Coinciding with the release of Lucas that day, Nintendo have announced that they are holding a Smash Bros exclusive Direct at 3:40 GMT on Sunday the 14th of June. Masahiro Sakurai, the game’s director will be holding the Direct and it will no doubt map out future content releases for the foreseeable future. So, what can we expect from the Direct?
While according to Sakurai on Miiverse, the Direct will be discussing the Lucas update, but I think it is safe to assume that the whole Direct won’t be just that. I imagine we will get clarification on the Roy/Ryu rumours, with at least one of these characters being shown off during the Direct. It would make sense to be Roy, seeing as Nintendo have rumoured announcements at CEO and EVO, two fighting game tournaments, and it would make more sense to reveal Ryu’s inclusion to the Smash Bros series there. As for other bits of content, I can imagine we will finally get a release date for tournament mode, news on stage packs and maybe even the revelation that Nintendo will actually host their own official Smash Bros World Tournament.
I think it is also a safe bet to assume that we may get the reveal of at least one Smash Ballot character. With the Ballot closing in October and the votes starting to dry up, it makes sense for Sakurai and his team to start developing at least the most popular character, which be all accounts seems to be King K Rool. Here’s my wild card announcement though. I believe that Melee HD or something like that will be announced during this Direct. You can see via Nintendo of America employees tweets about competitive Melee, that the company is slowly turning to the eSport. Furthermore, Melee’s popularity is only increasing, with it beating out newer games like Mortal Kombat X and even matching player numbers for FGC mainstays like Ultra Street Fighter 4 at massive super majors like EVO. It seems stupid not to capitalise on this huge competitive fanbase with a HD rerelease of Melee.
Make sure to check out the Direct on Nintendo’s official Twitch channel this Sunday. So, what do you think will be announced at this Direct? Does this mean Nintendo has some absolute killer announcements at their Digital Event, that they needn’t waste time on Smash? Or will this Direct be just discussing the Lucas update? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below.