Today’s Nintendo Direct presentation brought with it the surprise announcement that Banjo-Kazooie will be joining the roaster of Super Smash Bros Ultimate later today. Fans have been eagerly awaiting the formal launch of the character into the game, following his surprise debut at E3.

For the unfamiliar, the release of Hero was controversial at launch, and even today, thanks to the highly random nature of the fighter’s toolkit. This is apparent in Hero’s Down special, which provides a random ability, all of which are useful, and none of which can be consistently accounted for. At times this may provide some much-needed defense or a heal, or at worst, an instant KO that can hit moments into the fight.

As a result, professional players have considered an outright ban at a number of competitive events, and the fighter’s inclusion in future events remains in doubt. Hero is further polarizing for smaller, but still important abilities, such as being the only fighter who can have critical strikes on opponents with a basic smash attack.

With that in mind, Banjo-Kazooie does not yet appear to have the same sort of polarizing effect on the community, at least from the earliest of observations. To begin, the character has two speeds. Banjo walks at a rather slow pace, but when riding on his partner’s back, the mobility of the character skyrockets. If the character can remain easily mobile throughout the fight, that’s a good thing, but nothing to complain about.

Early reviews of the move set of Banjo-Kazooie can be seen below. The overall conclusion appears to be that we will be receiving a character who is neither particularly strong nor weak. Instead, Banjo-Kazooie appears to be a well-rounded character, but we will need some time for the pros to test and lab the newest fighter to truly know what he is capable of.

Our own Sergio Solorzano had nothing but glowing things to say about the new character.

In other Smash news, Nintendo also revealed the next fighter in development to be none other than Terry Bogard from SNK. They also surprised everyone by indicating that players can expect additional fighters in development passed the initial proposed five, of which we now know the identities of four. Now it is anyone’s guess who the fight DLC character will be, and who else the developers may have in store in the future.

Source: Nintendo.com