One Piece Creator Honors Smash Bros With New Cover Art

One Piece is a hugely popular to this day, and its reputation will keep the Straw Hats going for years to come. Even after 25 years in print, Eiichiro Oda has found a way to rope in new fans to the series, and he does that in part by keeping things fresh. This is why some of Oda’s chapter covers reference pop culture events, and one of his latest sketches pays tribute to one of Nintendo’s greatest games ever.

As you can see below, the piece comes courtesy of Oda and chapter 1,028. The One Piece artist was tasked with doing a special sketch, and he did so by channeling Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. With Usopp and Nami at the controls, the two are going head-to-head in battle, and their crewmates have stepped in as their fighters.

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In the bottom-right corner, fans can find Zoro dressed in green as usual, but he has turned in his outfit for the one Link wears. The swordsman uses the Master Sword to send Chopper flying as the cute medic is dressed up as Charizard.

As for the other members here, Sanji is living free as Star Fox while Robin appears to be Morrigan Aensland. Luffy lights up with his Ken cosplay and takes Franky by surprise with an uppercut. The cyborg is dressed up as Donkey Kong while Jinbei brings Mario to life. Finally, Brook is pictured as Demitri Maximoff, and he is fighting for Nami who is sporting a cute pair of cat-ear headphones.

Clearly, Oda has a thing for Super Smash Bros, and we cannot blame him. The game dates back to the Nintendo 64, and its latest release continues to dominate in sales a few years after its debut. In fact, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate just revealed its final DLC fighter, and fans were stunned to learn it was Sora. The Kingdom Hearts hero has been requested for years, and Nintendo finally made the crossover happen. So if Usopp ever swaps roles in this crossover, we’ll let him wield the Keyblade if he’d like!

What do you think about this One Piece homage? If you could bring an anime fighter to Super Smash Bro., who would it be? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB.