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Sora from kingdom hearts joins Smash
Image Credits:Nintendo

Sora is the final ‘Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’ fighter

Amanda Silberling

At the Nintendo Direct livestream a few weeks back, fans speculated that they might learn who the last remaining character in the extensive “Super Smash Bros. Ultimate” lineup would be. Instead, we found out that Chris Pratt will be playing Mario in a feature film.

But today, in Nintendo’s final “Mr. Sakurai Presents” livestream, game director Masahiro Sakurai revealed that the last fighter to be added to “Super Smash Bros. Ultimate” will be Sora from the “Kingdom Hearts” series. The “Kingdom Hearts” games, first released in 2002, feature characters from the Disney and Pixar universes. Sora is the main character in the franchise, wielding a keyblade — but a small chain with a Mickey Mouse logo dangles from his weapon. Though Sora is a video game fan favorite, some might find it a little jarring to see a Mickey Mouse shape alongside characters like Mario and Pikachu. Sora comes with nine songs and a new stage, the Hollow Bastion, which is a castle from the “Kingdom Hearts” games.

This marks the 82nd playable character to be added to the beloved game, which was released for Nintendo Switch in December 2018. But “Doom” fans can at least pretend to be “Doom Slayer” with a new Mii outfit — other Mii outfits include characters from “Splatoon.”

Sakurai said in the livestream that six years ago, when “Super Smash Bros.” for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U posted a ballot asking fans to vote for which characters they wanted in “Smash,” the most requested new fighter was Sora. The game director added that Sora will be an easier character to play with, making the fighter suitable for beginners.

To use Sora, available on October 18, players can download the Fighters Pass Vol. 2 expansion, which costs $29.99, but individual expansion characters can also be added to the game for $5.99. Other characters in this expansion pack include Steve/Alex from “Minecraft,” Sephiroth from “Final Fantasy 7,” Pyra/Mythra from “Xenoblade Chronicles 2,” Kazuya Mishima from “Tekken,” and Min Min from “Arms.”

Toward the end of the livestream, Sakurai announced that remastered versions of “Kingdom Hearts” games originally released for other consoles will become available for the Nintendo Switch. These include “Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 + 2.5 ReMix, “Kingdom Hearts HD II.8 Final Chapter Prologue” and “Kingdom Hearts III.” The release date for these games has not yet been announced.

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Amanda Silberling

Amanda Silberling is a senior writer at TechCrunch covering the intersection of technology and culture. She has also written for publications like Polygon, MTV, the Kenyon Review, NPR, and Business Insider. She is the co-host of Wow If True, a podcast about internet culture, with science fiction author Isabel J. Kim. Prior to joining TechCrunch, she worked as a grassroots organizer, museum educator, and film festival coordinator. She holds a B.A. in English from the University of Pennsylvania and served as a Princeton in Asia Fellow in Laos.

Send tips through Signal, an encrypted messaging app, to @amanda.100. For anything else or to verify outreach, email amanda@techcrunch.com.

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