List of rumors

A supposed image of Mewtwo appearing in Brawl's Subspace Emissary; faked images such as these are commonly made to spread rumors about the development of the game.

Like many other games, the Super Smash Bros. series has had various rumors spread about it, usually through the Internet, and sometimes magazines. A majority of rumors spread around the time of April Fools' Day, a day the gaming community is not unfamiliar with. Most of the time, rumors claimed to contain information concerning playable characters, though rumors concerning other aspects of gameplay, such as development scheduling, can also appear. Rumors can be proven true or false on arrival via fact-checking or by waiting for relevant information from official sources, though a majority are proven false; some rumors, however, can contain true information, or even fabricated information that coincidentally becomes true in a later reveal or game.

General

An example rumored leak of Brawl's selection screen. Note that Toon Link is named as Young Link.

As with any game, the Smash Bros. series has had various works of fan art being passed off as supposedly leaked screenshots. Box art and character selection screens for Brawl were particularly common, though images of characters in the game also appeared. Shortly before and after the release of the game in Japan, these images had become more and more common, though the use of video streaming sites such as YouTube quickly disproved most of these rumors as more gameplay footage of the game became public.

Many character selection screens for Melee also made the rounds, though these screens were less credible due to the ability to quickly distribute images on the Internet being unfeasible during Melee's release; by then, all the unlockables had been well-known. Some of these fake rosters, however, were merely made as jokes, including a particularly famous image featuring over 108 characters and eight player slots. The inability to easily customize the character roster for the original game has prevented fake rosters from appearing, as there are no empty spaces, and the game was released before the Internet was widespread.

While extremely common, fake character rosters are relatively easy to debunk. Particularly low-quality rosters will often use art from various other sources, violating the trend in the series where all art is original to the games. For example, in the image to the right, Luigi's image is a mirrored version of his official artwork from Super Mario 64 DS; adding to this, the hoaxed image features both three-dimensional models (such as for the aforementioned Luigi and the F-Zero character Black Shadow) and two-dimensional illustrations (such as for Marth and Fire Emblem character Micaiah). Furthermore, hoaxers have sometimes made various oversights while producing such images. A minor hoax, for instance, claimed to feature the character Agnès from Bravely Default as a playable character, but the faked images improperly spelt her name as "Agnés", and her character portrait was different between the two images given.

Rumors about Super Smash Bros.

Non-playable characters hoaxes

Being able to play as characters such as Metal Mario, Giant Donkey Kong, Master Hand, or a Fighting Polygon was the main source of rumors during the game's era. As with other rumors of the time, the supposed criteria ranged from unusual (spinning the control stick 30 times) to ludicrous (completing the 1P Game as every character in a specific order on Very Hard with a stock of one). Many videos on YouTube continue to claim these rumors, but all of these which supposedly work merely use cheat devices to allow playability of these characters.

Cut characters rumor

A popular rumor about Smash 64 that came around long after its release was that several characters were planned to be playable in the game, but cut due to time and/or memory constraints. The characters most often rumored to have been planned but cut are Bowser, King Dedede, Mewtwo, Peach, Wario, Pit, and Meowth. A page on the official Smash 64 website claims that Bowser, King Dedede, and Mewtwo were indeed planned to be playable in Smash 64, but the reason for their exclusion is not specifically stated. No sources, however, have been proven to support Pit, Meowth, Peach, Wario, or any other characters as having ever been planned to be playable in the game.

Rumors about Super Smash Bros. Melee

Sonic and Tails hoax

EGM's "proof" of Sonic and Tails appearing in SSBM

The Sonic and Tails rumor in Melee remains one of the most infamous rumors not just in the Super Smash Bros. series, but also in the world of video games. An April Fools' joke pulled by the gaming-themed magazine Electronic Gaming Monthly said that Sonic and Tails could be unlocked after defeating 20 enemies in Cruel Melee, then defeating the two in a two-against-one battle. The blurb also claimed that upon completing Classic Mode with either of the two characters, the player would get a "special surprise". While EGM was famous for its previous April Fools' Day pranks, such as the infamous "Sheng Long cheat" in Street Fighter II (which would later be referenced by Ryu's reveal trailer in Smash 4), many readers still fell for the rumor.

The rumor can be debunked through multiple pieces of evidence:

• The given unlock message does not follow the grammatical patterns of other unlock messages, specifically in its overuse of capitalized words. This can be seen by comparing the above image's notice with that of Pichu's.
• After unlocking all 25 characters, the player receives a Notice that they have unlocked all characters, so unlocking more characters would contradict the Notice.
• After obtaining all trophies, the player receives a Notice that they have unlocked all trophies, but clearing any of the one-player modes with Sonic or Tails should yield more trophies, thus contradicting the Notice.
• The pair's positions on opposite sides of the character selection screen defies the general rule that characters of a series are grouped together once everyone is unlocked. Additionally, their presence blocks the random character functionality with no apparent replacement, an unlikely occurrence in terms of game design.
• In the screenshot claiming to show Sonic as a selectable character, Sonic's art is identical to one of his official renders from Sonic Adventure on the Sega Dreamcast. In contrast, all other characters in the game have completely original art for their character select portraits.
• At the time of the production of Melee, Sega and Nintendo were rivals both in the software and hardware businesses, making it unlikely that the two would work together to develop a game.
  • A later interview conducted by EDGE with Sonic's creator Yuji Naka, claimed that, on the topic of Sonic and Tails appearing in Melee, "it was very close, but time constraints did not allow us to continue with the idea."
• There is no data on the game's disc relating to the duo, and they cannot be selected with the debug menu.
• The method for unlocking the two simply does not work. Numerous videos have demonstrated getting more than 20 KOs in Cruel Melee, whether naturally or via exploits such as the Master Hand glitch, does not unlock the duo, and in the early years of the rumor, an infamous video featuring Pikachu getting 565 KOs in Cruel Melee effectively disproved the hoax.
• Although subtle, EGM attempted to hint readers that the cheat was actually an April Fools' joke; previous jokes would feature a "1" and "4" in some way as to reference April Fools' Day, as the shorthand date for the day is 4/1 in America or 1/4 in Europe. Owing to this, the Notice commemorating Sonic and Tails being unlocked had the date as "4.1.2002".

The rumor rapidly spread following its publication, with rival publication Nintendo Power publishing an article about how the rumor was a hoax, and the page on Melee in Nintendo's website also writing about how the rumor was false. EGM would eventually confess in its next issue that the cheat was an April Fools' joke, and, like its previous April Fools' Day jokes, mock those who took it seriously. EGM later offered a contest where players who submitted video proof of getting 20 or more KOs in Cruel Melee could receive a free copy of Sonic Adventure 2: Battle, Sonic's first game on a Nintendo system.

Sonic later became a playable character in Brawl and Super Smash Bros. 4, while Tails made a number of cameo appearances in Brawl and Smash 4.

Toad hoax

"Proof" of Toad appearing on the Character Select screen.

The Toad rumor, initially posted on a small Geocities site in November of 2002, stated that Toad could be unlocked as a playable character in Melee after obtaining a perfect score during the credits mini-game, which is played after completing any one-player mode; after hitting all the credits, the player would then have to clear Adventure Mode (with a requirement of "easily defeating" the Yoshis in the Mushroom Kingdom stage), after which they would be able to unlock him. The site also gave several fake screenshots depicting Toad in various in-game scenarios, propagating the rumor; it came to the point where the images had become more well-known than the site and the supposed method to unlock him, with explanations sometimes varying strongly from the original.

The method was disproved by the same evidence as the Sonic and Tails rumor, because in addition to Toad's place on the character select screen defying the rule that all characters in a series should be grouped together, the screenshots of Toad were made by taking images from Toad when he was running around the Mushroom Kingdom of the Adventure Mode of the game. Inconsistencies with the actual gameplay surrounding Toad also debunked the rumor; the site says that Toad has no accommodations in All-Star Mode, has no trophies, and has no videos for his Ending Sequence after finishing a 1-Player game, unlikely occurrences in terms of game design. The site itself also contributed to the debunking of the rumor; it was hosted on GeoCities, a former web hosting site that allowed anyone to create their own pages, causing the rumor to be considerably less credible than the Sonic and Tails rumor (which was featured in a widely-read magazine). The site also featured some incorrect information; for instance, when speaking about the game's Adventure Mode, the site claims that the ordeal is similar to unlocking Falco - Falco, however, is unlockable in Multi-Man Melee, not in Adventure Mode. Numerous spelling and grammatical errors were also present on the page, such as the misspelling of "taunt" as "taught".

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  An image of the "Challenger Approaching!" screen, with Toad as the challenger.

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  A supposed image of Toad's Notice message.

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  Toad fights against Mewtwo in Flat Zone...

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  ...and Yoshi's Island. These two images, however, were what caused the hoax to be debunked.

Lucas replacing Ness rumor

A widespread rumor that came around years after Melee's release was that Masahiro Sakurai planned to replace Ness with the new protagonist of Mother 3, Lucas. This rumor was confirmed by Sakurai himself, where he stated that he was going to replace Ness with Lucas, but the delay of Mother 3 (which ended up getting delayed to 2006, five years after the release of Melee) caused him to renege on the idea and keep Ness in.

“	Actually, at first, I planned to change him [Ness] into the protagonist of Mother 3 [Lucas], but for various reasons during the delay, I settled back on the original idea. (実は当初、MOTHER3の主人公に変更する予定でしたが、いろいろあって遠回りしながら、元のさやに収まりました。)	”
—Masahiro Sakurai, Smabura-Ken Ness page (Japanese)

Relating to this rumor, after Lucas was confirmed to be a newcomer in Brawl while Ness' confirmation had yet to be made, it was commonly speculated that Ness would not return, being replaced by Lucas, as was originally planned in Melee. A quote on the DOJO!! seemed to suggest this as well, claiming that "There’s a character named Ness who has appeared in the Smash Bros. series up until now, and Lucas is very similar". Such speculation ended up untrue however, as Ness returned again as a playable character in Brawl. Lucas himself would later be cut in Super Smash Bros. 4 (albeit only initially, before reappearing as a downloadable character) while Ness returned as an unlockable character in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and a starter character in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U.

Rare characters rumor

Based on responses from fan questions confirming that Banjo from the Banjo-Kazooie games and James Bond from GoldenEye 007 would not be appearing in Melee, a popular rumor manifested, claiming that these characters were actually planned for inclusion but ultimately cut because Sakurai could not secure the rights from Rare (and, in the latter case, Eon Productions, the holders of Bond's film rights, which Rare secured to produce GoldenEye 007). However, Sakurai only said that the characters would be difficult to include, not that he had planned to include them.

Rumors about Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Radio interview rumor

Shortly after Brawl's announcement, a rumor claimed that in a radio interview, Masahiro Sakurai confirmed that Ridley, a cel-shaded Link, and Bowser Jr. would be playable characters. Coinciding with this was the rumor of Young Link, the Ice Climbers, and Mr. Game & Watch being dropped. This was proven to be false; while Toon Link does replace Young Link in Brawl as the second Link, Ridley appears as a boss instead of a playable character, Bowser Jr. only appears as a sticker and trophy, and Mr. Game & Watch and the Ice Climbers returned as playable characters in Brawl.

Coincidentally, Bowser Jr. was later playable in SSB4, with technical limitations of the Nintendo 3DS also causing the Ice Climbers to be cut from the game; despite this, Ridley did not become a playable character until Ultimate, and Mr. Game & Watch still returned from Brawl.

Animal Crossing characters rumors

During the development of Brawl, multiple rumors suggested that a character from Animal Crossing, such as the generic playable character (termed an "Animal Crosser") or Tom Nook, would be playable in Brawl. A statement was reportedly made by Sakurai on the matter, which claimed that "On one hand, they have an innocent charm to them that could be ruined if they were in a fighting game"; the veracity of this statement, however, is disputed. Despite the lack of a playable character, Animal Crossing is strongly represented in Brawl by some music tracks, trophies, stickers, an Assist Trophy, a stage, and numerous cameos on said stage.

An Animal Crossing Villager eventually became a playable character in Super Smash Bros. 4; an interview with Sakurai also states that the Villager was considered for inclusion in Brawl, but the idea was rejected because "he wasn't suited for battle".

Assist trophy rumors

Towards the end of 2007, the Whobby Game Festival occurred in Japan; among its primary points of interests was that a playable demo of Super Smash Bros. Brawl would be available for play by attendants. Due to the event taking place only in Japan, a region with relatively little representation in most English-speaking websites, such as Smashboards, updates on the game were sparse and difficult to confirm. The most well-known claim, however, stated that Assist Trophies of Rosalina from Super Mario Galaxy, Duster from Mother 3, and Muddy Mole from Mole Mania would be featured in the game.

Amid an increase in English-speakers that played demos at events, as well as the release of the game, the rumor was proven false, and further hacking of the game proved that no such evidence of the trio were even planned to be included. It is unknown if the trophies were mistaken for other gameplay elements (such as Gardevoir being confused for Rosalina) or if these claims were deliberately hoaxed to fool players.

Third-party character rumors

Sakurai said that, after Sonic and Snake, there might be a third third-party character; prior to Sonic's announcement, he also claimed that "one or two" other third-party characters would appear. This led many players speculating that another third party character was guaranteed to be included. Popular options included Mega Man (who later appeared in Super Smash Bros. 4), Geno (who was a Mii Fighter costume in Smash 4), Leon S. Kennedy from the Resident Evil series, or a second Sonic character. However, none of these characters were included in Brawl, and until SSB4 there were only two third-party fighters in Smash.

After Pac-Man was revealed for Super Smash Bros. 4, Sakurai stated that, during the development of Brawl, Shigeru Miyamoto asked him if Pac-Man could be playable in the game. Thinking of Pac-Man's pizza shape, Sakurai rejected the idea, thinking at the time putting in Pac-Man with said shape was "a little too farfetched." Furthermore, after the release of Brawl, Sakurai stated in an interview that he had considered including Geno as a playable character in the game, though the plans ultimately fell through for unknown reasons.

Downloadable content rumor

Shortly after Brawl was released in America, a newspost appeared on the Internet, claiming that Brawl would feature four downloadable characters and two downloadable stages, as well as a new Wii Channel of "Wii Want More". The discovery of multiple unused character files present in the game also added credence to the rumor, under the assumption that the empty files rendered it easier to create add-on content.

The rumor was quickly proven as false; Masahiro Sakurai himself stated that downloadable content would never be coming for Brawl, as the Wii's flash-based internal hardware is incapable of patching or otherwise modifying a game based on a downloaded file. The supposed release date of 13 May 2008 also passed without a "Wii Want More" channel being released or announced. Additionally, in a vein similar to the Toad rumor, the site was hosted on 110MB, a hosting site where anyone on the Internet can publish content. However, downloadable content would become a prominent part of Super Smash Bros. 4.

Brawl is the last game rumor

During the development of Brawl, Sakurai reportedly said statements along the lines that he was making Brawl as the last game; additionally, some advertisements had the tagline of "One brawl to end them all!". This led several to believe that Brawl was the last game in the series. The rumor, however, is taken out of context; Sakurai stated he was making Brawl like it was the last game, not that it was the last game. Additionally, Sakurai said that Melee would have been the last game on Smabura-Ken, and that did not hold true. This rumor was ultimately proven false at E3 2011, where a new Super Smash Bros. title was announced for both the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U consoles; development started in February 2012 and ended up being Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U respectively.

Artificial intelligence rumors

While still suffering flaws like its predecessor, CPUs within Brawl came under scrutiny by members of the Brawl community after analyzing the behavior of them within fights. Two primary theories surrounding the AI eventually became commonplace:

1. That the CPU was able to read inputs from human players and thus have perfect reaction times, explaining the CPUs excessive propensity to perfect shield.
2. That a "learning system" existed within Brawl's code that allowed computer players to slowly learn to adapt to human players.

The former rumor was especially controversial, as many smashers thought that allowing the AI to "cheat" was an unfair tactic, and such a programming decision was considered lazy. The American crew SLAPAHO attempted to see whether or not CPUs had perfect reaction times, but their results were eventually declared inconclusive, and more tests were intended to be carried out; inactivity by the group, however, caused these further tests to never occur. In 2013, Canadian smasher Toomai analyzed various animated GIFs of CPUs responding to aerial attacks; it was ultimately demonstrated that CPUs had a reaction time of one frame, and thus, did not read button inputs to form decisions.

The second rumor was primarily spread by a Nintendo Dojo blog post by American smasher Churro; entitled "The Wonders of Brawl's CPU Experience System", Churro claimed that CPUs in Brawl could learn from human players, with such changes being unique from different save files for Brawl. Churro provided video examples of these supposed changes, such as how a CPU Captain Falcon began to more frequently use Falcon Punch following an all-Captain Falcon match featuring overuse of the move. Other videos by other smashers also appeared to show CPUs using tactics such as dash dancing and DACUSes.

Initially widely believed, advances in the hacking scene for Brawl have since disproven the existence of a learning system for CPUs:

• Tests showed that there were no differences in CPU behavior from save files that were over several hundred hours old versus fresh save files; comparisons of two files with significant playtime also showed no differences, when such a case was supposed to have significantly different playstyles.
• Disassembling Replay files showed that no CPU inputs are saved in the file, only human inputs; as such, this meant that whenever a replay was played back, it meant that the CPU would have to react the same way every time in order to prevent desyncing. A learning system could potentially cause CPUs to react differently in replays, thus further disproving the rumor.
• Disassembling the Brawl save file showed that there were no flags or other notes about the AI.
• Disassembly of the game's AI demonstrated no coding for learning from human players.
• Videos demonstrating that the AI could learn are thought to have suffered from confirmation bias; what were thought to be cases of the AI learning were cases of the AI performing as expected, including specific overuse of some attacks.

A learning system similar to the above would eventually be used by amiibo in Super Smash Bros. 4, though no such learning system exists outside of this.

Rumors about Super Smash Bros. 4

Super Smash Bros. Universe rumor

A picture of the document leading to the Super Smash Bros. Universe rumor.

Shortly after the official announcement of the fourth Super Smash Bros., an image circulated around the Internet detailing what appeared to be an advertisement or design document that was said to be from the official Nintendo headquarters in Japan for "Super Smash Bros. Universe"; multiple imageboards worked to translate the document, leading to some supposed preliminary idea for the games. Sakurai, however, stated that he had not begun working on the new Smash Bros. at the time and was focusing on Kid Icarus Uprising; the documents were later finally disproven when it was demonstrated that the game's title would not be Super Smash Bros. Universe.

Namco worker rumor

On 12 December 2012, a thread on GameFAQs was started by a user named Halibuton; the user claimed that he worked for Namco and had some information told to him by his co-workers concerning the development of Super Smash Bros. 4.

Halibuton claimed that there would be a Nintendo Direct on the fifth anniversary of Brawl's Japanese release (31 January 2013) and said it would be centered around Smash 4, though likely more of a series retrospective with minor new info than a full-blown reveal trailer. He also said that he knew a bit about the early roster and claimed to know a few newcomers: Takamaru from The Mysterious Murasame Castle and Little Mac (chosen as recent-popularity classics and an "East vs. West" concept supposedly due to previous games featuring too many Japan-exclusive characters) as well as King K. Rool and Ridley (chosen due to popular demand and having movesets based on more recent games). Other claimed, less-finalized newcomers are Shulk from Xenoblade, Dillon from Dillon's Rolling Western, Ghirahim from the Legend of Zelda series, a "Debu" from the at the time rumor-only Yoshi's Woolly World (supposedly a partner of Yoshi, with "Debu" possibly being just a nickname or placeholder), and a Platinum Games character possibly from The Wonderful 101. Aside from characters, multiple stages were listed: Starship Mario (Super Mario Galaxy 2, later confirmed as background scenery in Mario Galaxy), Giant Chasm (Pokémon Black 2/White 2), Pushmo Park (Pushmo), and Cookie Country (Kirby's Return to Dream Land).

Halibuton's claimed date for the reveal of 31 January 2013, however, ultimately passed without a Nintendo Direct presentation, significant news about Smash 4, or mentions of any of the aforementioned characters, thus ultimately disproving the rumor after two months of speculation. Little Mac and Shulk would eventually be confirmed as newcomers, while Takamaru, Dillon, and Ghirahim would later be confirmed as Assist Trophies. Ridley would later be confirmed as a stage boss on Pyrosphere and would only later appear as a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Gematsu leaks

Before E3 2013, the owner of the gaming site Gematsu, Sal Romano, claimed to have received an email from an anonymous source claiming to know which newcomers would be introduced at E3 2013. Initially doubting the veracity of the letter, Romano jokingly posted the list to NeoGAF as a "unlikely prediction". Among the predicted newcomers were an Animal Crossing Villager; Capcom's Mega Man; the female trainer from Wii Fit; Little Mac from Punch-Out!!; Nintendo's Mii; and Namco's Pac-Man.

To the surprise of many observers, including Romano himself, the leak successfully predicted the reveal of the Villager, Mega Man, and female Wii Fit Trainer. This successful prediction, especially of the Wii Fit Trainer, would lead to a following of the leak and the subsequent leaks reported by Romano. With the leaks getting every newcomer right except for Rosalina, and failing to get any character completely wrong for over a year, the majority of observers treated the leaker as fully legitimate, with many seeing the characters implicated by the leaker as inevitable. The leaker's credibility was ultimately shattered when one of their implicated playable characters, Chrom, was disconfirmed in the 14 July reveal trailer, while two revealed playable characters, Robin and Lucina, were never implicated by the leaker.

In June 2015, Sakurai revealed in the Famitsu column that he did originally consider adding Chrom as a playable character, and even planned a moveset for him, but ultimately decided he would not be unique enough from Marth and Ike to justify an inclusion. Coincidentally, Chrom became a playable character in Ultimate, albeit as an Echo Fighter for Roy, reinforcing Sakurai's hypothesis.

Lucina hoax

Mario and Lucina appear to fight on the Great Sea.

An AllIsBrawl post made on 25 June 2013 claimed that an image had been leaked on the Smash 4 website, presumably from the "image of the day". The image shows Mario and Lucina (from Fire Emblem Awakening) on a Fairy Isle in the Great Sea. There was no evidence on the site, however; the image of the day instead featured Link doing an aerial Spin Attack in Skyloft.

This image, while initially appearing to be legitimate, was actually compiled using a variety of elaborate hacks available for Brawl. The stage seen in the image is a Fairy Isle hacked stage, and the Mario in the image uses a texture hack to make his model more closely resemble his newer model in Super Smash Bros. 4; Lucina herself is identical to a Project Smash Attacks hack seen in "The Lucina PSA". While not particularly widespread outside All is Brawl, the hoax was the first to showcase the level of elaboration that Brawl hacks bring to rumor producers; later hoaxed images were made with similar techniques, and other hoaxes were often compared to existing Brawl hacks to check for their credibility.

Lucina was confirmed to be a playable character on 14 July 2014, over one year after the faked image was first posted.

Ness and Jigglypuff hoax

File:Ness and Jigglypuff hoax.pngFile:Ness SSB4 Hoax.png

Left Image: The false image of Jigglypuff and
Ness in the 3DS version of SSB4.
Center Image: False official artwork of Ness from SSB4.
Right Image: An image comparing the Ness and Jigglypuff
leak with an official screenshot, proving the leak as false.

In November 2013, two supposedly leaked images of Ness and Jigglypuff in Super Smash Bros. 4 began to circulate on Smash-related message boards and other resources. One of these images depicted the "official" artwork of Ness for Smash 4, while the other picture featured both Ness and Jigglypuff standing on the Battlefield stage in the 3DS version. The gameplay image, however, was proven fake after cross-checking it with an actual image of Link and Toon Link standing on the same stage; numerous graphical differences could be seen between the two images, primarily in regards to the rendering of the outlines and shadows in the faked image.

Both characters were later unofficially confirmed after the game's Japanese release. Ness's actual artwork in the game, however, differs from the false artwork. Furthermore, Jigglypuff's model in the final game is different from the hoaxed images, particularly in regards to the size and spacing of its eyes.

Palutena hoax

The purported images of Palutena.

On 22 January 2014, two supposedly leaked images of Palutena in the 3DS version of Super Smash Bros. 4 began to circulate on the internet. The veracity of the images were immediately questioned, though some observers noted that the model and poses used by Palutena were not seen in any previous photo, and unlike the Lucina rumor, no hacks available for Brawl could replicate the image seen. Of particular note is that after the two images were released, a series of Kid Icarus-related images were released on Miiverse, leading some observers to speculate that Sakurai was aware of the Palutena images.

The models used in the hoaxed images.

During the 2014 E3 event, Nintendo confirmed Palutena's inclusion in the game, and gameplay footage of her was also shown; despite this, several differences between the models used in the rumored photos and the actual game were observed, which led to debate over whether or not the images were legitimate in the first place. The images were finally revealed hoaxes in a thread on 4chan concerning the ESRB leak; Mario and Palutena were created in an external program and these models were later digitally manipulated to resemble those from Super Smash Bros. 4.

Raiden leak

In early April 2014, Reuben Langdon, a voice actor known for voicing Ken Masters in the Street Fighter series and Dante in the Devil May Cry series, claimed in an interview that he had voiced Raiden from the Metal Gear series in Super Smash Bros.. As Raiden's only appearance in Brawl was as a sticker (also mentioned in Iroquois Pliskin's trophy description), this seemed to leak Raiden having some sort of major role in SSB4, as well as indirectly confirming the return of Snake and their respective universe. When the news was first announced, some observers believed he was mistaking Super Smash Bros. for PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, a Sony equivalent to Super Smash Bros. that featured Raiden as a playable character. This potential confusion, however, initially was eliminated when it was demonstrated that Raiden's voice actor in the game was Quinton Flynn, not Reuben Langdon. Langdon, however, would later reignite this confusion himself:

“	Oh, the all-stars battle Royale was the one I was in. Lol! Yep. Totally got them confused.	”
—Reuben Langdon, http://www.gonintendo.com/s/225510-raiden-not-appearing-in-smash-bros-wii-u-3ds

Langdon, who also does motion capture work for video games, additionally claimed he was referring to motion capture work. However, no official source credits Langdon as having done any such work in PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, and the credits of that game do not list individual actors that performed motion capture work. As such, it was speculated by some that Langdon may have been trying to cover up an inadvertent leak by falsely confirming the mix-up.

Ultimately, the rumor was proven false when the Japanese version of Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS was released. Snake did not return for SSB4, Raiden did not make any appearances, and the Metal Gear universe does not have any representation in the game, suggesting that Langdon was in fact referencing PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale.

Chunky Kong hoax

Farcical "proof" of Chunky Kong's appearance in Super Smash Bros. 4. The image itself is a modified still from the Patterson-Gimlin film.

During the E3 2014 demo and ensuing Smash-Fest, people reported seeing many previously unrevealed Assist Trophies, such as Shadow, Tingle, and Magnus. While these reports ended up being later confirmed by video evidence, one particular character implicated in these reports, Chunky Kong from Donkey Kong 64, completely eluded any sort of video or photographic evidence. Despite the lack of evidence, people initially generally believed this report, as it came from multiple independent sources, that even fully described his effect as "slamming the ground to make bananas fall from the sky". However, Smash-Fest passed without any sort of video or photographic evidence of Chunky Kong, and with the lack of direct or indirect confirmation from Sakurai, it became doubted if these reports were entirely telling the truth. Chunky Kong later became a minor in-joke within the Smash community; with the lack of any sort of concrete evidence to prove the character's existence despite multiple claims to the contrary, the character was jokingly compared to Bigfoot, a famous North American cryptid.

After Comic-Con 2014 passed, with there still being no visual evidence of Chunky Kong despite the tens of hours of new gameplay footage being seen, the Chunky Kong Assist Trophy was generally regarded as a false report, though it was not known if it was intentionally falsified information, or inadvertently mistaken with another gameplay element. The rumor was ultimately proven completely false after both the Japanese release of Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and the North American release of Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, where Chunky Kong was still absent. About a month after Smash 4's release on Wii U, the poster who first reported the Chunky Kong Assist Trophy confessed to fabricating the claim; he initially intended to use the false piece of information to help himself catch fake leaks, as well as see how many people would repeat his seemingly outlandish claim.

Rayman leak

On 1 August 2014, Nintendo of Canada held a session for Super Smash Bros. 4, where Matt Ryan, a manager of communications, marketing, and alliances of the Canadian division of the company, said the following statement during the session that suggested Rayman was in the game as a playable character:

“	So Pac-Man is one of the new characters we announced at E3 2014, people are pretty excited about that, most excited about that. Rayman and a whole bunch of others.	”
—Matt Ryan

This led to new speculation that Rayman was in Smash 4 as a playable character, rather than just the trophy depicting him. However, it is also speculated it may have been an honest slip-up, with confusion stemming from the common suffix of "Man". Shortly after the sentence, Nintendo of Canada would later clarify that Matt Ryan was referring to the previously seen Rayman trophy. However, like with the Reuben Langdon slipup above, some observers believed it to be a false confirmation as to cover up an inadvertent leak; the release of the game in Japan, however, proved that the supposed confirmation of Rayman as playable was a mental blunder on Ryan's part.

Tower of Smash hoax

Roughly a month prior to the release of Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, a notable rumor began to circulate forums and Smashboards, concerning the ability to connect the 3DS version to the Wii U version, as well as extra information about the Wii U version.

The Tower of Smash rumor claimed that the Wii U version of the game would feature 40 new stages, alongside 15 "past" stages and a few stages shared with the 3DS version, such as Magicant; in addition to these stages, the Stage Builder was claimed to have returned from Brawl after being left out of the 3DS version, and the mode would feature improvements, such as no longer restricting players to one "theme". Arguably the most notable claimed addition was that of a "Tower of Smash" mode. A replacement for the Event Matches that were absent in the 3DS version, the Tower of Smash involved a 100-floor tower which tasked the player, with four characters of their choice, continuously taking part in one-on-one stock battles, with some matches having random modifiers. Various boss battles were also implicated, which would feature characters from outside series, such as Dyna Blade from the Kirby series. These bosses would also make up a new "Boss Rush" mode as somewhat of a successor to the Boss Battles from Brawl.

In addition, leakers claimed that five new characters could be unlocked when the 3DS and Wii U versions were connected. The five implicated characters were Ridley, the Chorus Men, Dixie Kong, Mewtwo, and Impa from The Legend of Zelda. Notably, the first four characters were previously implicated by leakers in the ESRB leak, though the list was intentionally fabricated by the ESRB leaker in order to identify copycat leaks. As a final note to readers, the leaker also claimed that stages and characters would not be unlockable in the game, with all of them being available from the start. However, there were some notable oddities in these leaks, such as the fact that Ridley has no wings on the ground but can sprout them in the air, something that never happens in the Metroid series, and it also said that Mewtwo would make "generic grunts".

The leak was proven false by an an official screenshot demonstrating amiibo. The screenshot showed the roster with characters such as Mr. Game & Watch completely absent, still needing to be unlocked by the player; also worth noting, however, was that Masahiro Sakurai had originally planned for all the characters in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U to be available from the start. The Nintendo Direct presentation on 23 October 2014 further refuted the rumor; while an improved Stage Builder was confirmed in the presentation, the Tower of Smash and Boss Rush modes went without mention, no information was given on Magicant or Mute City being shared stages, and all other implicated characters were absent. Furthermore, Ridley was confirmed to be a stage boss on Pyrosphere, and the Event Matches were confirmed to be returning for the game. While Mewtwo was revealed as a playable character, it was revealed to be a downloadable character, not an on-disc transferable character. Additionally, only 32 new stages and 21 past stages appear in the Wii U version, six of which need to be unlocked and nine of which are obtained via DLC.

Rayman DLC hoax

On February 14, 2015, multiple pictures taken of Ubisoft's Rayman supposedly in SSB4 were posted onto 4chan by an anonymous user. The images were of Rayman's character select screen icon, his render, his character unlock splash art, and the main menu of Super Smash Bros. for Wii U with a new sub menu for a shop. Several hours later, video footage of Rayman's icon in the character select screen being highlighted was posted onto YouTube, but it was later taken down by the uploader. Mewtwo could also be seen above Rayman in the video. A similarly-updated character select screen from the 3DS version also surfaced. Many observers initially believed the hoax, since the images and the video were seemingly error-free, were of reasonably high quality, had renders not seen in any official material, and featured video footage, which was considered near-impossible to fake. This rumor also lined up with a previous rumor with similar information.

Ultimately, the Rayman rumor was deconfirmed the next day in a YouTube video showing how the images and video were faked by the user Artsy Omni, who revealed that he did it as a promotional stunt for his new web series, Smashified. Artsy Omni was also the artist and author of another previous high-quality fake of Klonoa becoming a playable character, which was quickly debunked because of errors in the Japanese text. Artsy Omni would later apologize for disappointing numerous Smash players with his hoax, though work on Smashified has continued.

Notably, the image of Rayman and Mewtwo's portraits in the 3DS version was not shown by Artsy Omni, instead being submitted by an unknown third party.

While a DLC shop for the game was added in a future update, it is only present in the 3DS version, as the Wii U version requires the use of the Nintendo eShop to purchase downloadable content; furthermore, the placement of the DLC Shop is in a completely different area than shown in the images.

• 

  The character selection screen.

• 

  The in-game portrait.

• 

  The unlock splash art.

• 

  The updated menu, notice "Shop" to the right of the 3DS option.

• 

  The 3DS version with the same additions.

Shovel Knight rumor

In late August 2015, Tamaki, an employee from Unseen64, reported that a "reputable source" had informed him of a forthcoming announcement of a Shovel Knight amiibo, and, by extension, an appearance of the character himself in Smash 4, which would be compatible with said amiibo, and retailers would be giving out download codes of said character. Yacht Club Games, the developers of Shovel Knight, did indeed reveal a Shovel Knight amiibo at PAX Prime 2015, but said amiibo was announced only as having compatibility with the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U versions of Shovel Knight. Shovel Knight's amiibo was also shown to have a different base and packaging from the Smash series of amiibo.

Despite these statements, Tamaki stated that Shovel Knight was still on the way according to his source, and was expected to come around the end of October or the beginning of November. The rumor was ultimately debunked following the final DLC announcements on December 15, 2015, where Shovel Knight failed to make an appearance of any kind. In 2018, the source came out and explained that he had the Shovel Knight amiibo leaked to him, wrongly “made the leap”, as there were only Smash Bros amiibo available at the time, and gave Tamaki the info.

Eventually, Shovel Knight made it in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, but as an Assist Trophy.

Rigged Ballot rumor

On July 2, 2018, dataminer Ruben found that Bayonetta may have been chosen for DLC as early as patch 1.0.6, which was published only two weeks after the Smash Bros. Fighter Ballot opened and several months before Bayonetta was announced as the winner of the ballot. Dataminers Marioking64DS and Ehm later confirmed that files for Bayonetta existed in the patch. This caused a backlash in the community with many people accusing Sakurai of lying about the winner of the ballot. However, it is possible that she received a large number of votes during the first two weeks the ballot was open. It should also be noted that Sakurai and Iwata have always talked about the ballot as though it was a suggestion box, not a poll. Sakurai would later state that he referred to the ballot when deciding on newcomers for Ultimate.

Rumors about Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

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. Furthermore, on March 22, an invitational tournament for the game was announced alongside the Splatoon 2 World Championship, and even later it got an original title and tons of new features, making the rumor false.

Vergeben leaks

On May 16th, 2018, a user known as Vergeben posted a thread on GameFAQs, claiming he had a reliable source with information on the character roster of the then teased but still unrevealed Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Specifically, he said that Ridley and Simon Belmont would be newcomers and that the entire roster from Super Smash Bros. 4 would return with no cuts, with the Ice Climbers and Snake also returning after being cut from SSB4. Vergeben also claimed that the popular Microsoft-owned indie game Minecraft would be represented in some form.

On June 12, 2018, The lack of cuts from SSB4's roster, the return of Snake and the Ice Climbers, and the addition of Ridley were all confirmed during Nintendo’s E3 2018 Direct. This left Simon Belmont and Minecraft representation Vergeben's only unconfirmed claims. In response to a GameFAQs post asking about Simon, Vergeben replied “Just be patient. There’s still things to be revealed before release”, suggesting that Simon would be revealed at a later date. He later claimed on Reddit that there were at least “half a dozen newcomers” left to be revealed, but he didn’t know who any of them were aside from Simon.

On July 28, 2018, Vergeben made a post on GameFAQs titled Disregard ALL people claiming leaks that don't have these two characters, which restated his earlier claim that Simon would appear and also added Isabelle to his list of claims.

On August 3, 2018, Vergeben posted on a GameFAQs thread where he claimed that a Pokémon from Generation VII would appear as a playable fighter, and that it would not be Decidueye, Lycanroc, or Mimikyu.

On August 8, 2018, Simon Belmont was officially revealed as a newcomer in that day's Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Direct, confirming Vergeben's earlier claims that he would appear. [2] Also in this Direct, Mimikyu was revealed to appear as a Poké Ball summon, corroborating his claim that a Generation VII Pokémon that is not Mimikyu will be playable.

On August 18, 2018, Vergeben made a post on a thread stating that Ken from Street Fighter would appear in the game as an Echo Fighter of Ryu.

On August 22, 2018, Vergeben made another post on a thread, this time stating that a new third-party fighter owned by Square Enix would appear in the game. This lead some to believe that Vergeben was simply taking info from the NeoGAF Leak, but the next day he claimed in a thread that he did not know anything about the NeoGAF leak. He also states that the NeoGAF leak contradicts his own information, since it claims there will be no new Pokémon rep.

On September 13, 2018, Isabelle was revealed as a newcomer at the end of that day's Nintendo Direct, confirming Vergeben's claim that she would appear as a playable character.

On September 16, 2018, Vergeben made a new thread claiming that his reliable sources have finally confirmed to him that Incineroar is the Generation VII Pokémon that will appear as a newcomer. He also addresses the popular "Box Theory", which states that there will only be two more fighters in the base game as the box art for the Special Edition of the game only has room for two more fighters. He states that he knows for certain that Incineroar and Ken will be in the game, and that the source for the Square Enix newcomer had never been wrong in the past. He also claims the game will have post-launch content, which could possibly include the Square Enix newcomer if the Box Theory turns out to be true.

On October 31, 2018, Vergeben made a surprising claim suggesting that Isaac, in contrast to what the banner leak was suggesting, was an Assist Trophy instead of being playable.

On November 1, 2018, the final Nintendo Direct for Ultimate revealed Ken and Incineroar as the last fighters to be announced for the base game, confirming Vergeben's earlier claims about them. It was also announced in this direct that there would be additional fighters as paid DLC, which could possibly include the Square Enix newcomer.

At present, these are the claims made by Vergeben that have not yet been confirmed:

• Minecraft will be represented in some form.
• A newcomer owned by Square Enix will appear.

Codenames "leak"

The Codenames "leak" refers to a popular leak stemming from 4chan’s /v/ board 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.

On July 1st, 2018, a user on 4chan posted a thread claiming to know what characters would be in the new Smash Bros. game, and when they would be revealed. Oddly, this leaker used codenames instead of the characters actual name in their post. The reason for this is unknown, although many have speculated the reason is so the leak wouldn't immediately get shot down due to it featuring an unlikely character.

According to the post:

• In July, the characters “King” and “Ponytail” will be revealed in a mini Nintendo Direct.
• In August, the character “Old Man” will be revealed at EVO 2018.
• In September, the character “Archer” will be revealed in a Nintendo Direct of some kind.
• In October, the Characters “Warrior” and “Secretary” will be revealed in a Nintendo Direct centered around Ultimate.
• In November, the character “Mech” will be revealed in a surprise character announcement.
• The Characters “Rhythm”, “Folklore”, “Doll”, and “Prime Ribs” won’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, it was covered by many articles on Inverse, with the first one being posted on July 6th, 2018. This caused it to be picked up by users of Reddit and various Smash Bros. discussion boards, gaining credibility due to a previous 4chan leak, the 4chan E3 2018 leak, turning out to be legitimate. Due to the immense amount of discussion on Reddit, Twin Galaxies, Smash Boards, and other sites, it was further spread to news websites such as Kotaku.

The popularity of the rumor peaked when it started trending on YouTube, with many users posting discussion videos which would gain tens of thousands of views in a matter of days. The most popular video was posted by Aaronitmar, which accumulated nearly 500,000 views in nine days.

Much of the discussion on this rumor was on what characters represented which codename. Some of the most popular ideas included:

• King: King K. Rool
• Ponytail: Dixie Kong or Shantae.
• Old Man: Heihachi Mishima from Tekken.
• Archer: Decidueye, or another Mii Fighter class.
• Secretary: Isabelle from the Animal Crossing series.
• Warrior: Simon Belmont from Castlevania, or a new character from Fire Emblem or The Legend of Zelda.
• Mech: Chibi-Robo or Elma from Xenoblade Chronicles X.
• Rhythm: A character from Rhythm Heaven.
• Folklore: Amaterasu from Ōkami or a character from Touhou Project.
• Doll: Geno.
• Prime Ribs: Dark Samus or Ninten from EarthBound Beginnings.

However, 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 will not be revealed until after launch and will be available via a free update, while Doll will 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" will be revealed in a Nintendo Direct in September. The user then stated that they were unaware of the other characters' reveal dates, indicating that the ones listed above may be inaccurate. Similarly to the other codenames, there was much discussion on who Soul and Fake may be, with some of the leading theories being Sans or another character from Undertale (a game where the player's "SOUL" is a major part of the plot), Shadow the Hedgehog (after numerous scenes in Sonic Adventure 2 where Sonic calls him "Faker" and "Fake Hedgehog"), Mimikyu (a Pokémon known for disguising itself), or characters from the plethora of games with "soul" in their title, including Dark Souls or Soulcalibur (such as Solaire from the former).

Most of the information provided in the leak has been proven false, and while some characters that were supposedly in the leak have been confirmed, they were not confirmed in the correct month.

Loz18 leaks

After posting an accurate leak related to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate information shared at E3 2018, GameFAQs user 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 credibility, some 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.

New mode speculation

Shortly after the August 2018 Smash Direct, Twitter user NoctuleScent made a twitter thread documenting his attempt at deciphering the name of an unannounced mode, shown in the Direct as part of Ultimate's menu, hidden behind a pixelated blur filter and to be revealed at a later date. The tweet claims that the mode's name is "Spirits", discovered thanks to a "mistake from the editing team", in which parts of the name can be seen for 2 frames as the menu zooms away from deselecting Smash mode. Another tweet shows the name with both frames juxtaposed with image editing software for better clarity. This was corroborated by another Twitter user, Joe Pines.

Shortly after the original tweet, another one from the original user explains that the same method can be used for the japanese version of the Direct, revealing a direct translation of "Spirits" in katakana (スピリッツ, Spirits). Another tweet claims that the logo above the name resembles a magatama, an item often associated with spirits, further drawing a connection to the name.

NeoGAF leak

On July 3rd, 2018, NeoGAF user WhisslBlank made a post in a thread. He stated the following:

• King K. Rool, Simon Belmont, and Isaac are newcomers.
• Chrom as an Echo fighter to Roy.
• Soren from Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance as a Echo fighter to Robin.
• Ken from Street Fighter as a Echo fighter to Ryu which the difference between him and Ryu is that Ken has flame effects.
• An unknown Square Enix or Final Fantasy fighter that serves as a "addition" with Cloud.
• No newcomers from The Legend of Zelda.
• No newcomers from Pokémon.
• There are 12 more newcomers in all: 7 original fighters and 5 Echo fighters.

Three of the alleged newcomers (King K. Rool, Simon, and Chrom) were all revealed in the Nintendo August Direct.

Another post was later made by a newly created account of the same name with a unknown relationship with the one above, the 1st post states:

• A clarification that the total number of newcomers was the "leaker's" own interpretation based on what his/her source said.
• Isabelle, Isaac, Ken, and Soren are still on their way.
• A Monster Hunter character as a playable fighter.
• Terra from Final Fantasy VI as a playable fighter.
• A Bandai Namco character as a playable fighter.
• Sablé Prince from Kaeru no Tame ni Kane wa Naru as a playable fighter.
• Felix from Golden Sun as a echo fighter for Isaac, Isaac and Felix will both be revealed together in a trailer like Simon's and Richter's trailer.
• Shadow as a Echo fighter to Sonic.
• Galacta Knight as a echo fighter for Meta Knight.

The 2nd post stated that Soren's effects are different from Robin's effects and Soren has a "adjusted" dagger instead of Robin's Bronze Sword.

The 3rd post stated that he has more sources and he will post them and 3 days later, the last post states:

• The Bandai Namco character is revealed to be Lloyd from Tales.
• Skull Kid is in the game as a playable fighter.
• A new mode will be a mixture between Brawl{'}s Subspace Emissary and Melee{'}s Adventure Mode.
• Boss Battle Mode is in the game.
• The ability to switch character voices between Japanese and English.
• A new "mastermind" like Tabuu from Brawl.
• The motto "Everyone's here" refers to something not just all fighters returning.

The last post also gave out hints, which are:

1. "The princess will be happy to see this person again." which relates to Skull Kid as stated by the user.
2. "A young man's unstoppable destiny. One will live and one will die."
3. "Beloved little guy, with blue as his favorite color."
4. "Dynamic Duo."

A third account of the same name has posted hints stating:

1. Does not perform well in Autumn.
2. This one might be dead.
3. After which, this one is without a hat.
4. Better bring some bacon as well.

Later, the second account made a post denying that the third account was his, and also posted screenshots seemingly proving that he owned the first account, although the screenshots could be fake. Considering the conflicting information regarding The Legend of Zelda fighters, the presence of a Galacta Knight-inspired costume for Meta Knight in Ultimate, and the three confirmed newcomers already being previously popular guesses, this leak is likely false.

Richter/Gardevoir/Gothitelle leak

On July 1st, 2018, an alleged leak was posted on 4chan, claiming to be from someone working at CEO who got a hold of the code for the demo. The leaker claims that the following character's names were present:

• "Rihita", Richter's Japanese name.
• "Sirnight", Gardevoir's Japanese name.
• "Gothiruselle", Gothitelle's Japanese name listed under in the same manner that Lucina's name was listed under Marth, leading them to believe that Gothitelle is an Echo Fighter of Gardevoir.
• "Mario2" was listed as a separate character which the leaker believed could be Paper Mario or Super Mario 64 Mario.
• "Kruru", referring to King K. Rool.
• "DakuS", likely referring to Dark Samus. This name is inconsisent with Dark Samus' internal name in SSB4, "darksamus".

Additionally, Simon's name was stated not to be present.

The August Direct revealed that Richter, King K. Rool and Dark Samus are all playable fighters, but it is unknown if this is simply a successful guess. Simon was also revealed, disproving the claim that only Richter would be playable. It is worth noting that both Brawl and Smash 4 use official romanizations of a character's Japanese name (Example: Rufure = Reflet, the Japanese name for Robin), not the actual Japanese pronunciation. Even the Japanese website has official romanizations for characters like Lizardon (Charizard), Reflet (Robin), and even Richter.

Gardevoir is confirmed to be a Poke Ball Pokemon in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as well.

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.

4chan Render hoax

File:SSBURenderLeak.jpg

A popular edit of the original image spread through Twitter.

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.

LaPailleDor Leaks

File:Jeuxvideo.com ssbu leak.jpg

On July 12th, 2018, a jeuxvideo.com user named LaPailleDor made a thread stating that Chrom, King K. Rool, Richter, and Simon are all playable fighters and Dracula was a boss and the introduction of Stage Morph which were all later revealed in the August direct. The remaining info stated:

• Ken from Street Fighter, Isaac from Golden Sun, and Black Shadow from F-Zero are all playable fighters.
• Giygas from Earthbound is a boss.
• Event mode is confirmed coming back with Bosses.

Later, Smashboards user tehponycorn asked LampeDyanmo, pokemontrololo, and Baxel if they were involved with this thread. LampeDyanmo replied that he posted in the thread, Baxel replied that he cannot say anything about the thread, and pokemontrololo replied that he made a post in a leak thread. This makes the posts of LampeDyanmo and pokemontrololo the only evidence of this leak to be true.

Even later, Smashboards user Dukeofdeath5 contacted jeuxvideo.com moderator KirikRung, who alleged that the thread was real but was an "organized fake" and that LaPailleDor posted "random characters". While it is unknown what he or she meant by this, posts on jeuxvideo.com can only be edited within 10 minutes of the original posting time, which dismisses the possibility that LaPailleDor edited his post with correct information a month after it was made. He could still have done it with an external tool such as Inspect Element or Photoshop.

On September 22nd, 2018, LaPailleDor made a thread on 4chan, proving his identity and claiming that the mod lied about the leak being fake. He went on to state:

• Skull Kid, Medusa from Kid Icarus, Ayumi Tachibana from Famicom Detective Club, Ninten from EarthBound Beginnings, and Reimu Hakurei from Touhou Project are all playable fighters.
• 0² (albeit referred as "Zero-Two") from Kirby and Kyurem from Pokémon are both bosses.
• There is a new version of Poké Floats with more Pokémon.
• The ability to change the design of the two Battlefields and Final Destination stages to the designs from Smash 64, Melee, Brawl, for 3DS/Wii U, and Ultimate has been added.

No Codec Conversations

On September 8th, 2018 in Fan Expo Boston 2018, a fan asked David Hayter about Ultimate, and Hayter replied that more Codec Conversations haven't been recorded yet. This lead some fans to believe that the Codec Conversations would not be in the game at all. Some players of the demo have cited the removal of the Star Fox Smash Taunt in Lylat Cruise, but one possible explanation for that is it was disabled for the demo. Others have stated that there is evidence of new recordings for Palutena's Guidance, as Pit's Star KO voice clip was completely new. Some fans point out that Hayter, as an actor, could be under contract and have a non-disclosure agreement, and not be allowed to discuss content about upcoming games he is in; however, Hayter himself brought up the topic of Codec Conversations without being asked specifically about it, after openly acknowledging that he probably was not supposed to say anything, which makes it unlikely that he was trying to obfuscate the truth.

Nintenderos Placeholder Rumor

A user on Nintenderos found image URLs on the Ultimate website, in which he noticed that universes with only one character had the regular URL, while universes with more than one character both the regular and an additional one with "black" at the end; the difference between these images is that the "black" variants generally have darker text. The images are related to particular pages on the website: the regular versions are used when sorting all fighters by series, while the black variants are used on individual character pages under the "More Fighters From This Series" section. Universes that currently have only one character, namely F-Zero, R.O.B., Wii Fit, and Pac-Man, also have black variants, implying that those universes would have newcomers, however whether the URLs are placeholders for upcoming characters or simply leftovers is unknown.

It should be noted that this rule is not uniform: Kirby and Kid Icarus both have only one URL, despite each having more than one character. Additionally, shortly after the rumor surfaced, Isabelle was announced as the second playable representative of the Animal Crossing series, which was not listed as one of the universes with a different URL.

CoroCoro stages rumor

The September 16 issue of CoroCoro, a Japanese magazine, showed information on Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. What was shown was mostly a retread of what was already seen in the August 2018 Smash Direct. One of the Direct's highlights was the number of stages getting revealed, which was 103. The magazine, on the other hand, stated that the number of stages would be 108. While this could be assumed as a printing error, many users have noticed how this number perfectly matches with the image of the Stage Selection Screen that was shown in the aforementioned Direct, which has room for six more spots, the last of which could be for DLC stages.

The October issue of CoroCoro dropped the stage count back to 103. It is unknown if the September issue's count was a misprint or something that they were not allowed to reveal.

Sora rumor

On September 20, 2018, to a tweet asking if Kingdom Hearts protagonist Sora would be playable in Ultimate, series co-creator Shinji Hashimoto responded with "Yes!". Although he later deleted the tweet, this led many to believe that Sora would be a playable character, with some pointing out its consistency with Vergeben's Square Enix rumor.

It should be noted, however, that while Kingdom Hearts is developed by Square Enix, the series itself, including the characters, are owned by Disney.

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.

Nintendo Event at Arcade MTL

On October 16th, 2018, the Facebook page for the Montreal-based "barcade", Arcade MTL, posted a countdown page depicting a Nintendo Switch event for a secret game that not even the bar's owners were allowed to know about. Some fans speculated that this might be a viewing party set-up for a possible upcoming Smash Bros. Direct coming on October 18th. However, it was confirmed the following day to be a demo for Ultimate.

Banner hoax

The images of the finalized banner.

On October 24th, 2018, an image quickly circulated around the internet of the final version of Ultimate's character banner; in it, Isaac, Banjo and 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 Nintendo mdrrr", which translates from French as "fuck Nintendo 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 has proven difficult to disprove, as, much like the ESRB leak, renders of the new characters have not been found elsewhere on the internet.

Quite humorously, the leak has also been dubbed the "Grinch leak", as a 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 from the upcoming 2018 film, which supported the leak's validity.

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 characters, contradicting the banner's hinted characters. Shadow and Isaac were shown in the direct as Assist Trophies instead. Additionally, Ken's artwork is slightly different than the leaked banner's and in a completely different location.

Healing Sprout leak

The item, seen in the trailer.

On October 26th, 2018, Nintendo of America uploaded a video onto Twitter showcasing and promoting their Wendy's College Tailgate Tour, with several clips of full gameplay intertwined with demo gameplay. For a split second, on Mute City, a circular unrevealed item can be seen; fans quickly took notice that this item bears a strong resemblance to the Growth Psynergy from Golden Sun: Dark Dawn.

The item was revealed to be Healing Sprout on November 1st, 2018, a new item unrelated to Growth Psynergy. However, Isaac was confirmed on the same day to return as an Assist Trophy, meaning Golden Sun representation returned nonetheless.

See also

• Leak

External links

• Sonic & Tails Hoax picture
• Toad rumor on Detstar
• The Master Hand Rumor