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Piranha Plant reportedly corrupting ‘Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’ save files

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate - Piranha Plant Pipes Up! (Early Purchase Bonus) - Nintendo Switch

Piranha Plant was added as a free DLC character for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate players last night, and we’ve detailed how to claim the character in a guide already. However, early users of the fighter have reportedly seen their game’s save data corrupted, with hours of progress lost as a result.

Pointed out by the Twitter fan account “Super Smash Bros Ultimate News,” some of those who took the Piranha Plant character into the game’s All-Star mode have seen their save files corrupted. The account warned players who were considering playing the mode, though it doesn’t appear save data corruption occurs when using Piranha Plant in most other modes — we tried the fighter out in a regular Smash battle shortly after it was made available, and our save data was not corrupted in the process.

There have been multiple reports of Pirahna Plant corrupting save files of those who use him in All-Star mode. Please be wary of this while playing the game! pic.twitter.com/Ywhod1sn2d

— Super Smash Bros Ultimate News (@SSBUNews) January 30, 2019

One Twitter user reported the problem was happening for them, though they were lucky enough to have their data already backed up with the Nintendo Switch Online service.

I downloaded the piranha plant and it corrupt my smash ultimate save

— Martin (@martintucker55) January 30, 2019

Others are making light of the issue, which is probably easier to do if it hasn’t affected you yet.

pic.twitter.com/KzHST5e7yp

— ????Rosiri???? (@HaxorusRose) January 30, 2019

According to the Smash Bros. Reddit community, the problem isn’t limited to Piranha Plant, either. Users are also reporting that their save data was corrupted after playing the Century Smash mode as either Mii Swordfighter or Duck Hunt, and playing Classic mode with Piranha Plant, so it might be best to just avoid Super Smash Bros. Ultimate altogether until a fix is announced.

The latest update for the game also made a number of tweaks to the cast of existing characters, including substantial boosts for Jigglypuff, Bowser, and the Mii Brawler. Additionally, you can now play the Spirit Board with four people, and pressing both jump buttons simultaneously will make your character do a short hop.

With any luck, Nintendo will patch Super Smash Bros. Ultimate again quickly and the problem won’t affect most players. It’s one of the best games of 2018, bringing every character in the series’ history alongside new fighters, as well as a lengthy campaign mode and more than 100 different stages. It’s available now as a Nintendo Switch exclusive.

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Gabe Gurwin
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Gabe Gurwin has been playing games since 1997, beginning with the N64 and the Super Nintendo. He began his journalism career…
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