Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Lucario Mod Pays Tribute to Dragon Ball and Akira Toriyama

gamerant.com:

A Super Smash Bros. Ultimate modder has paid tribute to Akira Toriyama with an impressive mod that combines Dragon Ball and the Pokemon fighter Lucario. On March 1, Akira Toriyama passed away at age 68 due to an acute subdural hematoma. Besides being the creator of Dragon Ball, his works would influence a number of popular multimedia franchises and anime for years. With him being such an influential figure in the anime and manga landscape, many creators have paid tribute to the late manga creator in various ways.

Some of these tributes include holding vigils or paying their respects in various ways. For example, Sonic the Hedgehog character designer Yasushi Yamaguchi sketched a piece of art that had Sonic and Tails dressed as Dragon Ball characters. It's evident that Toriyama's creations helped shape a lot of fans' interests in many ways. One fan of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate also paid tribute to Toriyama in a small but meaningful mod of Lucario, the Aura Pokemon fighter.

This mod was created by Regen07 on GameBanana, who dressed Lucario up in Goku's Kame-Sennin-Ryu martial arts gi, one of Goku's iconic outfits. This mod was created in response to a request by fellow GameBanana user DShipps in commemoration and tribute to Akira Toriyama's legacy. Lucario wearing Goku's gi is incredibly fitting, seeing as both Lucario and Goku are experienced martial artists who use energy to attack. Lucario's Aura Sphere is similar to Dragon Ball's iconic Kamehameha technique in both posing and utilization. In the English dub of Ultimate, Lucario even shares the voice actor as Dragon Ball's Goku, Sean Schemmel.

Fellow modders of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate praised the effort that went into the mod, not only for making Goku's gi fit on Lucario but for the costume to look fitting within Ultimate's art style and presentation. Many also called the mod a lovely tribute to Akira Toriyama, where it captured the spirit of the character and combined it with a character inspired by the late