Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Unreleased

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (大乱闘スマッシュブラザーズ Special) is an upcoming fighting game developed by Bandai Namco Studios and Sora Ltd. and published by Nintendo. It is the fifth installment in the Super Smash Bros. series, and will be released for the Nintendo Switch on December 7, 2018.

On August 8, 2018 it was announced via a Nintendo Direct stream that Simon Belmont and Richter Belmont, two iconic characters from Konami's Castlevania franchise, will appear as playable characters, with the latter being an "Echo" character (a cosmetic copy) of Simon, meaning both will have the same moveset, although Richter will have slightly altered characteristics from Simon. Other characters from the series, as well as renowned enemies, will also appear in the game, including Alucard as an "Assist Trophy", the Mummy, Medusa, The Creature and Flea Man (Igor), the Werewolf, Carmilla, Death, Kid Dracula, and of course, Dracula himself.

Ultimate will have a Castlevania stage themed after Dracula's Castle and will feature 34 music tracks from across the series. Due to the inclusion of all the above, Castlevania is the third-party series to feature the most content in any Smash Bros. game (as of its reveal) and the first one to include an Echo fighter (Richter).

Gameplay
Super Smash Bros. is a fighting game starring characters from various video games (primarily Nintendo's own stable of games, although later games in the series have brought in guest fighters from other companies such as Konami, Capcom and Sega). In normal gameplay, two to eight players square off on stages usually consisting of several platforms. The goal of the match is to knock the opposing fighters off the stage through the use of the character's own weapons and abilities or with weapons and items that appear randomly across the battlefield, such as swords, food, ray guns, bombs, hammers and Pokeballs. As fighters are hit, their damage level increases, causing them to be knocked away farther when hit by powerful weapons and/or "Smash Attacks" until they cannot recover to the edge of the stage, or are simply launched right off.

Each Belmont will come armed with their own version of the legendary Vampire Killer whip, which is expected to be a slow albeit longer weapon than any other that the rest of the fighters will wield in this game; and well-known sub-weapons such as the Axe, Cross and Holy Water will act as "secondary attacks", as well as the inclusion of some of Richter's characteristic moves such as the Uppercut, Slide, Slide Jump and Tackle for both characters. The Belmonts' "Final Smash" will be the Grand Cross.

Vampire Killer trailer description
The trailer starts with a castle shown in the rain. A hooded figure advances under the rain before opening the doors to a dark corridor. Someone is heard screaming deeper into the castle: it is Luigi who is fighting Mummies. After his equipment proves to be ineffective, Luigi runs away in a room featuring a statue. As Luigi thinks he's safe, the statue animates and reveals to be Medusa, who scares Luigi away. As he runs, Luigi trips and falls face to face with Death who rips his soul with his Scythe. As Death contemplates Luigi's soul, he takes a direct hit to his skull from a chain whip. The holder is the hooded figure who reveals to be Simon Belmont. Simon throws a Cross to Death before the trailer switches to gameplay footage.

Later, Simon is seen fighting Dracula and taking a hit from a flame pillar. As Simon is seen in a bad position on the ground, with a giant fireball coming right at him, another chain whip destroys the fireball. It is revealed Richter Belmont is the one protecting Simon, stating: "Begone! You don't belong in this world, monster!" before the trailer switches to gameplay again.

Castlevania features
Death's Scythe appears in the game as an attacking item, with the ability to outright kill a fighter whose damage level is high enough.

Alucard appears as an "Assist Trophy", a secondary character who, when summoned by the titular item, will fight on the player's behalf for a short period of time. Alucard uses the Crissaegrim to hit opponents at short range, transforms into a bat to reach foes at long distance, and can dodge attacks by using Mist Form. Like other Assist characters, he can be attacked and KO'ed by opponents, but according to Sakurai, Alucard is quite challenging.

The "Castlevania" stage is called Dracula's Castle. It is a revamped version of Dracula's Castle from its original Castlevania incarnation. Popular to the series, candlesticks will appear on the stage which can be broken in order to obtain useful items.

Classic bosses from the franchise will also appear based on the two games both Belmonts originally come from: Castlevania and Castlevania: Rondo of Blood; as such, Medusa will appear in her floating bust form as seen in her introductory appearance in the first game, and The Creature will once again tag along with the Flea Man (Igor, who had not appeared in any game since his introduction back in 1986). Two Mummies are also known to appear, probably reenacting their boss battle from the first game. A Werewolf is also known to appear, bearing the same design and color scheme from Rondo of Blood, as well as Carmilla in her floating mask incarnation from the same game (which in turn is based on her first appearance in Simon's Quest). Dracula also appears as a stage boss to challenge players, but conditions under which he will appear are still unknown.

Music
There will be a total of 34 pieces of music related to the Castlevania franchise that will be playable in Ultimate, with both new as well as classic pieces of music.


 *  An "Original" means the track is straight ripped from a Castlevania game. A "Remix" means the track was arranged for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. 

Trivia

 * Kid Dracula (character) - 01.png one part of the August 8, 2018 Direct stream, a silhouette can briefly be seen on a wall illuminated by lightning which strongly resembles Kid Dracula from Akumajō Special: Boku Dracula-kun (and other games), hinting on his appearance in the game in some form.
 * Reinhardt Schneider, Leon Belmont, Juste Belmont, Shanoa, Charlotte Aulin, Gabriel Belmont, Carmilla's Mask,Maria Renard, and Medusa appear as Spirits (collectables) in the Spirit mode.