaked picture and videos.

In a January 2020 interview, Doom Eternal director Marty Stratton revealed that the Doom team hadn't been approached by Nintendo about Doomguy appearing in Super Smash Bros. calling into question the validity of this leak.

Vault Boy, another character from a Bethesda-owned IP, was added as a Mii Costume in the Version 8.0.0 update, which could point towards future Bethesda content in Smash such as the Cacodemon Mii hat. However, the leak came to light in November 2019, so it would be odd if the costumes in it were finalized nearly a year before their addition.

On December 17th, 2020, Geno was revealed as a returning Mii Costume without Mallow in sight, further calling into question the validity of this leak.

Mr. Sakurai Presents Fighter 5 Theory

When the Mr. Sakurai Presents for the fifth Fighters Pass fighter was revealed, the thumbnail showed Masahiro Sakurai gesturing three fingers. A lot of people in the fanbase theorized that the fifth DLC character from the Fighters Pass Vol. 1 would be Dante, from Devil May Cry, a character from a saga created by Capcom, because Sakurai's three fingers up could make reference to Devil May Cry: Triple Pack, a compilation of DMC's first three games, which arrived to Nintendo Switch on February 2020, and Dante's inclusion would promote this game increasing the sales. Others theorized that his gesture was a hint at Crash Bandicoot being included, due to the relatively recent release of Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, which features the first three mainline installments of the Crash Bandicoot series.

Both Dante and Crash's theories were proven wrong when it was revealed the fifth fighter in the Fighters Pass was Byleth from Fire Emblem: Three Houses and Sakurai's "3-gesture" was actually the number 17 in binary, referencing Three Houses being the 17th mainline entry in the franchise.

Fighters Pass Vol. 2 Rumors

MandyCan Rumors

On October 22nd, 2019, Twitter user @MandyCanNot posted that Byleth would be Fighter 5 in the Fighters Pass, and that Crash Bandicoot would be released or revealed directly after the first Fighters Pass.

The user is notable in having leaked that Fighter 5 wouldn't be revealed at The Game Awards and having leaked the January 16, 2020 Direct well in advance of an official Nintendo announcement.

On January 20, 2020, MandyCan reiterated that Crash Bandicoot would be Fighter 6.

On March 26, 2020, the Nintendo Direct Mini confirmed that the sixth fighter would be a character from the game ARMS. MandyCan confessed to having an unreliable source, but affirmed a personal belief that Crash Bandicoot would be released as one of the future characters within the pass.

The user has since deactivated their Twitter account.

League of Legends fighter rumor

On January 30, 2020, an anonymous user on 4chan posted a thread claiming:

• A character from League of Legends will be a fighter.
• A Mii Swordfighter costume of The Knight from Hollow Knight packed with a remixed version of Sealed Vessel music just like Cuphead and Sans.
• Spirits from the Mana series are planned.

Later in April 21, 2020, Nintendo officially revealed a Trials of Mana spirit event, confirming one of the claims the anonymous user that the spirits from this game being planned, with Vergeben stating on a deleted GameFaqs thread that he would be checking on the fighter from League of Legends and the Mii Swordfighter costume. However, it is unknown if these are guesses or not.

Ubisoft Club Sam Rayman fighter rumor

On April 22, 2020, people noticed that when they chat with the Ubisoft Club app's chatbot, Sam, about Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and/or its DLC, it would no longer display a message related to wanting Rayman from the Rayman franchise in the game and instead display a generic message. This has lead to speculation of Nintendo removing the message as to not prematurely leak a supposed Rayman reveal. Other speculation has suggested Ubisoft may not want to get fans' hopes up if there is no reveal, or that Nintendo requested the removal of the original message due to it mocking Byleth's playable status.

GameStop Geno rumor

On July 13, 2020, American games retailer GameStop released a video previewing Paper Mario: The Origami King. During a section of the video going over the history of Mario RPG spin-offs, the host Pamela Horton states that "people were freaking out when Geno was announced for Smash", something that had not happened at the time, though the video used footage of Geno's Spirit Battle during that particular scene. The video was later marked private, and when it was made public again GameStop posted a comment explaining that it was referring to the speculation surrounding the Spirit and that GameStop does not have any inside knowledge of which fighters will or won't appear in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

On December 17th, 2020, Geno was revealed as a Mii Costume, presumably disconfirming this leak.

Activision 5 Year Crash Bandicoot Plan rumor

On October 5, 2020, Twitter user @TheNintendata posted about a supposed leaked document from Activision that contained a five-year plan for the Crash Bandicoot franchise. Following plans to see the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy on other platforms; Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled; its Grand Prix service; Crash Bandicoot: On The Run!; and Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time released, this document is rumored to include the addition of Crash Bandicoot to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate in 2021 as downloadable content.

The five-year Crash Bandicoot plan had first been mentioned on January 19, 2018, by the European publication Licensing Source Book, which "covers the entire licensing industry." Although specific details were not revealed at the time, on page 97 the publication revealed a statement from Max Arguile, Licensing Manager of GB Eye saying, "Looking ahead to 2018 Max picks out Crash Bandicoot as one to watch: "The new game has had a huge success at retail with no marketing spend. Next, it will be going broader (Switch and PC), and there will be another game in 2019. Activision have a five-year plan for this and GB eye is delighted to be fully on board for all products." Destructoid corroborated the story from Licensing Source Book on February 5, 2018.