Meta Knight Slices Back Into Super Smash Bros, New Single-player Details

Kirby and King Dedede had already been confirmed for the next Super Smash Bros., and we had been waiting for the announcement of the third Kirby character from Brawl, Meta Knight. After a tease on Monday by a Mii character's costume, the Meta one has been fully revealed, and he looks ready to battle.

Smash Bros. creator, Masahiro Sakurai, introduced Meta Knight on Miiverse by saying, "Looks like there was an impostor in the earlier posts, so I introduced him to my sword! ...I'll leave it up to your imagination if he really said that or not. The veteran hero, Meta Knight, returns to battle!! We didn't forget the Battleship Halberd either!!"

Sakurai then wasted no time explaining one of Meta Knight's biggest changes from Brawl, his Up Special: "Meta Knight's Up Special Move, Shuttle Loop, changed quite a bit in this game. The glide is gone, and the attack slashes opponents twice while spinning in a large loop. This has turned into a highly technical and effective move."

While we were excited to see Meta Knight back in action, we were even more thrilled that the single-player modes for the 3DS version of Super Smash Bros. were explained on the official website as well. The updated information goes into great detail about two single-player modes: Classic and Stadium.

Classic is just like the old Super Smash Bros. games, including "many different kinds of matches, including one-on-one fights, team battles with CPU players both aiding and attacking you, matches where you must defeat opponents one after another or in groups and even more."

The major difference this time around is that your character progresses on a map and you can control what route to take (pictures of this map are provided below), as well as a new "intensity" mechanic that buffs the difficulty of the game in exchange for more rewards for success. Players can earn in-game gold, trophies, power-ups and items for customizing Mii Fighters through this Classic mode.

Stadium is a trio of mini-games designed to test a player's skills, including Multi-Man Smash, Home Run Contest and a brand new mode called Target Blast. Multi-Man Smash pits a player against 100 enemies in a survival-type mode, while Home-Run Contest tasks the player with attacking a sandbag, then striking it with a home-run bat for maximum distance. The all-new Target Blast is a mix of Target Smash from the previous Smash Bros. games, Home-Run Contest and (oddly enough) Angry Birds, where players must attack a bomb to build up its damage, then Smash attack it into an area filled with targets and obstacles so it explodes and racks up as many points as possible.

Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS launches on October 3, while Super Smash Bros. for Wii U launches this holiday season.