The wait was long, but was the Smash Ultimate Joker update ultimately worth paying for? Some fans think that he wasn’t.
Joker is a character from the Persona series, and was introduced in the fifth main title of the role-playing game developed by Atlas. He fights with knives, a gun, and his persona, a demon named Arsene. He casts spells, is quick on his feet, and has a Rebel Meter, not unlike Cloud’s limit charge.
Unfortunately, he doesn’t have the best knockback, and most of his moves fail to chain together. He’s like a less powerful Sheik, mixed in with the guns of Bayonetta and the Pikmin side-special of Olimar.
The Smash Ultimate Joker update hit on April 17, 2019, and its release was less than smooth. The Nintendo Switch Online servers crashed almost immediately, leaving players without the means to access everything from the Nintendo eShop to online battles in Smash Ultimate.
There are some that are enjoying Joker’s inclusion in Smash, with him already placing pretty high in weekly tournaments that took place the night of his release. It can be said that he is only helping top players win because of his newness. When any DLC character is first released, it’s fairly common for the online play and tournaments to be flooded with players attempting to make him their main.
So should you make Joker your main? That all depends on your playstyle. Do you like to take a very offensive approach that relies on reading your opponent’s every move? Are you not bothered by lack of kill throws of even most kill options? Do you enjoy characters with limit changes like Wii Fit Trainer and Cloud?
Fans seem to be mixed as to whether or not this knife-wielding thief is worth training up on. Will he be a common opponent in the meta? How will he stack up against the future unannounced DLC characters? Only time will tell. For now, we have plenty of hilarious day-1 reactions from fans on all that the Smash Ultimate Joker update brought to the table.
‘Smash Ultimate’ Joker update fan reactions
The Nintendo servers went down
While few players were able to sneak through and download Joker before the Nintendo servers completely crashed, those that attempted to download him when the overflow of players hit were left with no other option other than to wait in line for their turn.
People trying to download Joker on the Nintendo Servers: pic.twitter.com/ibQUQ6UBrB
— TRAFON (@RiseFallNick) April 18, 2019
It wasn’t as if you were able to even get in line either. Many of us were left with an error message telling players that the servers were down because of some maintenance. Of course, Persona players knew just how to react to this.
Everyone: Tries to download the Smash update for Joker
Futaba in the Nintendo Servers: pic.twitter.com/AeauAi6scZ
— Warrior of Dorkness (@KousenPersonal) April 18, 2019
Indeed, we never saw it comin’.
Everyone who wants to play Joker: HE’S RELEASED!!! I’M SO EXCITED
Nintendo Servers: pic.twitter.com/gpmPhvoXFG
— ethan curcio-smith (check pinned) (@eeftechel) April 18, 2019
Reactions to playing as Joker in ‘Smash’
He’s a character that comes packed with many a good musical bop.
“how’s joker in smash ultimate so far?”
me: pic.twitter.com/IMeabAiQRq
— 💎 mana 💎 (@mana_chan__) April 18, 2019
He may or may not have a 0-to-90 combo, thanks in part to both his Sheik up-air and his tether grab up-b.
Joker 0 to 80-90% combos, all true. Tested with DI and aridodge spam. #SSBU_Joker pic.twitter.com/HrRIt8mdNE
— yasu (@YasuSFL) April 18, 2019
His neutral-b move works in a bit of a unique way. Once activated in the air, he has the ability to change the direction that he’s aiming his guns at. This makes for some handy gimps for characters with poor recoveries, much like our poor Ganondorf here.
Joker is pretty fun 👀 pic.twitter.com/XDWR6CeZQ8
— Pokelam (@iPokelam) April 18, 2019
The stage builder… was probably a bad idea
Smash Ultimate was released without the stage builder mode that Smash 4 had. Here’s why it was probably a good idea to leave that out: there are a lot of penises being drawn. A lot.
Looks like things are already going completely as expected over in Super Smash Bros Ultimate custom stage builder mode. pic.twitter.com/nbzwG6RuLp
— Brian Altano (@agentbizzle) April 18, 2019
When they’re not drawing dicks, players have come up with some pretty unique stages, like this one that re-creates that opening scene from the original N64 Smash Bros..
Okay my bad, here’s a fixed one, cause the one I posted before the ledges were kinda buggy, hopefully this one is a bit better! pic.twitter.com/4spqpNWsWc
— G-SUS (@ChunkySpaghetti) April 18, 2019
And of course, GameXplain already tried to recreate Poké Floats.
We Recreate Poké Floats in Smash Bros. Ultimate's Stage Builder – It's Semi-Effective! https://t.co/jgs3tQ33VQ
— GameXplain (@GameXplain) April 18, 2019
Smash Ultimate will release four more DLC characters spread out through 2019 and 2020. There is a fighters DLC season pass available for purchase, and it retails for $24.99 on Nintendo’s eShop.
We want to hear your thoughts on this topic!
Write a comment below or submit an article to Hypable.