Nintendo opened its E3 Direct with a Smash Bros Ultimate announcement. Masahiro Sakurai briefy appeared to introduce a new fighter to the mix: Kazuya Mishima, the malevolent antihero from the Tekken series. We’ll know more about his moves on June 28, when Nintendo holds a special show for him. Kazuya’s the second-to-last character to be added to the game.
The heir to the Mishima zaibatsu joins an ever-growing roster of characters battling each other in Nintendo’s crossover fighter. This wouldn’t even be the first time Kazuya’s been involved in a crossover: Akuma made an appearance in the most recent Tekken title (coincidentally to kill Kazuya, specifically). Perhaps that’s the reason Kazuya’s shown fighting Ryu later in the gameplay demo. He joins Ryu and Terry Bogard on the growing list of classic fighting game characters who have guested on Smash Bros.
In addition to his signature move of dropping people into volcanoes — which he does to several of the Nintendo fighters, perhaps most disrespectfully to Kirby — we got a show of some of his basic moves, as well as his Devil Kazuya form. He’s the fifth character to be added to Smash Bros Ultimate post-launch. The Fighters Pass lists six fighters, meaning there’s only one more character to be added to the game unless Nintendo surprises us.
Granted, the way it introduced Kazuya was with what I have to believe was a deliberate troll move. Nintendo fans have been clamoring for more news about the sequel to Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. So naturally, the sight of Ganondorf in the opening seconds of the show made us momentarily gasp — only for us to collectively groan at the sight of Kazuya throwing him into a volcano. Luckily, Nintendo did show us some footage of the sequel at the very end of the show.
