Meet The New Super Smash Bros. Challengers

There has been a lot of speculation on the character roster for the new Super Smash Bros. as the 2014 release draws closer. The latest Nintendo Direct revealed that the roster has just grown by 2 and in a bit of a shock, the 2 newcomers are Pokemon. It will be interesting to see who else makes the cut as the Summer/Winter release draws closer.

To kick things off, it was revealed that the dual characters from past games have been separeted and turned into powerful yet balanced fighters. This split includes Samus/Zero Suit Samus and Zelda/Sheik which essentially turns 2 difficult to handle brawlers into 4 rebalanced and competitive fighters. In addition to the split, Pokemon Trainer (along with his character swapping) has been removed in favor of the newly revealed Charizard with Pokemon X & Y newbie Greninja debuting as well. Here is the new reveal trailer. Enjoy!

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It seems as if series creator Masahiro Sakurai is making the latest game more balanced and competitive like 2001's Super Smash Bros. Melee which is still the gold standard for tournament Smash Bros. His presentation of the game during the Nintendo direct showed a more focused entry in the series with a concerted effort to balanced both characters and gameplay so every character has a fighting chance. This was missing from Super Smash Bros. Brawl which was an excellent game but felt really random during multiplayer due to the unbalanced set of charcters. Honestly, the new game shows a lot of passion and feels like it could go down as the Street Fighter II of the Super Smash Bros. series in terms of balance and accessibility. Not a bad thing when you consider that games legacy.