List of leaks
A leak is a revelation of information about a game that has been released prematurely, especially without prior permission to release such information. While game developers go through great lengths to prevents leaks from occurring, it is very common for games to have important information leaked out before being officially revealed.
Leaks can either be done intentionally via third-parties for a variety of reasons, such as increasing publicity for a game or for malicious intentions, or unintentionally via oversights that can appear in officially released media.
Smash 64 and Melee leaks
Due to the lack of a developed infrastructure in the Internet prior to their releases, neither Super Smash Bros. nor Super Smash Bros. Melee had leaks of notable proportions prior to their release.
Brawl leaks
The significantly more developed Internet of 2007, however, made supposed leaks for Super Smash Bros. Brawl more common, particularly in the pre-release hype. The reliability of leaks, however, were invariably sketchy, with supposed contents of leaks sometimes being radically different than what the game actually contained. Despite the massive amount of fake "leaks" though, there were a few legitimate leaks, from both slipups from those directly involved in Brawl and from people who managed to obtain information about the game. Upon Brawl's release in Japan in late January 2008, leaks could then cross-checked with the actual game; in addition, actual screenshots and videos of the game provided considerable information to players outside of Japan, most of which had not yet been revealed by the DOJO!!.
ChaosZero leak
ChaosZero was a user on GameFAQs that obtained information about Brawl from an unknown source, and posted what he knew on GameFAQs on October 2007. His information leaked the following:
- Lucario, Wolf, and Sonic being newcomers.
- Falco, Ness, Captain Falcon, and Ganondorf returning as playable characters. He also leaked Sheik returning as a transformation of Zelda.
- Mewtwo being cut.
- The Stage Builder being in the game.
- The Dragoon being an item, and how it works.
- Final Destination returning as a stage.
Despite leaking 100% correct information, ChaosZero was treated as a troll, and was largely derided by GameFAQs users and disbelieved in general.
NyaseNya leak
NyaseNya was a user on Smashboards, with an infamous reputation as a troll obsessed with Peach. Despite his reputation however, he obtained legitimate inside information of Brawl, and posted it in a thread on Smashboards. His information leaked the following:
- Brawl having 35 playable characters (counting Pokemon Trainer, Samus/Zero Suit Samus, and Zelda/Sheik as a single character each).
- Olimar and Toon Link being newcomers.
- Captain Falcon, Ness, and Mr. Game & Watch returning as playable characters.
- Mega Man and Ridley not being playable characters despite being heavily speculated.
- Brawl being delayed again.
- Brawl being on a dual-layered disc.
NyaseNya also leaked Sonic and the exact date he would be revealed on. However, like ChaosZero above, he too was treated as a troll giving false information, despite having leaked Sonic's exact reveal date. Even the moderators of Smashboards treated him as such, with Gimpyfish locking the thread and editing his original post to claim he was a liar.
ShadowXOR leak
ShadowXOR was another Smashboards user, who actually got to test a build of Brawl firsthand, that included yet to be revealed characters. He leaked the following:
ShadowXOR was treated like the users above, but his information in particular was treated as absolutely false, since almost everyone believed R.O.B. to be a disconfirmed character after being shown as a Subspace enemy.
Lucario/Jigglypuff/Ness leak
On January 21, 2008, a promotional video for Super Smash Bros. Brawl on the official Wii website was posted; this video accidentally leaked hidden characters in the game. At one point in the video, a Groudon sticker is highlighted and the faces of Pikachu, Pokémon Trainer, Lucario, and Jigglypuff can be seen in the lower right corner, signifying which characters the sticker can be used to power-up in the Subspace Emissary. At another point in the video, a Claus sticker is highlighted, that showed Ness' head alongside Lucas'. This was essentially confirmation that these characters would be playable ([1]). Upon realising their mistake, however, the developers took down the video from the website.
David Hayter leaking Jigglypuff
During October 2007, David Hayter, the voice actor of Snake, was interviewed. During the interview, he was asked which Brawl character he would most like to beat up, where he replied Jigglypuff, inadvertently leaking it being playable in the game. While a thread on Neoseeker covers it, the video with the interview in question is no longer up.
SSB4 leaks
Supposed leaks were particularly common in the pre-release of SSB4, with many fake leaks being widespread. The most notorious leak was the ESRB leak (Down below) and Gematsu Leak, which thousands of followers believed in its entirety before it was proven inaccurate by the inclusion of Robin and Lucina, and disconfirmation of Chrom, as playable characters. Other 'leaks' proved popular, such as a supposed leak showing Palutena as a playable character, the veracity of which is unclear.
In July 2014, a supposed email from Australian classification boards, OFLC, had supposedly indirectly leaked Wario as a playable character due to his use of flatulence contributing towards the game's rating. Wario's playable appearance in the game was later confirmed by the leak below.
ESRB leak
On August 19, 2014, a user created a thread on 4chan's /v/ imageboard with a photo containing the character icons of all previous Smash characters and revealed newcomers, asking who people think will get cut. Later on, a different user created another thread, with the aforementioned user's photo, but modified with never-before-seen character icons on most of the unannounced veterans, including Dr. Mario, who was cut in Brawl, along with never before seen icons of new characters that haven't been announced, who were Shulk from Xenoblade Chronicles, Bowser Jr. from the Super Mario franchise, Dark Pit from Kid Icarus: Uprising, and the dog and duck from Duck Hunt. In addition to this, there was a red X over the veterans without the icons, signifying they have been cut. These cut veterans were Squirtle, Ivysaur, Lucas, Wolf, the Ice Climbers, and Snake. Curiously, while Mewtwo did not have a new character icon, it had a "?" over it instead of a red X, leaving its status unknown. Mewtwo was later confirmed to return as a downloadable fighter in a Nintendo Direct.
Later in the thread, a second leaker, with the name of "Motherfucking Leaker", posted two new images, one showing a nearly full view of the Duck Hunt Dog's render, showing it will fight alongside a duck, and the other showing the character select screen containing all the characters implicated in the OP image. A third different leaker would then post five more images, which showed fuller renders of Shulk, Dr. Mario, and Bowser Jr. (which revealed him being inside his miniature Koopa Clown Car), a customization menu where the player can select either the characters within the game or Miis, and a stage select screen, showing off many stages that have not been announced. After these images were posted in the thread, the "Motherfucking Leaker" would then post a list claiming the following characters to be DLC: Lucas, Wolf, the Ice Climbers, Snake, and the Chorus Men implicated by the Gematsu leaks. However, the leaker would later admit on Smashboards that he made the DLC list up to catch "copycat leaks" and "to have a little fun", but maintained his leaked images were completely real.
After the 4chan thread was closed, a fourth leaker, with the name of MasterLinkX, posted three new images on GameFAQs, which depicted an ingame shot of a team battle with Shulk and Lucina against Ganondorf and Charizard on Yoshi's Island, and the result screen, depicting one of Shulk's victory poses, and a fuller and much clearer shot of Ganondorf's new render.
The supposed source of the images is unknown, as the leakers never disclosed where exactly the images are supposedly from. However they are believed to come from footage that was sent to the ESRB for review in order to decide the game's rating, as P1's username in the images was "ESRB0083", and the lack of a gap between the top and bottom screen images shows they are not being displayed on an actual 3DS unit.
Interestingly, these images are consistent with a prior prominent leak on Smashboards, known as the "Ninka/Vaanrose leak". Prior to E3 2014, a Smashboards user by the name of Ninka Kiwi posted that he knew a friend who was playtesting Smash 4, though he did not divulge any specific information, other than Mario and Charizard having new palette swaps, with Mario in particular having a new blue costume (which later turned out to be correct). Later on in July, Ninka would come forward with new information, which included the following; Lucas, Wolf, the Ice Climbers, and Snake being cut, while Shulk, Dr. Mario, Dark Pit, Bowser Jr. in the Koopa Clown Car (with all seven Koopalings as alts), and the Duck Hunt Dog being new characters. While being initially disbelieved and seen as too outlandish, a friend of Ninka who gave him the information, named Shun, contacted a Smashboard user by the name of Neo Zero, who revealed to him that he got the information he revealed to Ninka from his own friend, and revealed that his friend recreated and posted two of the new palettes on imgur, before E3 2014. While this was going on, an apparently completely independent source posted a leaked newcomer list on 4chan (containing Shulk, Chorus Men, Mewtwo, Ridley, Dixie Kong, Duck Hunt Dog, and Bowser Jr.), containing the two characters unique to the, at the time, completely disbelieved Ninka leak. In addition to this, a person in the Smash community known as Vaanrose came forward to Neo Zero that he knew a friend who knew someone who worked at Nintendo of America's offices in Redmond, Washington, who disclosed to him that Robin, Bowser Jr., and the Duck Hunt Dog were playable. With the screenshot proof of prior knowledge of the new palettes, and these new independent sources backing up a completely disbelieved leak, the people involved publicized this additional information legitimizing the leak in a thread on Smashboards.
Since the screenshots were first posted, they spread to several websites and had been the subject of much debate. Many claimed the images to be falsified, citing the questionable placement of characters such as Yoshi, Dr. Mario, Dark Pit, and Lucina on the character select screen, the lack of separation between returning and new stages on the stage select screen, the similarity of Shulk's face in his render to that of Little Mac in a previous screenshot (suggesting it was used as a base for a photoshopping attempt), and other similar inconsistencies. Those who believed the images to be genuine pointed out the presence of obscure UI details consistent with those seen in the E3 demo (including a rare graphical glitch on the bottom screen character renders), the inability to source the renders used on the character select screen, the presence of details that were only very recently revealed at the time (such as Meta Knight's new render, which was less than a week old, and Brinstar, which had only been shown half a day prior), and the stage select icon for Tomodachi Life featuring an apartment design that was not present in any past screenshots but appeared at a different angle in an image from Famitsu magazine that came out the day after the leak. Despite heavy debate and analysis by both sides, no one was able to definitively prove the images to be real or fake, leaving their veracity inconclusive until the game's release, at which point the images were definitively proven to be real. A thread detailing the arguments against the leak, and their counters, was maintained on Smashboards; however, the thread has since been locked.
Another point of debate was if the screenshots, if real, depict the entire playable character and stage roster. The seemingly strange placement of certain characters and stages, the conspicuous empty space on both, the lack of heavily implicated characters such as Mewtwo and the Chorus Men, the seeming over-saturation of past stages, and the question mark over Mewtwo in the original leak image led many people to believe that there are more characters and stages that were not unlocked at the time the screenshots were taken. To compound the confusion, the leakers never stated if it was the full roster or not, with one of them, MasterLinkX, flat out stating on Smashboards that it was not, and the Smashboards mods investigating the leak being unable to come up with a conclusive answer. However, other observers who believe the leak have maintained that it was likely to be the final roster, citing that the character placement was sensible and complete looking, and that MasterLinkX could not be trusted, as he refused to give more information, while also having admitted that he attempted to sabotage his leaked images to create doubt in the leak and halt their spread (such as by photoshopping "disabled" in one of his screenshots to read as "disablad"). It was eventually shown that the roster depicted in the images was indeed the final roster, with the images matching the characters and their placements exactly.
Video footage consisting of over a minute of total gameplay was leaked onto YouTube on August 25th by a user named Izat True. The gameplay shows the same scene of Shulk, Lucina, Ganondorf and Charizard on Yoshi's Island, as well as several scenes of Bowser Jr. fighting on Battlefield. This confirmed at least the information regarding those clips as true and solidified the claims of Shulk, Ganondorf, and Bowser Jr.'s playability. The screen also transitions to a Home-Run Contest video instantly at one point, reinforcing the claim that the video is captured from video footage submitted to the ESRB for review. The videos of the leaked footage would eventually be taken down later that day due to a copyright claim by Nintendo, though were re-uploaded by another user with the sound removed to prevent deletion. Another set of screenshots posted the same day, including a fuller shot of Dark Pit's new render, also correlate with the leak.
Shulk was formally revealed on August 29th, 2014, with gameplay matching the leaked gameplay video exactly. This served as clear evidence that at least the videos represented real game footage. His character art is also identical to his icon and portrait in the initial leaked 3DS images, verifying their veracity as well. Several following Director's Room posts depicted similar menus, such as the All-Star Mode menu and the difficulty settings for Classic Mode, giving more proof for the leaked images. Additionally, a video of a demo of the game showing off part of the roster corresponds with the leaked images, showing the same design of the roster, with the confirmed characters being in similar if not the same spots as on the leak. Additionally, two parts of the leak that were often scrutinized (Yoshi being mixed with the Mario characters and there not being names below the characters) were shown, giving more evidence that the leaks are, in fact, true.
The leak was definitively verified on September 11th, 2014, when several Japanese retailers broke the intended street date and began selling the game early. Multiple players began streaming gameplay directly from their copies of the game, and the details were identical to those shown in the ESRB screens and footage, as well as that which was described by Ninka and Vaanrose. Details posted by other leakers, however, such as claims of post launch DLC, remain in question.
A notable inconsistency, however, was later discovered in the leaks. In the leaked images, a trophy of Tharja from Fire Emblem: Awakening was among those featured. Her outfit, taken directly from her Dark Mage class, is notably revealing, and close-ups of her trophy in the leak suggest that it was shown to ESRB members in order to demonstrate some of the more suggestive themes featured in the game; other trophies featured in the leaked images were often those that contained relatively crude humour (such as trophies for Wario and Specknose from Kid Icarus Uprising), potential religious connotations (such as trophies for the Devil Car and Medusa), and some suggestive themes (such as the trophy for Tiki and Tharja's aforementioned trophy). Despite the presence of her trophy in the leaked images, however, Tharja does not have a trophy in Super Smash Bros. 4; all other trophies featured in the leak appeared in the final game, and the reason for this inconsistency is not known.
Ganondorf Leak
Ganondorf was accidentally shown prior to his reveal in a video posted by Nintendo on August 29th, where he can be seen offscreen while Pikachu is taunting. This same video was later reuploaded on September 1st, except Ganondorf could no longer be seen offscreen. The original video is now unlisted.
Ganondorf was leaked once more on October 10th by Sakurai in his "Pic of the day" post, discussing the Home-Run Contest. At the end of the post, he remarks "I wonder if Ganondorf gives you some advantage.", despite Ganondorf having not yet been officially revealed.
Ganondorf was officially revealed on October 15th, and is one of the few characters to be leaked multiple times by official material.
Amazon leak
About a month prior to Super Smash Bros. for Wii U's release, online retailer Amazon.com put up a page to allow for consumers to reserve copies of the game. On the product description for the game, however, information was provided that seemed to suggest a variety of new game modes:
| “ | Whether you're creating stages on the GamePad, competing in challenges crafted by Master Hand and Crazy Hand, or outwitting your opponents in a brand new board game mode, there’s no doubt that the ultimate Smash Bros. game has arrived. | ” |
A mode involving Master Hand and Crazy Hand was later revealed by Sakurai in a Miiverse post, and had previously been implicated by unused content found in the 3DS version. The "board game" and "creating stages" modes, however, had never been previously mentioned on Miiverse or other official material, suggesting that unknown information was still available about the game. It wasn't until October 2014 that this information was confirmed to be true.
