The Super Smash Bros. series has set some of Nintendo’s most beloved characters against each other for nearly 20 years. The roster has expanded significantly in that time, adding a number of third-party characters to the mix and crossing into handheld platforms in addition to console play. And now, with the arrival of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, the entire history of the series (and then some) is all together for the first time.
As the tagline goes – everyone is here! Every single character that’s ever appeared in a Smash title is on this game’s roster of playable characters, from the classic mainstays of Donkey Kong and Pikachu to some folks thought lost, like the Ice Climbers or Snake. Then there’s a handful of newcomers to the scene, such as Isabelle, Incineroar, and Simon Belmont, as well as a couple of characters thought to only ever exist as rumors-turned-jokes, like Ridley and King K. Rool. All told, there’s 76 characters to choose from to play – a genuinely massive selection of fighters. It can be somewhat overwhelming to think about, but the game starts you off with just eight to pick from (the original eight from the inaugural Super Smash Bros. title from the Nintendo 64 days), which allows you to work your way into the huge roster.
The core of Smash remains the same as it always has been: players (or computer-controlled characters) duke it out on one of many game-inspired stages, either in timed matches or in live-based “stock” battles. The brawler is a 2D, platform-based game in which most deaths are caused by characters being knocked completely out of bounds. Thanks to various stage hazards, and the ability to play with up to eight total players on screen at once, things can get extremely chaotic extremely quickly. But that’s part of the fun.
Speaking of those stages, there’s 103 of them. That’s not a typo – there’s 103 different stages to battle on, and each of those can be altered by playing them in standard, Battlefield, or Omega forms, which keeps the aesthetic but changes the landscape. The game includes every single stage that’s ever been in a Smash title, including some that haven’t appeared since the original game. It’s honestly delightful to see the Saffron City stage rendered in HD, but with the chunky pixelated Pokémon rendered in that N64 polygonal fashion. The game does everything it can to push all of the right buttons for nostalgia.
This game has everything. It has all of the characters, all of the stages (with more of both on the way as downloadable content), all of the customizable options, all of the music (more than 800 tracks, good luck trying to listen to all of them), and even a hefty and enjoyable single-player mode.
The Spirits mode is honestly super fun, far more so than I would have predicted. As the (admittedly bizarre) story goes, a creature known as Galeem has reshaped the world to its liking, blasting away every hero – except for Kirby – turning some into mindless puppets and others into spirits. Controlled by Galeem, the spirits themselves act as puppetmasters, causing the puppet-characters to behave as they might. This means that the Spirits mode essentially allows you to fight battles against characters that aren’t playable in Smash, by creating circumstances true to the essence of that character. For instance, when fighting Jenna from Golden Sun, you face off against Zelda, who is colored like Jenna for the battle, almost exclusively uses fire spells for the duration, and who is aided with the Isaac assist trophy. It adds the feeling of these characters without actually adding them as a fighter, which is really cool. And with several hundred spirits to fight against, it’s unlikely to ever get old.
Smash has long had a significant competitive scene in the fighting game community, with most of the focus on Melee. While I have the utmost respect for people who can play Smash at that high of a level, in my house, Smash Bros. is treated as more of a casual party fighting game. The best part about the game is that you can easily treat it as either or – you don’t have to be great at Smash to have an absolute blast playing it.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate truly is the ultimate Smash experience in every sense of the word. And with more characters on the way – Piranha Plant from Super Mario and Joker from Persona 5 have been confirmed as DLC – there’s going to be a lot to love about this game for months, even years to come. Whether you’re into fighting games or just a fan of Nintendo at large, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate should be considered a must-play.
-Carrie Wood
