At 9pm ET yesterday, Joker became available to play in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. The community wasted no time, downloading the 3.0 update and testing out the Persona 5 protagonist as soon as humanly possibly. Well, they tried, anyway.





Joker’s first day in Smash didn’t start smoothly, as Nintendo’s servers promptly went down immediately after the update shipped. However, some clever sleuthing discovered that Nintendo had just decided to schedule maintenance at the worst possible time. Perhaps they underestimate how many people would want to download Smash at that time? Or Nintendo are just huge P5 fans and wanted to make Joker late for his first day, just like in the game.

















This reasonable explanation hasn’t stopped people from editing Joker’s reveal graphic to be more appropriate to the situation. The “Joker is so popular he crashed the servers” meme will probably live on for quite a while.









After getting to grips with him, Smash fans were overwhelmed just how good Joker’s abilities were, in particular his down special. Even if this ability is tied whether Arsene is active or not, you could be forgiven for thinking that’s a bit OP.









But what goes up, must come down—people are already predicting the fighter’s rise and fall in popularity. The Phantom Thieves approval rating meter is actually the perfect metaphor for how fickle fighting game communities can be, and this fits perfectly.









Prior to his release, the smash community was already prepared with a host of memes about Joker, and thankfully they’ve all continued after his release. It’s been a running gag that Kirby just wants to be friends will all the Smash fighters, and Joker is no exception.

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And Bayonetta, of course, is still Joker’s mom. I mean, can’t you see the family resemblance? If both having glasses and dark hair wasn’t enough of a reason, consider that they both have guns, long legs, a stylish dress sense, and fight angels. Definitely cut from the same cloth.

















Persona 5’s music was one of it's best features, and it's inclusion in the new Mementos stage is definitely one of the best features of the update, besides Joker. Smash is a fighting game, but why fight when you can jam out to this awesome soundtrack?









But the most satisfying thing about Joker has to be his Final Smash. It's a perfect recreation of the P5 post-battle screen, which transitions flawlessly to the score page at the end.







