Jeff Kaplan reveals which Smash Ultimate fighter he wants in Overwatch
Overwatch Game Director Jeff Kaplan has made his love of Super Smash Bros very well-known in the past and has just revealed which character from Nintendo’s flagship fighter he wants in the Blizzard hero shooter.
Speaking with Game Informer, Jeff Kaplan answered 110 “rapid-fire” questions about Overwatch 2 and the future of the game. When the topic of Smash came up, the outlet’s Andrew Reiner threw a bit of a curveball at the Blizzard Vice President.
“Which Smash Brothers Ultimate character would you want in Overwatch?” Reiner asked at 3:17.
“Nothing would make me happier than putting Link into our game,” Kaplan responded with a massive grin on his face.
Artists have already designed Zelda’s Link as a hero in Overwatch.Out of all the Smash Ultimate characters, The Legend of Zelda’s Link probably has the best kit for the transition from fighter to FPS hero. Overwatch already has an arrow-based hero in the form of Hanzo and Link’s other abilities such as bombs, boomerang, shield and Master Sword could be implemented without being too outlandish.
Overwatch fans have already designed Link’s highlight intros if he were to appear in the game. As Dexerto reported in September, five artists came together to design Link as part of the game’s universe and he looked downright incredible.
For his part, Link isn’t too much of a stranger to appearing in crossovers. Aside from Smash, the Hero of Time was also a playable character in Soul Calibur 2 on the GameCube.
During the interview Jeff Kaplan was also asked which Overwatch hero he’d want to Smash Bros. While he had been asked this question before, he doubled down on his previous statement and yet again said that he would like Tracer in Nintendo’s game.
In October Kaplan told IGN: “Tracer’s our girl, Tracer’s our mascot. She’d be my first choice. There’s a lot of great runners up. I think a lot of people can immediately see Doomfist gameplay applying to Smash, but if it were up to me, I’d like to see Tracer.”
He also had a special message for Smash’s creator Masahiro Sakurai and the rest of the team: “To the Smash Brothers team, whatever character you want, we love them all. They’re all our babies, you can have any single one of them. We have 31 to choose from.”
Whether or not Tracer or another Overwatch hero gets added to Smash is still anyone’s guess, but it’s certainly a possibility. While the game’s Fighters Pass currently has only one slot left, Nintendo has announced that more fighters are in development past that point.
With Overwatch 2 in development and Smash Bros winning the Esports Breakthrough Game of the Year at the Esports Awards, 2020 is looking like it could be a good year for both titles.