Leaks, Huh? / November 2nd, 2018

That was quite a direct huh? We now know what spirits are, and that Incineroar is in the game.

And it turns out that the likes of chorus kids and and mach rider aren’t going to be in the game and Isaac is only a trophy.

The Grinch Leak was proven false.

I’ll be honest, while I enjoyed this Direct and my hype for Ultimate has only grown, I was disappointed when I saw some of the “grinch” characters not getting into Smash. Call me stupid for believing Geno would be in the game, but even with blurry images all the details surrounding the production company, snap chat’s image compression algorithm, the makeup of the characters and the tie in to alleged promotional art for the upcoming Grinch film made it seem plausible to me.

And whether or not you fell for it or are the genius that saw the lies from a million miles away, one thing can be concluded. Whoever went through the trouble of making this elaborate hoax went through a lot of trouble. And the only question I have is… why?

Okay, I do understand that leaks are sensational. The feeling of having insider information is exhilarating.

Smash character speculation in particular has been a popular topic ever since melee was announced for the Nintendo Gamecube, so having the actual knowledge can make you feel on top of the world.

But ultimately, even if that feeling was held by some who didn’t mind the characters being spoiled before the Direct, it most definitely wasn’t a net positive for most people.

You see there are two ways the leak probably affected you:

1. You saw it, believed it and enjoyed it… only to be disappointed by the Direct in some way.

2. You saw it, and didn’t believe it. (Or ignored it) The leak did nothing for you.

In the interim, you might have have liked “knowing” what was going to be in smash. And it could only worsen your perception of the game if anything given the selection and number of characters in the leak (and Sakurai’s insistence that there won’t be that many new characters coming to smash).

I am impressed. I will give them that. But I really wish that they had not done this. It brought fleeting value into the conversation conerning Ultimate and it only ended up blemishing an other wise wonderful Direct (which, again, was still great btw).

Seeing as that was the final Direct, the only characters to speculate on will be the 6 DLC fighters coming up to a year after release.

As for me, I’ve learned two valuable lessons.

The most plausible looking leaks are probably fake.

Even potted plants are better candidates than Waluigi for Smash.