E3 2019: Banjo-Kazooie and Dragon Quest's Hero Join the Super Smash Bros. Fight

Banjo-Kazooie and Dragon Quest’s Hero join the fight as downloadable fighters for Super Smash Brothers Ultimate.

Bookending the E3 2019 Nintendo Direct presentation, the two new characters will arrive as DLC this year with Banjo and his feathered friend arriving in the autumn, whilst The Hero is expected to arrive much sooner.

Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age Definitive Edition S has somewhat dominated E3 — not just because of its ridiculously long title — with a hefty trailer during the Square Enix conference on Monday and the announcement of its arrival on September 29th during Nintendo’s outing. The Hero’s arrival was anticipated by many. However, the addition of three additional classic Dragon Quest skins for the character and what appears to be a turn-based move in battle, does make this reveal slightly more interesting.

Banjo-Kazooie was also heavily rumoured to be joining the roster in the lead up to E3 — and the release of Smash Bros. Ultimate — with licensing the character from old-school Nintendo favourites Rare (a developer owned by Microsoft since 2002) being the barrier. Considering the good working relationship between the two companies in recent months, that final bit of red tape is out of the way and Banjo-Kazooie is cleared to return to a Nintendo console once again.

What this means for future collaboration — Rare Replay on Switch, perhaps? — is yet to be seen. This could well be the first step to an even more exciting return for the fan favourites.

The rest of the Nintendo Direct from E3 this year was full of great announcements. You can watch the whole thing over on Nintendo’s YouTube channel.