Resident Evil characters are coming to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (as spirits)

Four major characters from the Resident Evil series will join Super Smash Bros. Ultimate on Friday, but not as full-on additions to the already massive fighter roster. Chris Redfield, Leon Kennedy, Jill Valentine, and Albert Wesker will all be limited-time additions to the Spirit Board. If you want to free their Spirits and add them to your team, you'll need to defeat special versions of existing Smash Bros. characters that are themed after their Resident Evil counterparts.

At first glance it's an odd crossover between a family-friendly fighting game series and an M-rated horror shooter. But Resident Evil's actually been quite active in Nintendo-land this year. Even though the Resident Evil 2 remake didn't come to Switch, Resident Evil 0, 4, 5, and 6 all did.

The Resident Evil series already has a fine tradition in the fighting game space: Jill Valentine, Chris Redfield, and Wesker have all appeared in various incarnations of the Marvel vs. Capcom series. Unfortunately, this crossover event does mean it's looking less likely that we'll ever see a Resident Evil character join the proper Super Smash Bros. Ultimate roster as a DLC character. Before Joker from Persona 5 joined I would have said their firearm-heavy playstyles would make anybody from the RE gang an odd choice, but my dude brought a straight-up handgun to Smash. Who even knows any more.

If you want to warm up before taking on Leon and company, you can jump into Super Smash Bros. Ultimate right now to fight and recruit four spirits from Pokemon Sword & Shield.

You don't need to fight anybody to get the best of our Black Friday game deals, but you can if you want to I guess.