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2019/04

Smash Bros. Ultimate Stage Builder Potentially ‘Leaked’ In New Video

It’s not uncommon for a retailer, ratings posting or someone close to a video game project to leak details before they’re official, but it looks like Nintendo wanted to bypass the middleman this time around. Based on their latest official Switch promotional video, it looks like they may have prematurely revealed that a stage editor is coming to the popular fighting game, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

When Smash Bros. Ultimate launched late last year, the game was positively packed with content to keep players entertained whether they were brawling solo or joining friends on the couch. Still, some features from more recent entries were missing, such as the ability to build your own battle stages.

We knew that there was a good chance additional features would eventually be made available through updates, and it looks like we’ve gotten our first peek at just such a feature thanks to Nintendo themselves. Here’s the trailer in question. It’s a blink and you’ll miss it sort of thing, so make sure you’re looking at the TV in the background about two seconds in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvZo5dYvCpE

As you might have spotted yourself, there’s a rather unmistakable new icon on the menu in the bottom right corner. It’s a bit blurry, but it clearly says “Stage Builder” and even boasts the same icon as that particular feature from previous Smash games. As the name suggests, this mode lets you build your own stages to enjoy while battling friends.

This video only went live yesterday and there are rumors that a Nintendo Direct will be presented this Thursday. We also know that Joker, from Persona 5, is being introduced as a playable character soon. Roll all of that together, and it’s starting to look like this week might be a pretty big one for Smash fans.

If I may put on my conspiracy hat for a moment, I don’t think this is so much an “accidental leak” as it is an intentional Easter egg specifically orchestrated to get buzz building. My reasoning for that is Nintendo’s choice to use that menu as background decoration in the video in the first place. There are about a dozen menus to sort through in the game and, if they didn’t want folks to know about the Stage Builder option early, they could have easily avoided it. There was no real reason they had to show that image, which makes me think they did it intentionally.

Hopefully we’ll know for sure very soon.

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