Yes, you read that headline correctly; a new update for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has patched out Minecraft Steve’s meat.
Specifically, Patch 9.0.1 was released and addressed a good handful of bugs that involved Steve. The character has been out since October 13th and shocked the world with his unique playstyle; but because Sakurai had to chance some foundational components of Ultimate’s gameplay, it’s inevitable that Steve was going to have some issues to work out.
The patch dealt with actual gameplay issues, such as characters falling through the stage if Steve placed a block in a certain location, but most of the traction on social media was surrounding the humorous removal of the meat featured in one of Steve’s victory animation.
Originally, Steve would sometimes eat a piece of meat in his victory animation, but the meat would not disappear and he would end up holding it in a way that it resembles meat of a more NSFW variety. This became a meme in the Smash community, and moreso now that it was purposely patched out; now when Steve eats the meat, it actually disappears.
Steve’s victory animation used to end with this:
And GameXplain posted the updated animation ending:
Steve from Minecraft has become an insanely popular character in Ultimate, with some very cool and unique combos. Although some pros remain torn on his place in the tier list, with many thinking that around mid-tier will be a safe bet for now.
But as with this patch, things could change in the months and years to come, so only time will tell how Steve fares in the meta.