The Super Smash Bros. team was not kidding around when dubbing the next title in the series as the most “Ultimate” Smash game yet.
Just last week, Nintendo dropped a bombshell of information on Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, sending the entire Internet in an uproar of excitement. In fact, the trending bar on Twitter was entirely composted of Super Smash Bros. trends from top to bottom at one point. If you haven’t seen the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Direct yet, where the heck have you been? Watch it right meow:
New Fighters
Let’s cut right to the chase. Everyone knows when a new Smash title is on the way, we’re going to get new and exciting fighters from iconic games across all decades of gaming. This Direct did not let us down. We received news on five new characters, a few of which have been requested since Super Smash Bros. Brawl in 2007.
Simon Belmont and Richter Belmont
Right off the bat, we got a trailer for the first new third party (non-Nintendo) characters for Ultimate. Simon Belmont from Castlevania whips up a new fighting style using his chain whip, ax, cross, holy water, and more. Not only that, but Richter Belmont crosses over as an Echo fighter of Simon! Konami is really killing it in this game, being the first third party developer with three playable fighters (Simon, Richter, and Snake). On top of all this, Dracula’s Castle appears as a stage (with over 30 newly arranged songs), Dracula himself is a boss, and Alucard makes his debut as an Assist Trophy. That is a ton of Castlevania content, and we are totally all for it.
Chrom and Dark Samus
Immediately after that reveal, Nintendo’s Masahiro Sakurai unveils two more Echo Fighters: Chrom and Dark Samus! That’s four brand new characters in the first 10 minutes!
Chrom, one of the protagonists from Fire Emblem: Awakening, is an Echo Fighter of Roy – however, he shares some similarities with Ike, as well. Chrom was actually teased in Lucina and Robin’s Super Smash Bros for WiiU and 3DS reveal trailer, where he mutters “I suppose I’ll get my chance another day” after getting his butt kicked by Captain Falcon. Since then, Chrom has been one of the most requested Fire Emblem characters, and is a very welcome addition.
Dark Samus, the primary antagonist of Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, joins the battle as an Echo of Samus (surprise!). Fans weren’t as vocal about her before her reveal, but since then, she’s gotten a lot of praise. Many worried that she would not be very different from Samus, but Sakurai and his team did a great job showing her personality through her animations and play style. She still has a lot of similarities to her counterpart, but Dark Samus looks as if she’ll be a fun change of pace for Samus players.
King K. Rool
King K. Rool is arguably one of the most requested fighters for Smash (along with Ridley and some others), and many were left with a sour taste in their mouth after the lack of the Kremling King in Smash 4. This reveal trailer got SO many great reactions from fans. This krazy kroc makes plenty of nods to his games in his move set – Kaptain K. Rool is referenced with the Blunderbuss, he throws his crown just like in his boss battles, and he even uses his Blast-O-Matic from Donkey Kong 64 in his Final Smash. King K. Rool is just the tip of the iceberg, and we can’t wait to see what other fighter reveals Nintendo has up their sleeve in the coming months.
(Nintendo)
Other Exciting News
Outside of the new Fighters, we saw a lot of cool stuff, so we’ll just list ’em out here for reference:
- There are 103 stages in the game so far! All of the returning stages are getting a revamp to make them new and shiny, minus the original Nintendo 64 ones, which are kept the same because of the nostalgia factor. On top of this, all stages support 8-player Smash.
- New Donk City Hall from Super Mario Odyssey is officially revealed as a stage. You’ll travel up and down the New Donk City Town Hall tower. Pauline also makes a cameo and sings “Jump Up Superstar!”
- Stage Morphing is introduced, which allows players to change stages in the middle of a match for some fun mash-ups.
- Ultimate sports almost 900 music tracks, which is almost a 50% increase from the previous game.
- Final Smash meters are introduced: fill them up by fighting and execute a weaker-than-normal Final Smash when the charge hits its maximum.
- Tournaments and Classic Mode make a return!
- A new mode called “Squad Strike” allows players to pick between a 5v5 or 3v3 elimination battle. This mode can be played with 2 opposing players or with a whole squad!
- Another new mode called “Smashdown” is another elimination-styled mode. However, in this mode, characters cannot be selected again after they are used in battle.
- The slick menu was shown off, but one section was blurred out… What could it be?
