16 or 17 years ago, my parents bought me a GameCube and a copy of Super Smash Bros. Melee for Christmas. In a happy coincidence, Christmas landed at the very
16 or 17 years ago, my parents bought me a GameCube and a copy of Super Smash Bros. Melee for Christmas. In a happy coincidence, Christmas landed at the very beginning of my school’s winter break that year, so I spent two solid weeks doing nothing but playing through Melee, unlocking new fighters, taking on challenges, and expanding my trophy collection. The days of winter breaks and being a carefree teenager are pretty far behind me at this point, but that doesn’t stop me from wishing I had two entirely free weeks to sink into Super Smash Bros. Ultimate anyway.
There’s a lot to take in when it comes to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and though I’ve played it for six or seven hours so far, I’ve hardly even scratched the surface of all the content that’s there. My playtime so far has unlocked 10-15 fighters and covered a small fraction of all the available battlefields. I’ve barely started working my way through World of Light, I’ve tried (and failed) to beat Classic mode a few times, and I’ve merely dabbled in creating custom rulesets for versus matches. I haven’t even looked at any of the game’s online modes yet, because I know that I’m going to get owned if I dare venture in there at this early stage.
Basically, I have a long way to go if I want to see everything Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has to offer. Still, just as it was immediately clear that Melee was something special, I can already tell that Ultimate is a game I’ll spend a lot of time with in the coming months.
Ultimate isn’t so much a new Smash game as it is some kind of grand Smash compilation. There are a few new fighters and maps, sure, but the main draw is that it features every fighter that has ever appeared in a Smash Bros. game. The vast majority of arenas are returning favorites from previous games as well, so while there is some new, this is essentially a really good looking walk down memory lane.
That isn’t a bad thing – there have been many excellent fighters and arenas throughout the years, so to see so many of them packed into one game is wonderful. It’s also a good way to put a lot of the (mostly great) content found in Super Smash Bros.
