Super Smash Bros DLC - Ryu, Roy, and Lucas impressions

Super Smash Bros already had a massive roster of fighters, with some 50-odd characters from every Nintendo franchise (and others) beating the snot out of each other.

But Sora is apparently not done, and the first proper downloadable content pack adds three more pugilists to the bulging line-up.

But are they worth buying? Read on to find our hands-on report with each character (and the other new stuff in the DLC pack). You can get full pricing info here.

Returning from Melee, it's Fire Emblem hero Roy. And like Melee, this ginger fighter is essentially a tweaked clone of fellow FE hero, Marth.

He has a very similar move set, with that big charge-up attack, leaping sword swipe, and counter block.

However, where the tip of Marth's sword is most deadly, it's the base of Roy's weapon that will deal the most damage. So you'll have to fight up close and personal to unleash a flurry of combos.

Luckily, he's very fast and his small stature lets him dodge some attacks, making it easy to rush in for a blow. Watch out, though: Roy has one of the worst recoveries in the game with his dumpy up special move

Like Roy is to Marth, Lucas is to Ness. The Mother 3 hero is little more than a subtly tweaked clone of his Earthbound friend - he could almost have been an alternate costume for Ness.

So he has PK Freeze, Fire, Thunder, and Magnet specials, the same PK Starstorm final smash, and his tree branch attack is a lot like Ness's baseball bat swing

However, to make him stand out, Lucas's version of PK Thunder can go through multiple enemies, while Ness's immediately dissipates when it hits someone. That will be familiar to anyone who played Brawl, where Lucas was last seen.

Now Ryu - Ryu really shakes things up. Not only is he the first brand new character to be added through DLC but, in attempts to replicate his move set from Street Fighter, he also works differently to practically every other character

You can unleash strong and weak versions of each attack by holding or tapping the button, and you can use classic SF inputs for his special attacks (like quarter circle A to do a fireball) to make them more powerful

This gives him a huge, versatile move set - complete with hurricane kicks, dragon punches, flying kicks, and fireballs - and gives him really strong combo potential

His only real weaknesses, other than the steep learning curve of understanding all his moves, is that he can struggle to recover to the stage and he's not that hot at a distance

Sure, he's got a fireball, but as you need to wait for each projectile to land or dissipate, you can't spam it.

Just to cap it off, Ryu even has two final smashes - a big ass fireball that scorches through the arena, or a massive Shoryuken dragon punch if a rival fighter is right next to you.

Dream Land, taken from the N64 version of Smash, is a simple stage. You've got your classic three-platforms-over-a-main-base set up, and the only distraction is Wispy Woods blowing everything left or right every now and again.

The stage looks a bit crap on the Wii U version with its super low-res textures but it looks fine on 3DS.

Suzaku Castle might be less interesting, mind. The hat-tip to the classic Street Fighter II backdrop is neat, but the stage itself has no exciting tricks other than wooden signs that can be smashed for no reason.

The DLC pack also adds a bunch of Mii Fighter costumes. They're no substitute to having, say, Zero from Mega Man X or Jacky from Virtua Fighter in the actual roster but are still a neat way for Smash to give a nod towards other characters.

And you get to pit Ryu against Akira and Tekken's Heihachi. Sort of.

Other costumes are based on Isabelle from Animal Crossing, the squids and kids from Splatoon, and MegaMan.EXE. The best is definitely Akira from Virtua Fighter, though, who turns you into a blocky SEGA Saturn-era polygonal mess. Beautiful.

Elsewhere you'll find new stage music, and a handful of new trophies

Overall, this is a reasonably generous package and offers plenty of high quality stuff to give Smash Bros players good reason to revisit a fantastic game.

However, while Roy and Lucas will appeal to fans of Fire Emblem and Mother, as tweaked clones of existing fighters it's hard to get too excited for their inclusion.

Ryu, on the other hand, is much more interesting - he's from a whole new franchise, has a unique play style, and even gives veteran players something new to learn. If you don't fancy the entire pack, just get this Street Fighter mascot.