Written By:
Patrick Orquia
TITLE: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
DEVELOPER: Sora, Ltd. / Bandai Namco Studios
PUBLISHER: Nintendo
GENRE: fighting, action
NUMBER OF PLAYERS: up to 8 players
PLATFORM: Nintendo Switch
RELEASE DATE: 07 Dec 2018
PRICE: $59.99
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is the latest iteration of the popular fighting game series, following the release of Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and Nintendo 3DS in 2014. The game is spearheaded once again by series creator Masahiro Sakurai and developed by Sakurai’s Sora, Ltd. and Bandai Namco Studios and, of course, published by Nintendo, for their fast-selling hybrid console, the Nintendo Switch. There was a debate early on about whether this game would be an enhanced port of the Wii U/3DS version of the game, with all paid DLCs included, or if it would be a new game. The later was proven to be true, and Sakurai-san and his team once again delivered the goods. Per his own words, this is the best Super Smash Bros. game ever made. He probably said the same when SSB Brawl came out on the Wii, but this time, he really meant it.
I have to admit, I was never a fan of the Super Smash Bros. series. I tried to play Melee (GameCube), Brawl (Wii), and Smash 4 (Wii U and 3DS) but they just didn’t tickle my fancy. And then early this year, it was revealed that a new Smash game is about to be released. I wasn’t hyped at all, at least not initially.
Over the following months, Nintendo would heavily promote the game, and on their E3 2018 Direct, they revealed the title of the new Smash game: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Supposedly, it would have all the previous fighters from the previous games, and thus, answering once and for all the question of whether it would be a port or a new game: it is a new game, built from the ground up. I, being a non-fan of the series, got a bit disappointed that almost half of Big N’s E3 Direct would just be about this bloody Smash game. I didn’t care about the game, and yet, I acknowledged that this game might be really something else, as even at that point, the game was already shaping up to be one hell of gaming extravaganza.
The heavy promotion continued in the succeeding months, and everyone got hyped some more. The hype was so good and high that I, a non-fan, pre-ordered the game, the first time that I did so for any game ever. And then I got it, played it, and… I got transformed.
The game lived up to all its promises and even did more. The game has a roster of 74 fighters, all non-DLC ones (there would be 5 more coming next year in paid DLCs, plus a bonus one for buying the game early). At the start of the game, only the original 8 fighters from the original Super Smash Bros. game that appeared on N64 are available, and new fighters can be unlocked by playing the various modes this game has to offer. The fighters vary from the usual Nintendo hit-makers such as Mario, Link, Kirby, and Samus Aran to second- and third-party stars such as Bayonetta (from the Bayonetta game series), Solid Snake (from the Metal Gear Solid series), Cloud (from Final Fantasy VII), and Sonic the Hedgehog (from the Sonic series). Again, these fighters have appeared previously on past Smash games, and Sakurai-san reckoned that they are still not enough, so additional fighters have been added and would be debuting on this game, which include Simon Belmont (from the Castlevania series), King K Rool (from the Donkey Kong series), and the much-awaited fan favorite Ridley (from the Metroid series). So yeah, 74+ fighters, the biggest roster in any fighting game in history. This game is truly ultimate.
To match that gargantuan number of fighters are the even more gargantuan number of stages. 100+ stages are here and are available from the get-go, consisting of mostly fan favorites. They all look gorgeous, especially those HD-remastered ones from the original game, Melee, and Brawl. Unlike the fighters, not all of the past stages are present in the game, but more than a hundred stages are already a lot, so no complaints there, really.
And to wrap everything up, the game also features more than 800 songs in its soundtrack from all of the game series represented in the game. The songs are a mix of original tracks from their respective games as well as new remixes for this game. And each of these songs can be listened to via the in-game music player, given that they have already been unlocked. The music player also works even when the console is on sleep mode, so that you can listen to your favorite tracks even while you’re on your way to the office.
And now, the gameplay.
Even if I was not a fan, I still appreciated the unique gameplay of the series. While in other games, the goal is to lower down your opponent’s HP to zero, in Smash, the goal is to damage them enough to smash them off the stage. This makes the game more than just a test of skills but also timing. It’s not enough that you damage your opponent, you also have to work towards eliminating them. I suck at fighting games in general, and for the longest time, I couldn’t understand well this concept of the Smash games. So weeks before getting the game, I had to do a crash course on how to play Smash. I had to learn (and this time, retain the info) how to do attacks, special attacks, tilt attacks, smash attacks, etc. Unlike in other games, there is no overly complicated button combinations to execute in Smash, but still, you should know when to do them. Aside from attacking, what I specifically had to learn is how to recover from getting launched off the stage, because the primary reason why I couldn’t play the past Smash games is because I have zero skills when it comes to recovering. I know it now, but I still have to do more practice because it can still be tricky sometimes, especially if the opponent is really keen in keeping me off stage.
What I like the most about this new Smash game is that it has lots of game modes to cater to anyone with any skill level, and if a player is not skilled enough, the game can make them get better. While the game shines the most in multiplayer modes, because nothing beats battling against another human players, this game also has a big chunk of fun in store for solo players, such as myself. There’s the Classic Mode, wherein you play as one of the fighters in a series of matches and try to finish it with a high intensity level that can be adjusted at the start. If you lose a fight along the way, you can play gold to continue, but the intensity level gets decreased. If you want to retain the same intensity, you can pay with a classic ticket (can be won/bought in-game). The highest intensity that I have won with so far is 8.1, which is not that bad, because I barely knew how to play the game a week before the game got released.
If the classic mode doesn’t cut it for you, there is the massively expansive and highly anticipated World of Light, a single player adventure/story mode wherein you fight your way to free captured spirits that have possessed fighters. You start with Kirby, who is the only survivor of the wipe out attack of Galeem and its army of Master Hands, and as you progress further, you get to free more fighters and spirits, this game’s version of trophies from the previous games. Freed up spirits can be used in battles as either a primary ally that gives you additional team points, or as a secondary support that gives you additional skills and attributes, like being able to survive sleep-inducing floors, being able to withstand high-speed winds, being able to equip weapons at the start of battles, etc. When you battle a spirit, you don’t fight it directly, because it would be too time-consuming for the developers to render and animate each of the more than a thousand spirts available in the game. Instead, the spirits possess fighters and these fighters would look as similar as possible to the spirits. For example, the spirt of the Boss from Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater possessed Zero Suit Samus, and she wears white clothing to closely resemble the Boss. Another example is the spirit of Blanka from the Street Fighter series possessing Donkey Kong. Yes, donkey Kong is colored green, and has electrified attacks. It’s fun to see these fighters resembling the spirits and puts an interesting spin on battles. Add to that the different conditions to make the battles more challenging, like having floors with hazards, the enemy being a giant, the enemy having minions to fight with them, having hostile assist trophies fighting against you, time battles, stamina battles, etc. These combinations make the battles in World of Light, in general, less repetitive and more varied. Aside from spirits, you will also fight against captured fighters themselves in straight up, no-frills battles (i.e., no spirit support). Once you free up a fighter, you will then be able to play as that fighter in future battles and they also become unlocked and available to be played as in other modes of the game (but unlocked fighters outside the World of Light doesn’t become readily available in that mode).
Aside from battles, you can also unlock shops and dojos on the map. These establishments are manned by master spirits, and yes, you have to beat them in battle first for you to have access to their respective establishment. Dojos are where you can “train” spirits for them to learn new skills or traits, such as higher jumping ability or faster movement (which, of course, gets transferred to you when you use them in battles). In shops, you can buy spirit snacks (used in leveling up spirits) and spirits and, sometimes, level up spheres. Level up spheres are used in unlocking skills in the skill tree that can be used by any fighter that you use in battle. These skills can be upgrades to attacks or defense or other attributes that can help your fighter win in battles. Skills to be unlocked have varying numbers of required level up spheres so try to win battles to earn more of them. If you win a battle where your opponent has a higher team power, the more items you win, depending on the difference. Items can either be gold coins (used in the shop outside of World of Light), SP coins (used inside World of Light and the Spirit Board), spirit snacks, Skill Spheres (used in unlocking new skills that can be used by any fighter that you use), or other spirit items.
The goal to achieve in the World of Light is to eventually free all the captured fighters and to beat Galeem. If you are not able completely free all the fighters or spirits, there is a New Game+ that becomes available after you beat the final boss. IF you beat the final boss, that is.
REPLAY VALUE: very high
PROS:
- Amazing visuals
- Steady 60fps (most of the time) at 1080p (docked) and 720p (handheld) resolutions
- Extensive soundtrack with more than 800 tracks from across all the game series represented in the game
- Multitude of game options for both single and multiplayer gaming
- Lots of unlockables
- Gameplay is fast and fluid
- More than 74 fighters to choose from, the most in any fighting game in history
- More than 100 stages available on the get-go
- World of Light offers 20+ hours of gameplay for single player adventure/story mode
- More than 1000 spirits to unlock and to be used in the game
- Very good use of HD Rumble
- Menu interface is clean and easy to navigate
CONS:
- Playing on handheld mode is not very ideal: the characters can look very tiny on the screen of the Switch and it can be very difficult to see which player is which especially if there are more than 2 fighters are present at the same time
- Lags and disconnects can be experienced quite frequently during online play
- Video recording is disabled. There is a way to record replays of battles, but as far as I know, it’s only available for online battles
- Touchscreen support is disabled when the game is played in handheld mode
RATING: 5/5 Super Smashing Stars
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