Nintendo literally broke the Internet this week when it announced Steve and other Minecraft representatives would be the next DLC fighters in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, leading to Twitter crashing for a short time. Alongside today's Minecraft Live event, Smash creator Masahiro Sakurai revealed Steve's moveset and other pertinent details about what players can access when the DLC launches October 13, including its Spirit Board lineup.
The Spirit Board is an extension of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate's adventure mode, World of Light, in which players can battle Spirits based on characters and items across video game history that take the form of regular fighters with unique battle conditions. A new set of Spirits have been released for each of the prior six DLC fighters, and the introduction of Min Min from ARMS also came with an update that lets players rematch Spirits in Smash Ultimate.
There are at least nine new Spirits being introduced based on Minecraft entities: Zombie, Creeper, Skeleton, Slime, Enderman, Villager & Iron Golem, Ghast, Piglin from Minecraft's recent Nether Update, and the Ender Dragon. However, Sakurai never shifts to the second page of the DLC Spirit Board, so it's possible there may be more challenges for players to take on.
Sakurai takes on the Spirit battles for Zombie and Slime during his character introduction. The first throws players into a stamina battle against ten Minecraft characters using the Zombie skin, all of which move slowly and have super armor — meaning it's harder to send them flying with strong attacks. The second pits players against nine green-colored Kirby that shrink as the battle progresses, though Kirby is not a cube as he appears when consuming Minecraft Steve.
Spirit battles as a replacement for trophies from previous entries are an interesting means of fan service introduced by Smash Ultimate, as they let the developers reference characters without having to create an entirely new fighter. Minecraft's diverse world generation is also referenced in Smash Bros. thanks to its new stage including six different biomes.
After Sakurai's presentation, the Minecraft Live event introduced a number of new things coming to Minecraft in the Caves & Cliffs update releasing for the sandbox game in summer 2021. While it also discussed additional content coming to spin-offs like Minecraft Dungeons, the new Super Smash Bros. Ultimate character should be a highlight for many.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is available now for Nintendo Switch. Its Minecraft DLC will launch on October 13.