Super Smash Bros. Ultimate's final DLC character, the fan-favorite Sora from the Kingdom Hearts series, caused the Switch eShop to crash temporarily while players rushed to add the brawler to their rosters.
A convergence of Smash Bros. Ultimate players and Kingdom Hearts fans have been clamoring for Nintendo to add the Keyblade wielder to the fighting game for several years - Sora was the most popular choice in a 2015 poll from Nintendo asking players which character they most wanted in Smash Bros. It's perhaps no surprise then that on Monday, as Game Rant observed, when Sora finally became a Smash Bros. character, the Switch eShop experienced a massive surge in active shoppers and crashed several times throughout the day.
[Server Down]The servers for "Nintendo eShop" are down. Please wait until the issue is fixed.#ServerDown #NintendoSwitch #WiiU #Nintendo3DS pic.twitter.com/LVNwCYlp1OOctober 19, 2021
me fighting everyone in the nintendo eshop for sora pic.twitter.com/qqwZ7li7GmOctober 19, 2021
SORA IS CAUSING THE ESHOP ISSUES 😆 pic.twitter.com/sK5Qiuu2O7October 19, 2021
#Sora just crashed the fucking eShop!#SuperSmashBrosUltimate pic.twitter.com/Yo4YRcvoyuOctober 19, 2021
As if this isn't enough to validate Sora's ego, Twitter user Stealth points out that his arrival in Smash Bros. Ultimate is likely the reason for the title's sudden claim to a top 3 spot on the eShop's best-sellers. Some of the new sales could be from people who waited for every DLC fighter to arrive, but let's be real, it's mostly due to people just really, really wanting to whack people with a Keyblade.
Thankfully, at the time of writing, the eShop servers seem to be in normal working order, so anyone who wasn't able to push their way to checkout yesterday - like a desperate parent at the mall looking for Pokemon cards on Christmas Eve - should be able to purchase and play as Sora without a hiccup.
Here's how Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and its director Masahiro Sakurai redefined hype.
