Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, the upcoming Super Smash Bros. game coming to the Nintendo Switch, brings together the entire roster of the combined Smash Bros. series. In terms of labor, that\u2019s more than enough to call it a sequel, though it may not feel like it if you haven\u2019t followed the series closely.<\/b>
\nEveryone loves Super Smash Bros. From hardcore competitive players to casual Nintendo fans who only jump in now and then with friends, Smash Bros. has a way of bringing people in that few games ever find. Games that achieve that level of success tend to stagnate. Why mess with a good thing, right?
That may explain why, after so much hype, Nintendo\u2019s next Smash Bros. game, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, feels more like a Switch-era expansion than a sequel.
Ultimate is more than a next-gen port of the Wii U game, but not by much. Like Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, a 1995 Mortal Kombat Arcade sequel, Smash Bros Ultimate achieves sequel status by compiling every character from all four Smash games, adding a handful of new ones, and putting them in a single, modern package in the style of Super Smash Bros for Wii U (A. K. A. \u201cSmash 4\u201d).
Though that doesn\u2019t amount to exciting new features, it\u2019s still a mighty undertaking. To create a game that meets the high standards of the fighting game community, and the competitive Smash Bros. community specifically, every character will need to be rebalanced. Some older characters that weren\u2019t in Smash 4 need \u201cfinal smash\u201d moves to achieve parity with newer fighters. The rest will need to be rebalanced to account for new scenarios among characters that they\u2019ve never had to fight.
Fighting game fans have always been a fickle bunch, and Smash fans seem to be especially picky \u2014 there is a contingent of pro players who will only play Super Smash Bros. Melee, the 2001 Gamecube version. I have friends at home who grumble unless we\u2019re playing the original on a Nintendo 64. Ultimate and its focus on smaller, nitty gritty changes, feels like an attempt to bring all those communities together with a single game, on a single console.
The biggest changes we saw seem geared to competitive players. Arguably the largest change is to character and level select. In Ultimate, you now choose your stage before your character, allowing you consider a level\u2019s eccentricities when picking your fighter. To a lot of people, this will be a minor swap, but for competitive play, adjusting your character choice for specific levels could push players to mix up their choices more.
Once you\u2019re in a match, though, most players will not be able to distinguish Smash Bros Ultimate from Smash 4. The game looks and feels identical to the untrained eye. Every tactic you used should still work, assuming it isn\u2019t contingent on minute balancing details.
We\u2019ve been told by players with specific character preferences that some characters do feel a little different. One rep from Nintendo, for example, lamented that Solid Snake felt a little slower than the original Smash Bros Brawl character. (He was also quick to point out that the game is still being balanced).
In our time with Ultimate, we focused on two of the game\u2019s completely new characters, the Splatoon Inkling, and Ridley from Metroid. Inkling is a quick character, with a focus on horizontal movement. She (or he) has a paint-roller special attack that can clear a path across wide platforms, and create a path for her to later quickly swim across. She seems like a good introductory character, though we could see how creative painting could lead to some interesting maneuvers.
Ridley was a little harder to figure out. Ridley\u2019s moves slightly faster than the average heavy character but felt substantially less powerful. Not being a Smash expert, and only having played two matches, I can\u2019t say I have a good read on how Ridley will \u201cfit\u201d in the game, but that doesn\u2019t mean it won\u2019t find a niche.
Looking back to even a few days ago, I\u2019m not sure what the expectations were for the new Super Smash Bros. game. For players who love this series, it seems there will be a ton of new information to unpack, and new tricks to learn. For the rest of us, it\u2019s simply a chance to dive back into the series.<\/p>\n

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Similarity rank: 1.1<\/div>\n

Sentiment rank: 0.4<\/div>\n

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