One of the most anticipated upgrades from Nintendo’s fighting video game “Super Smash Bros 4” is the addition of new character from other video games. The video game currently features 55 characters, four of whom came via DLC — “Pokemon’s” Mewtwo, Lucas of “Mother 3,” Roy of “Fire Emblem: The Binding Blades,” and Ryu of “Street Fighter.”
The game also contains 18 brand new fighters including third-party characters such as Mega Man and Pac-Man as well as non-playable Nintendo characters like Radley and Petey Piranha.
Talks have been rampant that half genie character Shantae is to become the latest DLC character addition to the fighting roster of the popular Nintendo game on both the Wii U and the 3DS. Shantae is from WayForward Technologies’ platform adventure of the same name. If reports are authentic, then Shantae will be the fifth downloadable character in “Super Smash Bros 4.”
Last week, a couple of fans spotted Cristina Valenzuela’s name, the voice actress for the “Shantae” titular character, on the IMDb list of actors who are part of “Super Smash Bros 4.” Speculations were further fueled that the Sequin Land native will be the latest addition to the fighting game because of a tweet that came from Valenzuela herself.
The voice actress recently tweeted that IMDb had asked her to update her credentials and add the credits which she missed to include on her previous projects. Fans immediately assumed that Valenzuela was pertaining to her character’s upcoming stint in “Super Smash Bros 4.”
However, she was quick to dismiss that she was the one who placed her name on the IMDb list. Valenzuela issued a statement on Twitter clarifying that she did not personally add the credit and that she has not heard about Shantae being in “Super Smash Bros 4.”
Reports suggest that this was only their way to put a halt on the leakage that Shantae will indeed be the latest entry to the character roster of the popular fighting game. Fans have long expressed their desire for the half-genie to be involved with the well-known crossover game. WayForward Technologies also said that it is looking forward to the character to make its entry to the “Super Smash Bros” franchise.
Nintendo has yet to release an official confirmation about the report, but a lot of ardent gamers don’t see any problem over the possibility. According to Christian Today, a special ballot can be seen in the Japanese game developer’s website that allows fans to choose which character they would want to see in future expansions of “Super Smash Bros 4.” Nominations will be tallied after October 3.
“Shantae” is considered a cult classic when it comes to gaming, having been released by Capcom way back in 2002 for the Game Boy Color despite the gaming console’s obscurity with the Game Boy Advance. In July 2013, the game was re-released via Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console to satisfy the clamor of gamers.
In the game, players play as the eponymous character and must travel across Sequin Land with the goal to find and stop the evil plans of Risky Boots, who also steals a prototype engine from Mimic, the resident Relic Hunter. Along the way to look for the sinister pirate, players will face some obstacles and come across many of Risky’s minions.
The game was a huge hit and gained critical success spawning two follow-up games. “Shantae: Risky’s Revenge” was released for DSiWare in 2010, with ports for iOS being available in 2011 and for the PC in 2014. The third entry, “Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse,” was released in October 2014. Currently, a fourth installment entitled “Shantae: Half-Genie Hero” is in development.
Meanwhile, Nintendo’s “Super Smash Bros 4” recently rolled out its latest update known as the version 1.1.0 for 3DS and Wii U versions. The update brings in new contents, some patches to the previous update, and has been confirmed to carry out a Tournament mode and YouTube uploading function. Two new levels have also been added to the popular crossover fighting game namely Peach’s Castle and Hyrule Castle.