This is it. This is the big one. It's finally here.
I managed to stop myself from playing Smash long enough to write this. It has already consumed my life. Send help. BACKGROUND: I grew up a Nintendo fan. For each generation of Nintendo handhelds, I owned one handheld from that generation. I spent a good part of my childhood playing through games from the NES/SNES era by any means necessary. It's a no-brainer that I am the target demographic for Smash Bros. Strangely enough, I didn't really have an interest in Smash until I was much older. I didn't own an N64 or a GameCube, so the original Smash Bros. and Melee were out of reach (until I discovered the black magic that was emulation). I also never played Brawl for whatever reason, despite owning a Wii. My interest in Smash grew when the 3DS version was announced, so I went and played the older ones to get a sense of what it was. Needless to say, I was hooked. THE ROSTER: "Everyone is here." It's amazing how these three simple words were enough to sell Ultimate. Literally every character who's ever been in Smash (even if they were only in one game, or they were DLC) is playable in Ultimate. That includes several Nintendo characters, ranging from the iconic to the obscure, plus a selection of reps from other game companies (ranging from "it makes sense to have this guy in Smash", like Mega Man, to "how the fuck is this possible", like Cloud). This alone would have satisfied me. But no, they went and raised the bar. In addition to the 60+ characters from previous Smash games (which is already an absurdly ludicrous number), there's also a handful of newcomers to the roster. From no-brainer picks like Inkling, longtime fan requests in Ridley and K. Rool, and amazing third party reps in Simon and Richter, the new characters add even more flavor to the already diverse Smash roster. With Ultimate, they introduced the concept of "Echo Fighters", which is just a fancy way of saying "clones". This concept opened the door for a couple more characters, like Daisy and Chrom, to be part of the roster, even if their movesets are only facsimiles of other, existing characters. The idea of having clones be called Echo Fighters was also a brilliant strategy on Nintendo's part; people complained about clone characters a lot before Ultimate, but it seems putting them in their own category has made people more receptive to their inclusion. STAGES: There are 103 stages in this game. That's a fuck ton. Sure, only a few are actually brand new, but that's still an unfathomable number. Plus, some of the returning stages were from the 3DS version, which were never in HD, so that's basically new. Not only are there a ton of stages, there's plenty you can do with them, too. You can toggle stage hazards, change the layouts with Battlefield and Omega forms, and customize the music to your liking. There's even a Stage Morph feature which allows you to switch between two different stages mid-battle. GAME MODES: Unlike Smash 4, which didn't have much in the way of single player content, Ultimate has plenty for one to do. Classic Mode is back, and it's unique for every character (it wasn't in the previous Smash, which made playing through it multiple times boring). You also have the Spirit Board, plus a sizeable Adventure Mode (I will discuss these at length in their own sections). Modes like 100-Man Smash (now called Century Smash), All-Star Mode, and Cruel Smash also make a return. Of course, the bread and butter of Smash is still here with multiplayer. In addition to normal Smash matches (which already have a plethora of customization options in terms of the rulesets), you also have Custom Smash (i.e. more rules), Squad Strike (a 3v3 or 5v5 mode that can be played either by two opponents or two teams), Smashdown (a mode where players can only pick characters once, and they keep playing until they've gone through the entire roster). As of this writing, I haven't tried online yet, but I'll be sure to see how that goes once I get a couple of friends to play with me later. However, seeing that this is Nintendo's online, I'm not too optimistic. SPIRITS: The big new gimmick of Ultimate is Spirits. Spirits are essentially the collectible trophies of older games, except they now serve a function. You equip these Spirits to your characters, and these, in turn, grant your characters buffs that'll give them the edge in Spirit Battles. You can partake in Spirit Battles by visiting the Spirit Board. You can choose one of an assortment of Spirits to challenge, and once you've chosen one, you'll face a character representing that Spirit in a match. Spirit Battles are like the Event Matches of old, where instead of a typical match, there's some sort of gimmick involved. These gimmicks are tied to the Spirit in question, and I have to say, they went all out with the creativity in some of these Spirit Battles. It's an inventive way of representing a character in Smash without them necessarily being a playable fighter. The Spirits themselves are just as diverse as the roster itself, and range from iconic characters to obscure ones. And by obscure, I mean really obscure. It's a testament to how deep the team behind the game were willing to go to pull from as much of Nintendo's history as possible. However, I do wish they kept the little descriptive blurb that trophies used to have, because I'd love to learn about some of these characters. There's also more to do with Spirits, such as training, leveling up, summoning, and more, but honestly, that felt like an overwhelming amount of features, especially paired with the fact that there are already a fuck ton of Spirits to keep track of. I'm content with the Spirit Battles, though I really wish there were an easier way to replay them. These complaints aside, Spirits are a solid addition to the Smash series. ADVENTURE MODE: Smash Ultimate's main adventure mode is called World of Light. The story begins with nearly everyone being vaporized by an entity known as Galeem. You start the adventure playing as Kirby, and must travel the world to set the other characters free so you can beat the fuck out of Galeem. Apart from a couple of cutscenes, there's not a lot of story to World of Light. The story is merely there to contextualize what you're doing, which is exploring the world map and engaging in Spirit Battles in order to progress. If you were expecting Subspace Emissary 2, this ain't it. Speaking of the world map, it is fucking massive. Not only are there a shit ton of Spirit Battles for you to do, there are also secrets and hidden paths that require certain Spirits to access (in a manner not unlike HMs from Pokémon). Unlocking the other characters will require you to go off the beaten path in many instances, so I'd suggest using other unlock methods if you want everyone unlocked as quickly as possible. In addition to the ridiculous amount of Spirit Battles, World of Light also features boss battles. You'll fight classics like Master Hand and Crazy Hand along with a bunch of other boss characters, and they're a lot of fun (and rather difficult). There's also a certain battle that blew my fucking mind, but I won't spoil it here. Overall, World of Light is pretty enjoyable. Though it can feel tedious to do Spirit Battle after Spirit Battle, the majority of them are fun. Between that, the boss battles, and exploring the overworld, it's a meaty single player campaign. OTHER THINGS:
VERDICT: Be it the roster, the stages, or the content, Smash Ultimate lives up to its name. What else is there to say? This is the best one of them all. Sure, the breadth of content can feel a bit much, and there are certainly stuff they could have done better, but I don't have it in me to complain. As it is, the game's fucking fantastic. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go play some more. - end -
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June 2024
Derryck
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