A hoax photo ofUltimate's supposed finalized banner of the roster that contained several characters that would not be playable inUltimate; dubbed "The Grinch Leak" due to being shown with advertisements for the then-upcoming movie.

Arumor is a statement or story that gains traction within popular discourse but lacks sufficient verifiable evidence to be confirmed or denied. Like many other games, theSuper Smash Bros. series has had various rumors spread about it, usually through the internet, and sometimes magazines. Most of the time, rumors claimed to contain information concerningplayable characters, though rumors concerning other aspects of gameplay, such as development scheduling, can also appear.

Rumors typically have no more than hearsay as evidence, though some can contain true information, or even fabricated information that coincidentally becomes true with later developments. Rumors can be proven true or false on arrival via fact-checking or by waiting for relevant information from official sources, though the vast majority are proven false. That being said, rumors that are later proven true tend to receive concrete evidence later on, shifting it into the realm ofleaks. Some false rumors are intentionally created to give the creator attention or just cause commotion, with some going as far as to fabricate evidence, with instances of this nature being defined as a hoax.

While rumors about theSmash series are innumerable, this article documents only especially notable rumors, whether for being well known and widely spread, for being from a notable source, or for other noteworthy reasons worth mentioning.

Common/Recurring rumors

An example rumored leak ofBrawl's selection screen. Note thatToon Link is named asYoung Link.

As with any game, theSmash Bros. series has had various works of fan art being passed off as supposedly leaked screenshots. Box art and character selection screens forBrawl 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 asYouTube quickly disproved most of these rumors as more gameplay footage of the game became public.

Many character selection screens forMelee also made the rounds, though these screens were less credible due to the ability to quickly distribute images on the internet being unfeasible duringMelee's release; by then, all the unlockables had been well-known. Some of these fake rosters, however, were merely made as jokes, includinga 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 ofhis official artwork fromSuper Mario 64 DS; adding to this, the hoaxed image features both three-dimensional models (such as for the aforementioned Luigi and theF-Zero characterBlack Shadow) and two-dimensional illustrations (such as forMarth andFire Emblem characterMicaiah). Furthermore, hoaxers have sometimes made various oversights while producing such images. A minor hoax, for instance, claimed to feature the character Agnès fromBravely Default as a playable character, but thefaked images improperly spelt her name as "Agnés", and her character portrait was different between thetwo images given.^[1]

Rumors aboutSuper Smash Bros.

Non-playable characters hoaxes

Being able to play as characters such asMetal Mario,Giant Donkey Kong,Master Hand, or aFighting 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 the1P Game as every character in a specific order on Very Hard with astock of one). Many videos on YouTube continue to claim these rumors, but all of these which supposedly work merely usecheatdevices to allow playability of these characters.

Scrapped characters rumor

A popular rumor aboutSmash 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 areWario,Pit, andMeowth. A page on the officialSmash 64 website claims thatBowser,King Dedede, andMewtwo were indeed planned to be playable inSmash 64, but the reason for their exclusion is not specifically stated.^[2] A 64 Dream interview confirms that Peach was initially considered, but wasn't added due to balancing issues, as well as not wanting to lean heavily intoMario series characters.^[3] Additionally,Marth was planned but cut due to time constraints, according to an interview from a book titledMaking of Fire Emblem: 25 Years of Development Secrets.^[4] No sources, however, have been proven to support Pit, Meowth, Wario, or any other characters as having ever been planned to be playable in the game.

Rumors aboutSuper Smash Bros. Melee

Sonic and Tails hoax

EGM's "proof" of Sonic and Tails appearing inSSBM

The Sonic and Tails rumor inMelee remains one of the most infamous rumors not just in theSuper Smash Bros. series, but also in the world of video games. An April Fools' joke pulled by the gaming-themed magazineElectronic Gaming Monthly said that Sonic and Tails could be unlocked after defeating 20 enemies inCruel Melee, then defeating the two in a two-against-one battle. The blurb also claimed that upon completingClassic Mode with either of the two characters, the player would get a "special surprise". WhileEGM was famous for itsprevious April Fools' Day pranks, such as the infamous"Sheng Long cheat" inStreet Fighter II (which would later be referenced byRyu'sreveal trailer inSmash 4), many readers still fell for the rumor.

The rumor can be debunked through multiple pieces of evidence:

• The givenunlock 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 withthat 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 alltrophies, 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 therandom 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 toone of his official renders fromSonic 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 ofMelee,Sega andNintendo 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 byEDGE with former head of Sonic TeamYuji Naka, claimed that, on the topic of Sonic and Tails appearing inMelee, "it was very close, but time constraints did not allow us to continue with the idea.Media:YujiNakaInterview.jpg"
• There is no data on the game's disc relating to the duo, and they cannot be selected with thedebug 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 theMaster Hand glitch, does not unlock the duo, and in the early years of the rumor, aninfamous video featuringPikachu 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 publicationNintendo Power publishing an article about how the rumor was a hoax, and the page onMelee 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 ofSonic Adventure 2: Battle, Sonic's first game on a Nintendo system. Due to the wide spread of rumors relating toSonic characters, the FAQ onMelee's US website notified players that Sonic, along with Knuckles, was not a playable character.^[5]

Sonic later became a playable character in all Smash games starting withBrawl, whileTails made a number of cameo appearances.

This rumor would later go on to be referenced in the "Super Smash Bros. Series" column of theSonic the Hedgehog Encyclo-speed-ia, where it is jokingly stated within the unlock requirements for Sonic that "defeating ten enemies in Cruel Melee in Super Smash Bros. Melee is not one of them," though erroneously stating ten enemies needed to be defeated rather than 20.

Toad hoax

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

The Toad rumor, initially posted ona small Geocities site in November of 2002, stated that Toad could be unlocked as a playable character inMelee after obtaining a perfect score during thecredits 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" theYoshis in theMushroom 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 onGeoCities, 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 unlockingFalco - Falco, however, is unlockable inMulti-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". Tool-assisted runs of a perfect score of the credits and a perfect score byPorkyz on February 2, 2021^[6][7] proved nothing is unlocked with a perfect score.

NeoGAF scrapped characters rumor

Long afterMelee's release in May of 2012, a NeoGAF user named cednym would post information about planned content forMelee that wasscrapped, which he supposedly found in oldFamitsu issues from 2002. Among the claims were several characters being planned for inclusion, which were:King Dedede being the character next inline for inclusion ifMasahiro Sakurai could not receive permission fromIntelligent Systems to useMarth, as well as being considered for inclusion in the place of the sixclones; that Sakurai considered aPokémon Trainer character using the second generation starter Pokémon, but there wasn't enought time and resources for such a labor intensive character;Wario was briefly considered as theMario clone, with low speed and high attack power, but Sakurai felt that Wario deserved better;Wolf was initially slotted asFox's clone, but Sakurai felt he would be perceived as "a grey-colored Fox", so he went withFalco for his more distinct appearance; and Leif fromFire Emblem: Thracia 776 was initially slotted as Marth's clone, but after Intelligent Systems shown Sakurai a preview of the upcomingFire Emblem: The Binding Blade, he thought Roy would be a better fit, with his fire properties making him stand out.^[8] While cednym provided no evidence to legitimize his post, these claims would proliferate within theSmash community as accepted information aboutMelee's development for several years after.

In 2016,Source Gaming would attempt to find these old Famitsu translations or any other information to support these claims, in their endeavor to chronicle all characters that were ever planned or seriously considered for inclusion in anySmash game for their "The Definitive List of Unused Fighters in Smash" article. However, they could not find anything that corroborated any of cednym's claims, in fact they would only find information that contradicted it, such as Sakurai confirming that Wario was the character next inline for inclusion, not King Dedede, as well as Sakurai confirming that he wouldn't have been able to add a single unique newcomer in the place of the six clones, contradicting the claim that Dedede could have been included in their place. Eventually,PushDustin, the admin of Source Gaming at the time, would contact cednym directly for verification of his claims, where he would then admit that his post was entirely falsified.^[9]

Rumors aboutSuper Smash Bros. Brawl

Radio interview rumor

Shortly afterBrawl's announcement, a rumor claimed that in a radio interview, Masahiro Sakurai confirmed thatRidley, acel-shaded Link, andBowser Jr. would be playable characters. Coinciding with this was the rumor ofYoung Link, theIce Climbers, andMr. Game & Watch being dropped. This was proven to be false; whileToon Link does replace Young Link inBrawl as the second Link, Ridley appears as aboss instead of a playable character, Bowser Jr. only appears as asticker andtrophy, and Mr. Game & Watch and the Ice Climbers returned as playable characters inBrawl.

Coincidentally, Bowser Jr.was later playable inSmash 4, with technical limitations of theNintendo 3DS also causing the Ice Climbers to be cut from the game; despite this, Ridley did not become a playable character untilUltimate, and Mr. Game & Watch still returned in every game afterBrawl.

Animal Crossing characters rumors

During the development ofBrawl, multiple rumors suggested that a character fromAnimal Crossing, such as the generic playable character (termed an "Animal Crosser") orTom Nook, would be playable inBrawl. 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 inBrawl bysome music tracks, trophies, stickers,an Assist Trophy,a stage, and numerous cameos on said stage.

AnAnimal CrossingVillager eventually became a playable character inSmash 4; aninterview with Sakurai also states that the Villager was considered for inclusion inBrawl, but the idea was rejected because "he wasn't suited for battle".

Assist trophy rumors

Towards the end of 2007, theWhobby Game Festival occurred in Japan; among its primary points of interests was that a playable demo ofSuper 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 asSmashboards, updates on the game were sparse and difficult to confirm. The most well-known claim, however, stated thatAssist Trophies ofRosalina fromSuper Mario Galaxy,Duster fromMother 3, andMuddy Mole fromMole 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 support characters (such asGardevoir being confused for Rosalina orMr. Resetti being confused for Muddy) or if these claims were deliberately hoaxed to fool players. Incidentally, Rosalina would become playable starting withSmash 4.

Downloadable content rumor

Shortly afterBrawl was released in America,a newspost appeared on the internet, claiming thatBrawl would feature four downloadable characters and two downloadable stages, as well as a new Wii Channel of "Wii Want More". The discovery ofmultiple 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 forBrawl, as the Wii's flash-based internal hardware is incapable of patching or otherwise modifying a game based on a downloaded file; thoughThe Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword would later have aWii channel dedicated to fixing a bug that prevented game progression, this was not a proper downloadable patch, and instead fixed the user's save data for the game. 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 subsequent games, starting withSuper Smash Bros. 4.

Rumors aboutSuper 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 fourthSuper 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.^[10] Sakurai, however, stated that he had not begun working on the newSmash Bros. at the time and was focusing onKid Icarus Uprising; the documents were later finally disproven when it was demonstrated that the game's title would not beSuper Smash Bros. Universe.

Lucina hoax

Mario and Lucina appear to fight on the Great Sea.

AnAll is Brawlblog post made on the 25th of June in 2013 claimed that an image had been leaked on theSmash 4 website, presumably from the "image of the day". The image shows Mario andLucina (fromFire Emblem Awakening) on aFairy Isle in theGreat Sea. There was no evidence on the site, however; the image of the day instead featuredLink doing an aerialSpin Attack inSkyloft.

This image, while initially appearing to be legitimate, was actually compiled using a variety ofelaborate mods available forBrawl. The stage seen in the image is aFairy Isle modded stage, and the Mario in the image uses atexture hack to make his model more closely resemble his newer model inSmash 4; Lucina herself is identical to aProject Smash Attacks mod seen in"The Lucina PSA". While this rumor did not become particularly widespread outside All is Brawl and was debunked fairly quickly, the hoax was the first to showcase the level of elaboration thatBrawl mods bring to rumor producers; many later hoaxed images would similarly use mods to try making their faked leaks look more realistic, and purported leaks consisting of game screenshots or videos were often compared to already existingBrawl mods to check for their credibility.

While this rumor was false,Lucina would later be confirmed to be a playable character on July 14th, 2014, alongsideRobin, over one year after the faked image was first posted. Expectedly, she did not at all resemble her appearance in the hoaxed image, further establishing that the image was a hoax.

Palutena hoax

The purported images of Palutena.

On 22 January 2014, two supposedly leaked images ofPalutena in the 3DS version ofSuper 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 forBrawl could replicate the image seen. Of particular note is that after the two images were released, a series ofKid Icarus-relatedimages 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 confirmedPalutena'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 theESRB leak; Mario and Palutena were created in an external program and these models were later digitally manipulated to resemble those fromSuper Smash Bros. 4.

Chunky Kong hoax

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

During theE3 2014 demo and ensuingSmash-Fest, people reported seeing many previously unrevealedAssist Trophies, such asShadow,Tingle, andMagnus. While these reports ended up being later confirmed by video evidence, one particular character implicated in these reports,Chunky Kong fromDonkey 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 theSmash community; with the lack of any sort of concrete evidence to prove the character's existence despite multiple claims to the contrary, the character wasjokinglycompared toBigfoot, a famous North Americancryptid.

After E3 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 ofSuper Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and the American release ofSuper Smash Bros. for Wii U, where Chunky Kong was still absent. About a month afterSmash 4's release on Wii U, the poster who first reported the Chunky Kong Assist Trophyconfessed 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 DLC hoax

On February 14, 2015, multiple pictures taken of Ubisoft's Rayman supposedly inSmash 4 were posted onto 4chan. The images were of Rayman's character select screen icon, his render, his character unlock splash art, and the main menu ofSuper 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, where Matt Ryan, a manager of communications, marketing, and alliances at Nintendo of Canada, made acomment suggesting that Rayman was in the game.

Ultimately, the Rayman rumor was disconfirmed the next day in aYouTube 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 anotherprevious high-quality fake ofKlonoa becominga playable character, which was quickly debunked because of errors in the Japanese text. Artsy Omni would later apologize for disappointing numerousSmash players with his hoax, though work onSmashified continued for a few years before the series was phased out by Artsy Omni in favor of other projects.

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 futureupdate, it is only present in the 3DS version, as the Wii U version used 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 aShovel Knightamiibo, and, by extension, an appearance of the character himself inSmash 4, which would be compatible with said amiibo, and retailers would be giving out download codes of said character.Yacht Club Games, the developers ofShovel Knight, did indeedreveal a Shovel Knight amiibo atPAX Prime 2015, butsaid amiibo was announced only as having compatibility with theNintendo 3DS andWii U versions ofShovel Knight. Shovel Knight's amiibo was also shown to have a different base and packaging from theSmash 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 thefinal 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.^[11]

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

Rumors aboutSuper Smash Bros. Ultimate

Skull Kid/Dixie Kong/Isaac rumors

Loz18,who had correctly predicted several pieces of content in the E3 2018 and August 2018 Nintendo Directs (with the content that was not announced in August appearing in the game anyways), has made several posts (such ashere) stating thatSkull Kid is probably playable. A few days after the Direct, he closed his GameFAQs account, but not beforestating on Twitter thatDixie Kong has a high chance of being playable, andpossiblyIsaac (these tweets have since been deleted), though he would retract his statements on Isaac on aDiscord server. However, none of his new predictions came true, aside from his final statement on Isaac.

Dante rumor

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

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

On June 28, 2021, Dante was announced as a Mii Swordfighter costume, which was released alongside Challenger Pack 10 the following day.

"The Grinch leak"

The images of the alleged finalized banner.

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

The leak has been dubbed "the Grinch leak", as a previously unseen render of theGrinch can be seen in the bottom right corner in one of the pictures, and another render of the Grinch with his dog, Max, can be seen at the top of another picture. The particular renders are promotional^{[citation needed]} material for the then-upcoming 2018 filmThe Grinch, which seemingly supported the leak's validity, as few believed that a constructor of a fake banner would also put in the time and effort to associate it with an unrelated film. A cropping error on the banner and some stray green pixels also existed where Isaac's location was in the Grinch leak, seemingly further supporting its 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,^[12] and started to doubt its legitimacy.^[13][14] It was also revealed by French graphics company Marina PLV that the leaker used to work for them, and left the company in 2016^[15]; this, while true, was countered by the fact that the company the leak came from is ACP-PLV, where the leaker currently works.^[16]

In the Nintendo Direct on November 1, 2018, Ken and Incineroar were revealed as the final fighters in the base roster, contradicting the banner's rumored characters. Shadow and Isaac were shown in the direct, but as Assist Trophies, while Mach Rider, Geno, and the Chorus Kids were later revealed as Spirits. Additionally, Ken's artwork is slightly different than the leaked banner's^[17] and in a completely different location. Banjo and Kazooie are the only characters in the leak that didn't make an appearance in the base game in any shape or form, although they were revealed as the third DLC fighter in the Fighters Pass Vol. 1 on June 11th, 2019, their artwork being different and in a different location like Ken.

Much later in 2024, following a list of controversies from MysticDistance, who went by the name Midori on Twitter since 2022 and involving catfishing, grooming, and abuse, LunaTheTrip confirmed that he corroborated to the rumor. This also confirms the rumor was not done by one person, but as a group.^[18] Who exactly created this fake leak and how they were able to make such an elaborate hoax are currently a mystery.

Extra character slots datamine

On March 12, 2019, it was discovered that there were 16 character slots found for Adventure Mode, one of which was currently being used forPiranha Plant. While the next five are known to be part of theFighters Pass (includingJoker), the other ten are unknown. This led to speculation that there would be future DLC characters beyond the Fighters Pass. While aNintendo Direct on September 4th, 2019 would confirm that there would be more DLC characters, later in September 24th, 2019, Source Gaming released avideo with help from decompiler jam1garner which they discovered that Joker took a placeholder slot just like Piranha Plant, butBanjo and Kazooie and theHero did not take a slot, suggesting that two more fighters were added later in development of DLC. A total of 12 DLC fighters were released for the game, leaving 6 slots unaccounted for. The purpose of these extra slots remain unknown.

IAmShifty/Brew Elfen Ryu Hayabusa Rumor

On August 30th, 2019, a YouTube user by the name of IAmShifty posted avideo claiming that Ryu Hayabusa from theNinja Gaiden series would be joining the Fighters Pass forSuper Smash Bros. Ultimate. According to the user, Ryu would be the fourth character to be announced for the Fighters Pass. Previously, he had supposedly correctlyleakedIsabelle,Ken,Incineroar andPiranha Plant as playable characters, in addition toMarx appearing as a boss character in the game.

IAmShifty's claim was proven false on the September 4th, 2019 Nintendo Direct whenTerry was revealed to be the fourth fighter in the Fighters Pass instead of Ryu Hayabusa. On October 15th, 2019 IAmShifty reiterated byclaiming that Ryu Hayabusa would be the fifth character in the Fighters Pass. This lined up with a leaker called Brew Elfen, who also claimed that Ryu would be the fifth character and who hadpreviously leaked Piranha Plant on November 1st, 2018. These claims were proven false by the January 16, 2020 presentation whenByleth was revealed instead, and as of the conclusion of Fighters Pass 2 withSora's announcement, Ryu Hayabusa nor anyNinja Gaiden content appeared inUltimate.

Doom/Super Mario RPG Mii Costume rumor

The picture of the two Mii hats.

On November 4th, 2019, a 4chan user posted athread which included a picture ofKen alongside aMii Brawler andMii Gunner wearing headgear based onMallow fromSuper Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars and aCacodemon from theDoom series, respectively, onYggdrasil's Altar. Later, the same user would posttwovideos demonstrating said characters during gameplay. The image was compared with the image shown in aprevious leak from 4chan that revealed Ken as a playable fighter: it features every character within the scenetaunting—including Ken using his up taunt—and takes place in aTime match with thematch timer frozen at 2:30, further demonstrated in the videos.

The latter point suggested that a developer build similar to that in the Ken leak was used for the media (and later, memes with Ken's taunt, dubbed"Thumbs Up Ken", being photoshopped onto future leaks and other unrelated media), and, along with the remaining similarities, raised speculation over the leaker being the author of both threads. Furthermore, it generated speculation about the additions ofGeno and theDoom Slayer as downloadable fighters. Conversely, many argued the headgear to be Mii costumemods, in particular citing the possibility of aSmash 4 Mallow hat mod being ported toUltimate. The creator of the mod alleged to be ported has also uploaded aCacodemon hat mod, further implying correlation. Soon followingUltimate's release, the modding communitynoted the difficulty in modifying Mii costumes for the game, initially adding further credibility to the supposed leak; however,evidence to the contrary arose due to the spread of the rumor, and although publicized attempts by modders to recreate the Mallow and Cacodemon Mii Hats have yet to be of the high quality shown in the leaked picture and videos, the response to the "leaked" content has been largely doubtful.

In a January 2020interview,Doom Eternal director Marty Stratton revealed that theDoom team hadn't been approached by Nintendo about content from the franchise appearing inSuper Smash Bros., calling into question the validity of the rumor.Vault Boy, another character from a Bethesda-owned IP, was added as a Mii costume in June 2020; some believed this could point towards future Bethesda content inSmash such as the Cacodemon Mii hat, but most were skeptical that the Mii Fighter costumes would have remained unrevealed for upwards of seven months after their completion.

While returningGeno and newDoom Slayer Mii Fighter costumes would eventually be released in December 2020 and October 2021 respectively, neither of the rumored costumes ever appeared inUltimate, and development of the game's DLC officially concluded alongside the addition of the Slayer costume.

Activision 5 YearCrash Bandicoot Plan rumor

On October 5, 2020, Twitter user@TheNintendata posted about a supposed leaked document from Activision that contained a five-year plan for theCrash Bandicoot franchise. These plans spanned the years 2017 to 2021, and included the releaseCrash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy on PlayStation 4 followed by other platforms later;Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled; its Grand Prix service;Crash Bandicoot: On The Run!; andCrash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time released, this document was rumored to include the addition of Crash Bandicoot toSuper Smash Bros. Ultimate in2021 as downloadable content.

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

This rumor was eventually disconfirmed after the confirmation ofSora as the last fighter forUltimate. While this does not necessarily debunk the existence of the 5 yearCrash Bandicoot plan, as other details were confirmed to be true, it does allude to the plan not unfolding as intended.

References

See also

• List of leaks

External links

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

• Super Smash Bros. series
• Rumors
• Lists

• Articles with unsourced statements