Castlevania characters and so much more revealed for ‘Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’

Characters from the Castlevania franchise are finally coming to Super Smash Bros.

Simon Belmont and Richter Belmont from Castlevania and Castlevania: Rondo of Blood have entered the fray of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Nintendo revealed in a Nintendo Direct stream Wednesday. Along with those new characters, Nintendo showed off a handful of new and classic stages, items, echo fighters, and in-depth music options coming to the fighting game in December.

Here’s the nearly 30-minute Direct in full:

First, let’s talk about the Castlevania additions. Not only are the two Belmonts coming to Smash with their vampire-hunting skills and whips, they are bringing with them an Alucard assist trophy and new gothic, Castlevania-inspired stage that features the occasional monster including a the rare appearance of Dracula himself.

That new stage will include 34 Castlevania music tracks that you can listen to while you brawl. If you’re a video game music lover like me, that’s awesome news, but it’s even better when you learn that Smash Ultimate will include over 800 music tracks. That’s so many songs, and you can even create your own custom stage-specific playlists.

And if you’re really into video game music, you can plug your headphones into your Switch and listen to tracks while the Switch screen is turned off, kind of like an extra-large MP3 player.

Along with the music options and Castlevania additions, Nintendo announced another new fighter: King K. Rool from the Donkey Kong franchise. 

Plus, two new echo fighters (which are kind of like alternate skins for existing characters) are coming to Smash Ultimate: Dark Samus from Metroid and Chrom from Fire Emblem.

Stepping aside from new characters, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate will contain over 100 new and classic stages, many of which have been tweaked to play a bit better. But don’t worry, Nintendo didn’t want to take away from that unmistakeable charm of the Nintendo 64 stages.

Some of the new stages include a New Donk City Hall stage inspired by Super Mario Odyssey and a Magicant stage from Mother. And if you want to keep a more grounded feel while playing Smash Ultimate, you can change each stage to its omega (flat) or battlefield (flat with three platforms) version.

If you’re into items and assist trophies, there were a whole bunch of those revealed too, including a bunch of Pokémon that will fight by your side like Alolan Exeggutor, Mimikyu, Solgaleo, and Lunala.

New items include a banana gun, a terrifying death scythe, an evil mushroom that reverses opponents’ control, and a rage gun that does more damage the higher your own percent meter is.

Assist trophies include Kapp’n from Animal Crossing, Chef Kawasaki from Kirby, Gray Fox from Metal Gear Solid, and Shovel Knight, who digs up food for you.

Nintendo also revealed some new game modes and changes to gameplay, including the ability to charge Final Smash moves during matches and a new tournament mode for large groups of competitive-minded players.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate arrives on Nintendo Switch Dec. 7.