Yet another Smash Bros. alumni is returning to the next iteration coming to Nintendo's Wii U and handheld line, and it's none other than the eponymous Princess from The Legend of Zelda.
Like so many others, pictures of the Hyrule royalty hit the official Smash Bros. website earlier today. The princess will be in good company with two other Legend of Zelda characters also set to appear in the game - Link and Toon Link, as well as a few other princesses.
With Zelda aboard, the roster jumps to 19, counting the Links and other returning brawlers like Peach, Captain Olimar, Luigi, Mario, Donkey Kong, Link, Samus, Kirby, Fox, Pikachu, Bowser, Pit, and Sonic. The latest newcomers are Super Mario Galaxy's Rosalina and Luma, Mega Man, the WiiFit Trainer, and Animal Crossing's Villager.
There's no video yet to back it up, but it's expected she'll play much like she did in Melee and Brawl, but it's unknown if she'll be able to transform into Ocarina of Time's Sheik. Judging solely from the pictures, it looks like she can control / summon a sizable Darknut, which has a considerably more cartoonish appearance than either Zelda or Link, and a ferocious bitch slap that seems quite effective against oversized gorillas.
Earlier this month, the idea caught on that the game had a release window of this Spring. Unfortunately, this was incorrect, and Smash Director Masahiro Sakurai was quick to reject the alleged release date on Twitter. Apparently the erroneous information was the result of either a misquotation, or possible translation error. Whatever the case, players have only the ambiguous timeframe of "sometime" during 2014 in which they can expect Super Smash Bros. to arrive.
Super Smash Bros. is slated to hit both the Wii U and the handheld 3DS some time in 2014. Cross-play between the two systems will not be featured.