Any secrecy surrounding Nintendo’s newest game was recently smashed to pieces.

Though “Super Smash Bros. Ultimate” was released on Dec. 7, the entire game was leaked online during Thanksgiving weekend. Many online sites began to share their copy of the game for download with a majority of these game copies being fake. But a few lucky fans were able to get their hands on the actual game. 

Now that the masses had access to the game, spoilers started popping up everywhere, making sites like Reddit, Twitter and Discord a cesspool of leaked game content.  One of the biggest leaks was of the new story-based game mode, called “World of Light.” 

Though the official trailer for the game mode came out in early November, its details still remained unclear until its leak. The trailer showed all of the Smash Bros. characters becoming possessed by spirits that hit the Earth.  Players then battle these possessed characters and collect their spirits. 

The leak itself showed cutscenes from the gameplay of “World of Light.” The cutscenes showed the intro to the game mode featuring all of the “Super Smash Bros. Ultimate” characters, a fight between the three bosses, Galeem, Darz, and Hand minions, Mario being turned into a spirit, Galeem being beaten and even the ending scene. 

When speaking to Game Informer, JC Rodrigo, product manager of marketing at Nintendo of America’s Treehouse division, said “. . .[‘World of Light’ is] really more on focusing on the loot grind, and that flow of getting Spirits.”   

A video by a player with a pirated copy of the game showed Simon Belmont and Cloud fighting Galeem and Darz in what is presumed to be the boss battle of “The World of Light.” 

Galeem and Darz weren’t the only bosses to be leaked as the bosses for Smash Bros. classic mode –  Ganon, Marx, Giga Bowser, and Crazy Hand  were also leaked. 

Along with new gameplay, the Smash Bros Ultimate’s soundtrack was also leaked, with the tracks being uploaded to YouTube. 

After the leak, Nintendo began issuing copyright strikes to YouTube channels that had uploaded the game’s soundtrack. The videos were taken off the website shortly after the notification was received. The channels are now in the process of being taken down. 

According to Nintendo Insider, “If a channel receives three copyright strikes, their account (and any associated channels) will be terminated, all uploaded videos will be removed and the owner will be unable to create new channels.”

Nevertheless, the game still had fans hyped until the day it was released. According to Games Industry, “It is the fastest-selling Nintendo Switch game so far” during the first week of sales, making the game a smash hit.