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If you’re the kind of person who likes video games and isn’t dead inside, chances are you’re looking forward to Super Smash Bros. for 3DS and Wii U, due to release later this year. The comic fighting game’s creators have been teasing us for what feels like decades now by slowly revealing which characters will be available to play as, talking of trimming the fat while simultaneously revealing what appears to be every Nintendo character under the sun.

If the following “leaked” screenshots and video are to be believed, however, Nintendo’s character roster-teasing days are about to come to an abrupt end.

Update: Despite Nintendo’s efforts to remove pretty much every leaked video, it would appear that the screenshots and videos seen so far are in fact the real deal, taken from the 3DS version of Super Smash Bros. The following video shows a number of the rumoured characters in action. It looks like this is not a hoax, boys and girls!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiOWnujhhPs#t=29

Shared via gaming forum NeoGAF and picked up by a number of gaming sites, the following images are believed to have be taken from the upcoming game, and show a number of characters that will be playable. We can’t say for certain whether the screens are legitimate or not, but the fact that some of the “leaked” videos uploaded to YouTube were taken down in a matter of minutes, it’s not entirely implausible.

▼ Three “leakers” shared the following images

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▼ Wait, is that the dog and duck from Duck Hunt!?

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▼ And here’s that character roster, complete with NES accessory R.O.B. Huh…

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wS-ZwnR_3Bc#t=15

Eurogamer had this to say about the screens and video:

‘It’s believed that this video is early footage sent to the US ratings board ESRB, as the name under Bowser’s icon is the placeholder “ESRB0083.” Evidently the ESRB doesn’t actually play the games it rates, but rather looks at footage the developer submits of all its more questionable material. As such, it’s speculated that this leak came straight out of someone at Nintendo.’

The debate over the legitimacy of these images rages on over on NeoGAF, but if you see something here that causes you to lean either way on whether these are the real thing, or are simply excited that your favourite character may have made the cut after all, leave us a comment below!

Source: NeoGAF via Eurogamer
Images via NeoGAF