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Isabelle Joins Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Isabelle_Smash_Ultimate.jpg

Just a few hours ago, Nintendo confirmed that Isabelle from Animal Crossing is turning over a new leaf as a fighter in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. She was previously an Assist Trophy (AT) in Super Smash Bros. 3DS and Wii U but has been upgraded for Ultimate, making her the second AT upgrade after Dark Samus.

She is a semi-clone, having borrowed moves from Villager along with unique moves of her own like the water bucket, and has been labeled Fighter #68 in the Fighter section on the Ultimate website. Fans will get a chance to play as her on December 7th.

Tom Nook also appeared at the end to lead into the Animal Crossing 2019 announcement. He will appear in Ultimate as Villager's Final Smash.

Are you looking forward to play as Isabelle? Who else are you hoping makes it into Ultimate?
 
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Comments

Bittersweet; a character that was going to be in the game regardless, a semi-clone... pretty neutral on this overall.
 
Her appearance as a semi clone, thus being a new fighter, makes me think that Ultimate isn’t totally ballot influenced. Maybe she was added to promote the new Animal Crossing. She has ALOT of unique stuff it seems, the broom, party popper, fishing rod, different balloons, hammer, water bucket, gyroids being buried, etc. Still, if even Isabelle can become a fighter with a moveset, anyone realistically can.
 
Either they had less time to make completely unique fighters or they had so much time that we got a character like Isabelle as a non-Echo. My reaction was just confusion. Seems like Sakurai just made her unique to prove everyone under the sun wrong. I'm not sure why he cares so much about being predicted.
 
Either they had less time to make completely unique fighters or they had so much time that we got a character like Isabelle as a non-Echo. My reaction was just confusion. Seems like Sakurai just made her unique to prove everyone under the sun wrong. I'm not sure why he cares so much about being predicted.
I feel like more stock is put into surprise reveals than characters people actually want.
 
D
Her appearance as a semi clone, thus being a new fighter, makes me think that Ultimate isn’t totally ballot influenced. Maybe she was added to promote the new Animal Crossing. She has ALOT of unique stuff it seems, the broom, party popper, fishing rod, different balloons, hammer, water bucket, gyroids being buried, etc. Still, if even Isabelle can become a fighter with a moveset, anyone realistically can.
To be fair, it was never going to be totally ballot influenced as Inklings showed. At the same time, characters like King K. Rool, Ridley, and all veterans returning shows that the ballot had a large influence.

I would say look forward to the next Sakurai's column.
 
How come we're assuming Isabelle didn't do well on the ballot? She was a fairly popular character, while we had Happy Home Designer and amiibo Festival both in 2015 (same year as the ballot) cementing her as the main mascot.
 
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She's adorable, determined, and hardworking. I'm glad that Animal Crossing got a second rep, and one with personality to boot. I like non-combatants in fighting games because they tend to have unique move sets, and Isabelle is no exception. I like everything from her cutesy character animations to her silly looking attacks (seriously, that bucket of water is going to make some hilarious screenshots). Most importantly, I'm glad that they made her distinct enough to be her own character. Don't get me wrong, echoes are cool and all, but still... variety doesn't hurt.

Congrats to people who wanted her in for a long time. Personally, I was pleasantly surprised by the reveal.
 
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D
How come we're assuming Isabelle didn't do well on the ballot? She was a fairly popular character, while we had Happy Home Designer and amiibo Festival both in 2015 (same year as the ballot) cementing her as the main mascot.
From what I recall, and I could be wrong, she never particularly did well in fan polls around the time of the Ballot. I know that's to be taken with a grain of salt but at the same time, we cannot totally dismiss them. Also popularity =/= fan demand.

We'll see if Sakurai makes a mention of it but if he doesn't, then I doubt her inclusion had anything to do with it.
 
I'm not really into Animal Crossing, but I do adore Isabelle, and that Smash trailer was really cute (and remarkably murder-free this time!). I think my favorite part is just how innocent she is. As if she's unaware she's even in combat. Like, everyone else is fighting to the death, and she's beating intense characters like Ridley or Snake or something simply by being so gosh-darned cute at them. XD

I dunno. I'm actually pretty happy with this inclusion.
 
How come we're assuming Isabelle didn't do well on the ballot? She was a fairly popular character, while we had Happy Home Designer and amiibo Festival both in 2015 (same year as the ballot) cementing her as the main mascot.
Everyone who voted for her must've never voiced their desires on the web then.
 
I'm pretty glad she's in. I don't care about Echo fighters or not Echo fighters. The Smash series has enough unique fighters that we could make echoes for two more games without having to come up with any new ideas.
 
She doesn't seem to be anymore a semi-clone than Wolf imo, and even has different specials. She looks fun.

I hope the third AT upgrade-to-playable-fighter is Skull Kid.
 
D
Personally im not going to play her, but im glad she is in the roster now. But wow, so many ungrateful people lol.
 
I love Animal Crossing and so happy to see another character get in. Although I prefer Tom Nook, he had no chance. Even before he was revealed to be coming back as Villager’s final smash. But Isabelle would easily be my second favorite.
 
Personally im not going to play her, but im glad she is in the roster now. But wow, so many ungrateful people lol.
Yeah, I can't believe people aren't grateful for something they didn't want. This is a video game; not food or water.
 
While yes I would have liked to see more smash content (fighters, modes, moves) Isabelle is exciting for myself and my wife because our Daughter is named Isabelle.So I will likely play the crap out of her.
 
While I haven't seen it on here as much, I've seen a LOT of people complain about not just Isabelle, but the direct in general. Excuse me while I rant a bit:

To everyone complaining about today's Nintendo Direct, we all just sat through a 30-minute advertisement. It, like many other advertisements, are supposed to appeal to the largest demographic possible. We have the JRPG fans with FINAL FANTASY, the casual fans with Animal Crossing, and a Smash reveal. Like... be disappointed if you want, but you literally just subjected yourself to a 30-minute infomercial. Nintendo always has a lot in the pipeline, so if they didn't show something you wanted this time, there's always next time.

ALSO Nintendo never promised anything, Smash or otherwise. All they said was "more 3DS and Nintendo Switch news". If you're butthurt we got Isabelle because we didn't get Geno or Isaac or whoever instead, you only have yourself to blame for raising your own expectations for something Nintendo didn't hint at happening. Don't call them out for things like that. Plus, we're almost certainly getting more newcomers in the coming months, so like, chill out.

Again, I haven't seen that many complaints on here as much as other sites. Just wanted to get this out.
 
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With how Isabelle is basically the face of Animal Crossing nowadays, and how New Leaf is always the Animal Crossing I keep hearing about, I'm not at all surprised that she got into smash and not as an Echo.

While I didn't expect it, I was really really really hoping that we'd get some other villagers into the game as alt costumes. Sadly this is not the case (though we haven't seen all the costumes yet). Can't wait to play this new Animal Crossing in 2019. Animal Crossing Pocket Camp doesn't really seem like you get the stuff that everyone loves about the series. Though I did meet a few villagers, so I was hoping that Kyle or Cherry would get in since they are my favorites in Pocket Camp.... Highly unlikely I know, because they are probably nobodies (unlike Nook, or K.K. Slider). I'm expecting Digby to be an alt-skin of Isabelle since they were shown together a bit before I even played an Animal Crossing game and they have very similar models. I will totally play Digby if he's an alt costume. We've only seen 4 colors for Isabelle so far. Whatever the case, Isabelle looks like a really fun characters and I look forward to playing her.
 
Everyone who voted for her must've never voiced their desires on the web then.
Well, she was stuck as an Assist Trophy so it makes sense. The same thing happened to other popular characters, like Skull Kid and Waluigi.
 
This was a huge surprise, since after what happened to Ashley, it seemed like Isabelle was likely to receive the Assist Trophy position again.

Also, Isabelle's trailer pretty much meant that she's not Villager's Echo Fighter. Maybe there's hope for Shadow to NOT be an Echo Fighter, assuming that he gets the playable promotion.
 
Well, she was stuck as an Assist Trophy so it makes sense. The same thing happened to other popular characters, like Skull Kid and Waluigi.
I don't think a single damn would've been given if she was revealed an AT at E3, and wouldn't have gotten nearly the backlash Waluigi did.

This was a huge surprise, since after what happened to Ashley, it seemed like Isabelle was likely to receive the Assist Trophy position again.

Also, Isabelle's trailer pretty much meant that she's not Villager's Echo Fighter. Maybe there's hope for Shadow to NOT be an Echo Fighter, assuming that he gets the playable promotion.
There was the Vergeben leak which pretty much nailed everything, and we still have Ken on the way.

I will be utterly shocked if Shadow isn't an Echo.
 
Dan Dan : Some people thought that Isabelle was going to be an Echo Fighter, but that sure wasn't the case. Based on what we've seen, Echo Fighters pretty much don't receive any kind of trailer treatment; Richter was the only exception to the rule, and even then, he appeared alongside Simon, who was the main subject.
 
I'm surprised by the mixed reactions from the Nintendo Direct overall. Then again, people shouldn't have set their expectations that high. If you were expecting Smash Direct 2.0, of course you were gonna be disappointed. If you were like me and drooled when games like Luigi's Mansion 3, Starlink, Yoshi's Crafted World, and even the Munchkin board game got revealed, then you watched the Nintendo Direct correctly.
Also, I'd like to point out that every newcomer we've seen revealed via trailer has turned out to be a new fighter (with the exception of Richter, who was in a small part of Simon's reveal trailer) while the new echo fighters (Daisy, Chrom, and Dark Samus) have been introduced through just in-game footage. Nintendo will most likely keep this trend when introducing new fighters in future Smash announcements.


I need more of this in my life.
 
I think the way Isabelle was conceptualized in Smash was that Sakurai took some remaining unrepresented Animal Crossing concepts (Fishing Pole, erecting public works projects, party popper, etc), mixed it with the signature Pocket move, and make it so both she and Villager better fully represent Animal Crossing.
 
D
Ahhhhh so many people dislike this character. It's going to make it all the better to win matches with her. Embrace the hate my fellow Isabellers.
 
I mean I love her inclusion and from what I saw she was an amazingly popular character. Not like I have the proof to back it up, but neither does anybody arguing that she is not popular because fan polls which are extremely limited in scope in comparison to the smash ballot. I'm not saying "be more grateful" I'm just trying to end the drama by saying "don't hate her inclusion because she wasn't who you specifically wanted". I personally want Hades in smash but putting him over other popular characters wouldn't appeal to the most amount of people. It would just be a selfish desire. So, I'm okay with this to say the least
 
It's funny how many people are trying to ignore her popularity and saying things like "promotion".

You go girl, you deserved it.
 
I mean I love her inclusion and from what I saw she was an amazingly popular character. Not like I have the proof to back it up, but neither does anybody arguing that she is not popular because fan polls which are extremely limited in scope in comparison to the smash ballot. I'm not saying "be more grateful" I'm just trying to end the drama by saying "don't hate her inclusion because she wasn't who you specifically wanted". I personally want Hades in smash but putting him over other popular characters wouldn't appeal to the most amount of people. It would just be a selfish desire. So, I'm okay with this to say the least
My issue with Isabelle is not that I wanted any particular character more--I mean, I did, but that's not my issue. The problem is that I just wanted someone more interesting. I didn't have any attachment to or prior interest in Simon, for example, but when I saw him I thought "oh, he's kinda cool. Unique weapon, interesting playstyle, and he brings a whole new franchise into the fold. Good deal all around." It helped that K. Rool was shown after as well, but even if Simon had been it, at least it would still have felt satisfying.

Isabelle is basically a slightly different Villager. Much like many semi-clones, there's not much weight to her announcement. And yes, I may have gotten a bit too hyped up, but really, that would not have happened had Sakurai not been injecting hot liquid hype into our veins since Ultimate was announced. You can hardly blame me for expecting a megaton when there's been nothing but expectation-shattering reveals so far. I don't mind that she's there, and I'm not going to start spewing the tired "slots" or "deserving" arguments against her, but revealing Isabelle, as a semi-clone, on her own, after freaking K. Rool no less, is like throwing ice water on a raging inferno. I'm not sure when a better time would've been...but not then, man.

Granted, I'm sure there are many people this IS a megaton for. That seems to be the case anywhere that isn't Smashboards. And that's fine. But that doesn't mean I can't be disappointed, or show my dissatisfaction with a character reveal (not the character herself, though I'm pretty hard neutral on her anyway.) That also doesn't make me petty, or only hating on a character because my own wasn't shown. I'm bummed, simply because I find this particular reveal uninteresting in this situation.

At least now my hype is dead, lol. Maybe that was the whole point--cooling off the fanboy fire. That could either mean the rest of the reveals are similarly lukewarm, or it was done to throw us off a super-megaton later. I think I'll be safer assuming the former...
 
I'm glad Isabelle made it in, she was in my Wishlist, and whether she was an echo, or not I would still play her, so having her as a Semi-echo is just fine with me.
Yet another character that shows up from the DLC Mii Outfits.
Yep, but be careful, if your using that as a prediction, remember that there are some that didn't make it in (R.I.P. Ashley, Takamaru :()
 
I definitely think the feedback has been somewhat negative not because of the character (though I obviously in some cases) but also because we’ve had three powerful house reveals one after another (Ridley, King Rool, and Simon) plus four additional Echoes not to mention the obvious Inklings. Plus, we’ve been spoiled with a Smash-dominated E3 plus a follow up Smash Direct later in the summer. As well, many thought Isabelle would be a Villager echo but disliked that she wasn’t and technically a semi-clone.

Combined with that it was a delayed Direct that showed very little in the way of Smash. Everyone was holding out for long-time hopefuls like Isaac, Geno, and Banjo or the expected Skull Kid but we got Isabelle instead. And a lackluster trailer that didn’t appeal people outside the Animal Crossing crowd.

That’s why I think the reception was negative to lukewarm.
 
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I think people are just too eager about Smash. I was wanting an exciting reveal as well but Smash was third-fourth priority compared to the other games being revealed. Problem is that most of these games won't move the needle a lot with fans. We have had great games like BOTW, Skyrim, Diablo 3, Mario Odyssey, Smash Ultimate, Skyrim, FortNight, Splatoon 2, etc. revealed recently and this Direct was loaded with basically a lot of kiddie games and it followed up with a character from a kiddie game joining Smash. It is like Barney, Martha Stewart, or Spongebob being announced for the next Avengers movie.

The Final Fantasy series coming to Switch is pretty cool though.
 
Isabelle is the now fourth support character to become a fighter.
  1. The first was Charizard, being a Pokeball in 64 and Melee, then became a fighter ever since Brawl.
  2. The second was Little Mac, who was an assist trophy in Brawl, then became a fighter in SSB4 onwards.
  3. The third was Dark Samus, who was an assist trophy in SSB4, then became a fighter in Ultimate.
  4. Now Isabelle joins that list, being an assist trophy in SSB4, then became a fighter in Ultimate.
The DLC Mii costumes are getting some love too. Inkling, Chrom, K. Rool, and now Isabelle turned from DLC Mii costumes into fighters.
 
I saw one fan theory that Isabelle was originally slated to be a Villager echo but was promoted last minute and made a last minute trailer feature to replace a potentially more controversial one that was supposed to appear last week and she was just supposed to be the featured echo.

Of course fan theories are complete bull**** so there’s that...
 
I saw one fan theory that Isabelle was originally slated to be a Villager echo but was promoted last minute and made a last minute trailer feature to replace a potentially more controversial one that was supposed to appear last week and she was just supposed to be the featured echo.

Of course fan theories are complete bull**** so there’s that...
I've heard Isabelle's update # matches 134, the first missing one after the Direct was delayed, so I'm assuming said fan theory is bull****.

Though that does make me wonder wtf was supposed to be shown on Monday, since it's always a fighter and Bowser got moved forward.
 
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