Next Super Smash Bros. Ultimate DLC fighter to be revealed January 16

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The next Super Smash Bros. Ultimate DLC fighter will be revealed and showcased this Thursday, January 16, Nintendo announced today. The 35-minute stream will be led by director Masahiro Sakurai, and will kick off on Nintendo's YouTube channel at 6am PT / 9am ET / 2pm GMT. The new fighter will be the focus, but given the stream's length, we're also expecting to hear more about the type of content Ultimate will receive in 2020.  

This mystery fighter will be Super Smash Bros. Ultimate's sixth DLC fighter, following the Mario Piranha Plant, Joker from Persona 5, the Hero from Dragon Quest 11, Banjo & Kazooie, and Terry Bogard from the Fatal Fury games. This fighter will be released via the fifth and final Challenger Pack of the current Fighters Pass, but as Nintendo announced last September, there are yet more DLC fighters still to come. We'll likely hear more about the future of Ultimate's DLC in Thursday's presentation. 

As usual, the Super Smash Bros. community is ablaze with speculation as to who this mystery fighter may be, with guesses ranging from Devil May Cry's Dante (no) to Waluigi (also no). To be fair, it's pretty tough to nail down Nintendo and Sakurai's plans at this point. For a while, DLC fighters fell into loose but identifiable categories. Joker and the Hero were pulled from upcoming and topical Switch games - respectively Persona 5 Scramble and Dragon Quest 11 - Banjo & Kazooie have been requested for years, and Piranha Plant is yet more Mario flavor. Then came Terry, a character which caught many players - especially Western players, I'd imagine - totally off-guard. How will Nintendo follow Terry? We'll find out this week. 

In the meantime, here are all the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate character unlocks you need to fill out your roster.  

Austin Wood
Austin Wood
Senior writer

Austin has been a game journalist for 12 years, having freelanced for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree. He's been with GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize his position is a cover for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a lot of news and the occasional feature, all while playing as many roguelikes as possible.