Intro

In 1999, an ambitious crossover game allowed players to experience the video game fights of their dreams. Who would win in a showdown between Mario and Donkey Kong? Could Samus overtake her fellow space traveler Fox McCloud? What if in his travels, Link encounters Pikachu? These questions may or may not have entered your consciousness before Super Smash Bros. launched on Nintendo 64, but the idea of video game characters leaving their respective games to meet on a battlefield ignited players’ imaginations. Soon, fans were fantasizing about what other characters could make their way into a sequel.

Even as players speculated about the series’ future, they likely never guessed how the roster would grow. Over the next three entries the stable of Nintendo combatants ballooned to include deep cuts and more fan favorites from franchises like Super Mario, Pokémon, Star Fox, and the Legend of Zelda. The most surprising inclusions came from outside of Nintendo. Video game icons like Sonic the Hedgehog, Pac-Man, Mega Man, and Snake ensured Smash Bros. was the ultimate battleground for video game characters across the industry.

Nearly two decades later, Masahiro Sakurai and his team at Sora, Ltd are about to launch the most ambitious version of Super Smash Bros. yet. Not only does the game include every character in franchise history – including guest characters – but it also boasts more than 100 stages and over 900 music tracks. True to its title, this is poised to be the ultimate Super Smash Bros. game.

Smash To Basics

Smash To Basics

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate features several modes, including the new Spirit Board and Adventure mode, but for many, the large appeal comes down to bringing together iconic combatants from multiple video game universes to duke it out. These battles have always been fast, frantic, and fun, and that’s no different in Ultimate.

With such a big roster, the character-select screen is intimidating, even for longtime fans. Thankfully, Ultimate eases you in, starting you with just the original eight characters from the Nintendo 64 game: Mario, Donkey Kong, Link, Samus, Yoshi, Kirby, Fox, and Pikachu. You won’t be restricted to these characters for long, however. Nintendo says unlocking all the characters can take as little as a couple of hours, making your 8 fighters grow to 74 fairly quick. With so many fighters to choose from, setting up your dream matchup has never been easier.

Even as a two-decade veteran of the series, as I play dozens of matches I’m continually struck by the absurdity of the events flashing across the screen. Making Ganondorf toss a Poké Ball at Olimar, then watching as Sonic and the Duck Hunt duo try to escape the wrath of the Mimikyu that emerged still feels like it’s breaking all kinds of rules that shouldn’t be broken. But somehow it all works – and even 20 years later, it still feels great in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Play The Classics

Play The Classics

The lines between franchises are further blurred in the one- or two-player arcade-style Classic mode, where you select a character and difficulty and fight through multiple levels. Much like the Classic modes in past Smash Bros. games, you face other combatants as you progress through the mode, but also compete in one-off bonus stages. The bonus stage I played had me running through a simple 2D platforming level, collecting as many gems as possible while not allowing a black hole on the left side to catch up to me. The bonus stage is fun, but as with past iterations of the mode, but the missions I looked forward to the most put me in a Smash with characters under special conditions, like fighting a giant version of a character or a barrage of multiple versions of another.

My playthrough of Classic mode culminated with a daunting boss battle against Rathalos from Monster Hunter. The giant dragon screeches, charges, and breathes fire as I dodge and counter in any way I can. After he whips his tail at me, he pauses briefly, and I strike with a quick combo. After draining his health bar to the halfway point, he takes flight and begins divebombing me. I get him to a quarter health, and he falls to the ground, dazed. I take this golden opportunity to land as many licks as possible. He comes to his senses just before I deplete his health, and he soars away into the background. He’s out of range for the moment, and he takes full advantage by raining fireballs onto me. The attack phase doesn’t last long, as he comes back to striking distance and charges me once again. I dodge his flailing tail and land the final blow, ending the tense boss battle.

Fights like these are exciting, and I love how it varies based on your character. I was playing as the Duck Hunt duo, but other characters have you take on other imposing bosses. For example, playing as Mario or Captain Falcon pits you against Giga Bowser, while going through the mode as R.O.B. or Wolf yields a Galleom fight.

While all the aforementioned playable characters and modes have been in Super Smash Bros. before, the team wanted to expand on the foundation established by prior entries. With this strong foundation, the team behind Super Smash Bros. Ultimate set out to make the most ambitious entry in the series to date even broader in scope, adding new characters, modes, and mechanics that can change the course of matches.

Here Come Some New Challengers

Here Come Some New Challengers

In addition to the already robust roster featuring returning fighters, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate adds several new characters from across the gaming universe. From fighters based on other characters (echo fighters like Dark Samus and Ken) to all-new additions, players have a host of new, exciting characters to sample and potentially main when the game hits.

The first new character was revealed alongside the game, as the Splatoon Inklings were caught off guard by the giant Super Smash Bros. logo amid an inky battle. From there, the character reveals only got more over-the-top, including Simon Belmont avenging the murder of Luigi at the hands of Death in one trailer and Ridley stealthily taking out Mario and Mega Man in another.

The new characters play as diverse as their reveals. Inkling can cover you with ink to slow you down and make you more vulnerable to damage but must fall back and submerge to fill up their ammo, like they do in the Splatoon games. Because all of Inkling’s specials are based on weapons from the Splatoon games, knowing how to use weapons like the Splattershot and Ink Roller can help ease the learning curve.

Playing Ridley is challenging at first due to the combination of his weight and mobility, but once you get the hang of his unique attributes and master his specials, you can hit like a truck. His skewer attack can deal massive damage, even though it doesn’t launch its target. Instead, it stuns and knocks the target down, setting Ridley up for a follow-up attack. The skewer attack is difficult to land perfectly thanks to a long charge time – doing so triggers a brief pause in the action to highlight the powerful blow – but once I had the timing down, I was able to do it with reasonable consistency.

Simon and his echo fighter Richter have been sought-after characters for years, and it’s exciting to see them finally join the world of Super Smash Bros. Their special moves are powerful, with my favorite being the holy water attack that sets the target on fire and holds them in place so you can unload on them. Their whips are also strong, but you need to maintain distance and work on your timing as they can take a while to attack.

King K. Rool is among the most tank-like characters in Super Smash Bros. Not only can he withstand a few attacks without flinching, but he can easily plant you in the ground with his down-smash. As you might expect, he’s not particularly fleet of foot, but what he lacks in speed he makes up for in power and fun abilities like a strong counter or his blunderbuss, where he fires cannonballs and can then use the gun like a vacuum. His Final Smash is an outlandish display of power as he traps his target on DK Island, then uses a giant laser to blow the island to smithereens. These over-the-top Final Smashes interrupt the action, but they’re fun to watch as you either thank the Smash gods it wasn’t you in the crosshairs or curse them that it was.

Isabelle might be the most deceptively powerful character on the roster. Not only does she possess various traps as special moves, like a fishing hook that can pull in enemies that walk into the cast line or a trap that she buries in the ground, but she packs a wallop in her attacks. Despite her indirect fighting style, she was the new inclusion I took to the quickest thanks to her mobility and power. She may come from Animal Crossing, but she plays different from Villager, even if some of her specials look similar. Unlike Villager, who sometimes requires a bit longer setup, Isabelle’s specials are much more instant.

The latest addition to the Smash roster is a blast. Incineroar brings a bombastic professional wrestling style that features body slams, lariats, and, in true pro wrestling fashion, taunts after most moves. When using Incineroar’s side-B special, he throws his opponent off the ropes, but in order to do anything meaningful with it, you must time your next press right. Press too soon and he simply tosses the target upward, but press too late and the character just runs into Incineroar. To make him perform the powerful lariat attack, you need to hit your follow-up press in the tight timing window – easier said than done in the frantic action of a Smash battle.

While the team likely could have stopped at 74 characters and the post-launch DLC (more on that later), Sakurai and his team included untold numbers of additional non-playable characters through a massive catalog of equippable, character-augmenting buff cards known as Spirits.