Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Developer	Bandai Namco, Sora Ltd.
Publisher	Nintendo
System	Nintendo Switch
Release Date	December 7, 2018
Rating	ESRB: E 10+

Super Smash Ultimate is a fighting game that was released for the Nintendo Switch in 2018. It is the fifth installment of the Super Smash Bros. series and features every character from the previous games, in addition to newcomers.

Story

In the game's Adventure Mode, "World of Light", a being named Galeem has attacked the Trophy World with many beams of light. These beams wiped away all of the Smash Bros. fighters except for Kirby, who was able to escape. The other fighters are placed under Galeem's control, and he creates copies of them to fight as his puppet fighters while acting as hosts for displaced Spirits. Kirby goes on a quest to rescue the others and oppose Galeem.

Gameplay

The basic gameplay of the Super Smash Bros. series is reprised, with some alterations being made to characters' moves and a number of Final Smashe. This game brings nortably back every character from the past games, including the characters who were only available as DLC in the previous installment, and it also adds more characters for a total of 74 playable characters. Out of those, the player starts off with only eight characters to play as (specifically, the same starting roster from the original Super Smash Bros.). This game adds a classification of Echo Fighters, to describe characters who are nearly identical to other characters in terms of movesets and their statistics. The only characters from previous games to receive that label are Lucina and Dark Pit. Assist Trophies also return, and most of them are now more active parts of combat that can be defeated to earn points.

One new aspect of gameplay is that of Spirits. Spirits replace the collectible trophy system from past Super Smash Bros. games and also act as a successor to the sticker system from Super Smash Bros. Brawl. There are Spirits representing characters and creatures from various video games, and they can be equipped by characters to enhance their abilities. They are divided into Primary Spirits, which make a character stronger, and Support Spirits, which grant a new ability or enhance a specific statistic. There are also Master Spirits, which run different locations within Adventure Mode, and Fighter Spirits, which represent the playable fighters and have no gameplay effect.

The game has standard Super Smash Bros. modes such as Classic Mode, Adventure Mode and Training as well as Smash mode and Tourney for multiplayers. Classic Mode has been altered so that each character has a personalized route where the battles follow some sort of theme that have to do with the character and/or their original series. This game's Adventure Mode is called World of Light, and it involves navigating an overworld map and battling characters possessed by Spirits. Spirit battles involve fighting characters in special conditions that often act as some sort of reference or homage to the Spirit character. In addition to the Adventure Mode, the game also has a Spirit Board, where different potential Spirit battles are displayed, and the Spirits refresh every few minutes. The game is subject to several events where different types of Spirits are featured, and in some cases new Spirits are made available on the board. After a January 2019 update to the game, it became possible for up to four players to team up together in Spirit battles.

One new multiplayer option is Squad Strike, where teams of three fighters take turns opposing each other. The game also has Mob Smash, which is the game's successor to Multi-Man Melee. Mob Smash's modes are divided into Century Smash (for fighting a hundred fighters, similar to 100-Man Melee), All-Star Smash (where all the game's fighters are fought in chronological order, as in the All-Star Mode of precious games, this time in an endless loop) and Cruel Smash (where the player fights incredibly difficult enemies).

The game has a variable-based system for unlocking characters. An unlockable character challenge will appear every time Classic Mode is cleared, or once every ten minutes upon completing matches in Vs. Mode, Mob Smash or the Spirit Board, or upon exiting Adventure Mode. When battles with new characters are lost, they will eventually appear for a rematch in a special menu option called the Challenge's Approach. The order in which unlockable characters appear depends, with different characters appear in set orders depending on which character is being played. Otherwise, characters could be unlocked by awakening them within Adventure Mode. In Adventure Mode, the player starts off with only Kirby and has to unlock the other characters. Characters unlocked within Adventure Mode carry over to the rest of the game, but the reverse is not true.

The game features up to eight players and also has online gameplay for subscribers of the Nintendo Switch Online service. It is also compatible with amiibos, which can unlock spirits and can also be used for raising Figure Fighters, which is a feature carried over from the previous game. Like the previous installment, Ultimate also features DLC, which includes new characters, stages, music, Spirits and Mii Fighter costumes.

In April 2019, the Version 3.0.0 update was applied to the game. This one notably added several more modes, including a Stage Builder and a Video Editor. It also added a Shared Content feature, through which players could share Mii Fighters, custom stages and videos over an online connection. Other additions included a DLC Board for Spirits associated with DLC characters and connectivity with Smash World, a service that is part of the mobile app for the Nintendo Switch Online service and provides more content sharing options. Unlike the normal Spirit Board, the DLC Board lists all of the associated Spirits without any randomization, allows the players to take part in the Spirit battles at any time (even after gaining the Spirit or losing battle) and allows the player to gain the Spirit automatically upon victory. Later updates added more features such as a new version of the Home-Run Contest from past installments.

Playable Characters

Only the eight original fighters from Super Smash Bros. (Mario, Donkey Kong, Yoshi, Link, Kirby, Samus, Fox and Pikachu) are available at the start of the game.

• Mario
• Luigi
• Princess Peach
• Bowser
• Dr. Mario
• Rosalina & Luma
• Bowser Jr. (with Koopalings as alternate costumes)
• Princess Daisy
• Yoshi
• Wario
• Donkey Kong
• Diddy Kong
• King K. Rool
• Link
• Zelda
• Sheik
• Ganondorf
• Young Link
• Toon Link
• Pikachu
• Jigglypuff
• Pichu
• Mewtwo
• Pokémon Trainer (Ivysaur, Squirtle, Charizard)
• Lucario
• Greninja
• Incineroar
• Kirby
• Meta Knight
• King Dedede
• Samus Aran
• Zero Suit Samus
• Dark Samus
• Ridley
• Fox McCloud
• Falco Lombardi
• Wolf O'Donnell
• Ness
• Lucas
• Captain Falcon
• Marth
• Roy
• Ike
• Lucina
• Robin
• Corrin
• Chrom
• Ice Climbers
• Mr. Game & Watch
• R.O.B.
• Duck Hunt
• Pit
• Palutena
• Dark Pit
• Olimar (with Alph as an alternate costume)
• Little Mac
• Villager
• Isabelle
• Shulk
• Wii Fit Trainer
• Inkling
• Solid Snake
• Sonic the Hedgehog
• Mega Man
• Pac-Man
• Ryu
• Ken
• Cloud Strife
• Bayonetta
• Simon Belmont
• Richter Belmont
• Mii Fighters (Mii Brawler, Mii Gunner and Mii Swordfighter)

DLC

The first DLC character was a standalone release that was available for free as part of a promotion during the first two months of the game's release. The following five characters were grouped together as part of the Fighters Pass, and each of them came with a Challenger's Pack that included a new stage, music and Spirits. It was initially indicated that the Fighters Pass characters would be the last DLC characters, but Nintendo later announced that there would be more beyond them. The second Fighters Pass will contain six fighters.

• Piranha Plant (promotional free release on January 29, 2019; regular eShop release on February 1)
• Joker (released on April 18, 2019)
• Hero (released on July 30, 2019)
• Banjo & Kazooie (released on September 4, 2019)
• Terry Bogard (released on November 6, 2019)
• Byleth (released on January 28, 2020)