Super Smash Bros. has been celebrated as a series that is fun and chaotic all at the same time. It has grown bigger over the years, and the upcoming Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is sure to be its biggest yet.
While Nintendo previously revealed that the upcoming game would have every character released on board (and then some), we thought that that was everything they could show for the game. We were wrong. On August 8, game director Masahiro Sakurai delivered a 30-minute Direct of nothing but surprises for what’s to come.
Ultimate Direct Reveals
Right off the bat, Sakurai revealed new playable characters to the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate roster: from the Castlevania series, Simon Belmont along with Richter Belmont as his echo fighter; from the Fire Emblem series, Chrom as Roy’s echo fighter; from the Metroid series, Dark Samus as Samus’ echo fighter; and from the Donkey Kong series, King K. Rool. Their addition would make up 73 playable characters. More assist trophies have also been introduced like Zero from the Mega Man series, the evil Moon from The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask, and Rathalos from Monster Hunter: World.
There seems to be a plethora of characters to choose from, but things can go stale without variety, and there is a lot of it in this game to unpack. There are more than 5 modes to play through, including Smashdown which forces players to pick different characters each round, and an improved Training mode with a grid as a stage to graph out distance trajectory of each attack. This encourages players to explore other characters and get better at them.
Aside from that, the game now has a rough estimate of 900 compositions and 103 stages. Each stage is now arranged according to its introduction to the series and music is grouped according to which franchise it belongs to. Stages can also morph and have its hazards turned on or off according to how chaotic you want the game to be. With music, you can have your Nintendo Switch become a portable music player even when the screen is turned off in Handheld mode.
More to Come?
The Direct also showcased other updates such as additional items and new Pokemon to assist in battle but, if those are not enough of a reveal, Sakurai also showed a new option on the main menu of the game, which wasn’t revealed. Talk about a tease, but this also means that there’s still much to uncover about this game. Nintendo of America’s senior vice president of sales and marketing Doug Bowser mentioned that this game is “one of the biggest games Nintendo has ever released,” and this Nintendo Direct is a proof to that statement.
However, we’ll have to wait for that menu reveal. Until then, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is slated to be released exclusively for the Nintendo Switch on December 7, 2018.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Direct 8.8.2018
Photo credit: All images and graphics used are owned by Nintendo.
Source: Nintendo Press Room
