In an odd bait-and-switch, Nintendo has announced a new character for Super Smash Bros Ultimate. Animal Crossing‘s Isabelle will be coming to the game when it launches on the Switch on December 7. Depending on how you categorize the palette swap Echo fighters, she is the 68th character to join the roster.
The leaks—at least part of them—were correct. There was speculation yesterday that pointed to four fighter getting announced: Ken from Street Fighter, the Pokemon Incineroar, a Square Enix character, and Isabelle from Animal Crossing. The other three were not confirmed but that doesn’t mean we won’t see them on some other stream or somewhere down the line.
Fans of Animal Crossing might recognize Isabelle as the dog who debuted in A New Leaf, which was the 3Ds entry that originally came out in most territories in 2013. The player is the mayor of the town in that game and Isabelle acts as your secretary.
But in Super Smash Bros Ultimate, she actually gets to get her paws dirty. The trailer showed her attacks, which were mostly innocent offensive moves like using a fishing rod and pom poms. You can view her in action in the reveal trailer below.
Isabelle’s trailer is unique for Super Smash Bros Ultimate because no one had to die or get horrifically murdered. Ridley destroyed Mega Man and Mario when he was revealed for Smash at E3 2018. Luigi had his soul ripped out in the Simon Belmont (from Castlevania) trailer. King K. Rool’s announcement video showed King Dedede suffering from a brutal blow to the head. All of the “death” and violence have led people to think that this blurred image was teasing a “Spirits” mode.
While Nintendo has not talked about or even confirmed this mode, people have speculated that it would possibly be a campaign like the Subspace Emissary in Super Smash Bros Brawl.
