After four grueling months of speculation on who the fifth fighter of the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Fighters Pass would be. The wait is finally over.

The head lead for the Super Smash Bros. series, Masahiro Sakurai, posted on Twitter Tuesday that on January 16th at 6:00 AM PST, he would reveal the final character of the Fighters Pass during a 35 minute presentation showing off the character.

Thursday will be a day to remember for Smash fans. The announcement will cause excitement in some camps and disappointment in others. Just who will be that fifth fighter? Take a look at the top five most likely candidates for Challenger Pack 5.

General Rule of Thumb for Picks

There are some general rules that every DLC fighter so far as followed along with interpretations of what Sakurai has said. The first is that the list of DLC fighters for the Fighters Pass were already decided back in development of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, which started back in 2016.

Sakurai mentioned this in the last Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Direct before the launch of the game and was the reason why they gave Rex from Xenoblade Chronicles 2 a Mii Costume and not a character slot. So with that, the DLC characters would have had to exist before the launch of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

The Second rule of thumb is that if the character has representation in the game already, it will most likely not be the fifth DLC fighter. At the Game Awards in 2018 where they revealed the first character of the Fighters Pass, Joker from Persona 5, Reggie Fils-Aime mentioned that the characters in the Fighters Pass will be new to the series.

So far, that statement has held correct with every character so far not having a Mii Costume, Assist Trophy, or even a character on the Spirit Board. Every character has been a third party character as well. With that said, characters like Waluigi and Geno who are both in the game and are Nintendo characters, will most likely not be the last character in the Fighters Pass.

With those in mind, let’s jump into the list.

Honorable Mention: Reimu Hakurei from Touhou

Who? Well, Reimu is the main character from the cult classic Japanese indie game, Touhou. If you have heard of the “bullet hell” genre of games, all traces can be led back to this franchise.

Indie games have had a decent amount of impact in Smash with representation from Shovel Knight and the meme himself, Sans from Undertale.

It’s apparent Sakurai is in tune with the indie game scene and in Japan, there is no greater long-running indie game franchise than Touhou, which has been around for over 20 years!

There is a third golden rule that Sakurai mentioned in his presentation of Terry Bogard: he said that popularity isn’t everything. If a character idea would be one that is fun to play, that matters more than popularity. With that in mind, Reimu from Touhou has a very interesting way of fighting in her games.

In the Touhou series, Reimu uses all sorts of tactics to fight. She uses spell cards, ying yang orbs, bombs, ofuda cards and much more throughout the dozens of games she has been in.

A user on Reddit who goes by the name “dah_Ren” posted a moveset concept on the Smash Bros. subreddit.

It was met with much praise even getting comments that said people would definitely try her out despite not knowing who she is just because she looked really fun to play.

One of the biggest draws to the Touhou franchise besides the characters and gameplay is the music.

Rumors have been circulating that Nintendo have reached out to various music circles in Japan to create new remixes of songs from Touhou. If the rumors are true, why would Nintendo do that if it wasn’t for Smash?

Reimu Hakurei is the best representative for the Indie game community that deserves to have a place in the celebration of all things video games which is Super Smash Bros. Maybe this is the time for that.

5. Sora from Kingdom Hearts

Back when Super Smash Bros. Ultimate was about to release in December 2018, there was another game creating buzz that would be released soon after. Kingdom Hearts III was on everyone’s minds including the fans of Smash.

In fact, there was speculation that Sora would not only be in the game, he would be the first pick on the Fighters Pass.

Even prominent leaker Vergeben, who leaked every other character up to this point, said that the first DLC character would be from Square Enix, the company that made Kingdom Hearts.

Time passed and we still have not heard any news on Sora. The Square Enix character that Vergeben leaked turned out to be Hero from Dragon Quest. Its unknown if Square Enix would get two of their characters into the Fighters Pass but if they did, Sora would be the obvious pick.

4. Minecraft Steve from Minecraft

The meme pick of the bunch but if thought about for more than a couple of seconds, it may not be that much of a meme at all. Minecraft is the best selling video game of all time with over 176 million copies sold worldwide, according to Microsoft.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is a game where all the most recognizable characters in video game history come together to duke it out. Minecraft Steve is arguably the most recognizable and he is not in the game yet.

Even more validity again came from the infamous leaker, Vergeben. Along with his Square Enix statement he said that Minecraft would have some representation in the Fighters Pass.

Vergeben backtracked his Minecraft claim later saying it was false information. When a trusted leaker goes back on his word, it has some weight which is why Steve isn’t higher on the list.

3. Master Chief from Halo

The true face of Microsoft (besides Bill Gates) is indeed, Master Chief and he has quite a following among Smash fans despite never being on a Nintendo console.

The reason why Master Chief is this high is due to the increased relations between Nintendo and Microsoft. When the idea of cross play between gaming systems for multi console titles first got brought up, Microsoft and Nintendo were on board with the idea. That eventually led to the announcement of cross platform play for Minecraft along with playful banter on Twitter between the rival companies.

With relations between the two at an all time high, it would make sense to have the face of Microsoft’s flagship game in Smash.

2. Dante from Devil May Cry

Another company in the good graces of Nintendo is Capcom. When Ryu and Mega Man joined Super Smash Bros. for the Wii U back in 2015, the doors opened for other third party characters as well.

Capcom has had a very long lasting relationship with Nintendo throughout its history including a partnership where Capcom released some games on the GameCube as exclusives which included titles like Resident Evil 4 and Killer 7.

Out of all the Capcom characters that could be released this time around, the favorites are Leon S. Kennedy from Resident Evil, Amaterasu from Okami, and Dante from Devil May Cry. Out of those three characters, only two have had any relevance in recent years those two being Dante and Leon.

It seemed like Leon was the front runner until Nintendo out of nowhere released a spirit board event featuring the most iconic Resident Evil Characters back in November, effectively de-confirming him.

Dante being the front runner for Capcom is a valid claim and with the recent announcement of a special edition Devil May Cry 3 port to the Nintendo Switch, it makes a little too much sense.

Once you throw in the fact that the Devil May Cry team has an announcement of some sort on the 16th, the same day of the DLC fighter announcement, it may indeed mean that Dante is the fifth fighter in the Fighters Pass.

That is if there wasn’t another Capcom character that made more sense.

1. Phoenix Wright from Ace Attorney

Phoenix Wright might not be as popular as Dante when it comes to lovable Capcom characters, but even that can be argued depending on who you ask. The third golden rule of DLC characters absolutely applies to this character.

Not only is Phoenix Wright a Capcom character, he’s a character who has exclusively had his games on Nintendo consoles.

This is a best of both worlds opportunities for Nintendo. A character that is third party, and has no representation in the game at all, AND he’s practically a Nintendo property.

As for the third golden rule, look no further than his appearance in Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3.

Many players of the game point towards Phoenix Wright as one of the most fun characters in the game with a very unique move set. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate thrives on having characters that normally wouldn’t fight. The game thrives on characters having unique move sets.

Dante while popular, would probably feel like a Bayonetta type character. Master Chief would feel like a Snake clone. Even Minecraft Steve seems like he would just be a Link clone. But look at Phoenix Wright. There is no replacement for what he can bring to the game.

Also the music that comes from the series would be awesome as well.

There is no pick for the final fifth fighter that accompanies the three golden rules best than Phoenix Wright.

Come Thursday, hopefully there is enough evidence to not cause any kind of Objection! To Phoenix Wright. If there is id advise you Hold It! Until the end of the presentation.

Featured Image Courtesy of Nintendo.

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