Super Smash Bros Ultimate Review Written By: Brian (Zyndae) Backus of 89 Bit Productions on 12/11/18
Every time Nintendo releases a new system you know two things are always going to be true. A new Mario Kart is on its way and a new Super Smash Bros is coming as well. Nintendo released the Nintendo Switch in 2017 and shortly after that they took Mario Kart 8 for the Wii U and packaged it with the moniker of “Deluxe” and launched it again with added content for the Switch. There was never a doubt that Smash Bros was on the way but gamers the world over were all afraid that it was going to be just a port and not anything new. Well, truth be told, they are not exactly wrong, but there is still so much more.
Super Smash Bros takes the likes of Mario, Samus, Link, Pikachu, Fox, Kirby, Donkey Kong and a million more characters and pits them up against each other in a fighting genre style game. Okay there are not a million fighters but the series has come a long way when it started with just 12 and now there are a whopping 72 characters not including the already announced DLC fighters. Everyone is here. Every character ever made in the history of the franchise, every stage in the history of the franchise ever made, every concept ever used is all here. The best part about it is not only is every character back this time around, but all the music from almost all of their respected games is also on this cartridge allowing you to use your Switch as a proverbial Walkman, if you will, and have the music at your fingertips. Besides seeing Final Fantasy favorite in Cloud, Capcom’s blue-bomber Mega Man, or even Ryu and Ken from Street Fighter they are all here. I love that I can see Sega’s Sonic versing my favorite plumber of all time, Mario. These battles are fantastic to play out in the ever growing questions of “who would win if…?” Even Konami allows Nintendo to use the likes of Solid Snake from Metal Gear Solid series fame. The possibilities are endless with this outing.
Not only are the old characters all back but there are plenty of new ones as well and as previously mentioned more are coming. Because of the disdain for Brawl and the amount of unfair content in Smash for Wii U it seems Nintendo has balanced the game a lot more. Don’t get me wrong there are still some characters that are far superior to another but things feel more fleshed out. Nintendo took the time to make these characters right.
You even had to open the characters. This outing the series starts you with just 8 characters, the original 8 that Smash 64 starts with. It was fun having to get challenged again from a random generated character list. Unlocking the characters isn’t that hard either. You can go through Classic Mode with a character and get challenged automatically by a new fighter or you can go through the Spirit World. Regardless, if you lose to the challenge of the character they are placed in what I call a pool. They eventually will re-challenge you but not in the traditional way they did the first time around. A small symbol displays on your screen when they are ready to fight again giving you another go around and this time with a character of your choosing. The fights get harder and harder as you progress but never feel too unfair. Normally if I lost to a challenge it was because I was playing as a character I don’t play as often going through their Classic Mode.
The Spirit World is where the game changes the most. The Spirit World is a side-quest adventure that gives you an alternate way to unlocking characters. Characters that you unlock in this mode will unlock in the entire game but characters you unlock in other ways will not unlock in this mode. You are placed on a large map that reminds me a lot of Mario World. You move your avatar (in the beginning it is Kirby) to selected lit up spots on the map and challenge that location. If you win you can progress to the next area on the map and eventually you will get to a new character. If you beat them they unlock in this story mode and in the game.
I like and dislike the Spirit World. It gives the game a story and a purpose to play but I am not a fan that you start with who you do. If you are not skilled with a particular fighter going through this may prove difficult. I also liked the Spirits you can collect. They are basically small token that you equip, so to speak, that can level up and give you advantages while in combat. They can be upgraded, traded away, or released back into the real world in exchange for better spirits. The spirits all take on forms of characters from almost every game ever released on a Nintendo system and is neat to see characters that you may have forgotten about. The bad part of the Spirit World is that the constant small Skirmish battles get boring and drag on especially when you are stuck with a character you don’t enjoy. I do love the attempt at a better story than what Brawl gave us on the Wii but still feel that it was lacking and could have been done better. The Spirits are fun to collect and level up and play with but all in all it felt to me like an empty attempt to add something that wasn’t needed. Nintendo placed this in to give the game “girth” so to speak and that what this mode feels like, an added on extra content you just do not need.
The online in this game has got to be the worst I have played. Granted the servers are packed right now and Nintendo will (hopefully) fix this issue but I have to rate the game out of the box. The game lags badly online and the fact that I have to pay the subscription now to play Nintendo games online angers me because these issues should not be that, issues. Then to make matters worse, if your internet kicks you off of the game you can get banned for bailing on the game. For a game series that has an unprecedented fan base, people buy Nintendo’s consoles for this game, you would think that the biggest draw would be the online and it’s terrible. What I do like about the online, however, is when you beat an opponent you get their created “Dog Tag.” These are kind of like little trophies that you can collect from each player. You simply get a copy of it; it’s not like when you lose you lose your tag as well. You can then trade in the tags to help you in the Spirit World to obtain better spirits. The concept of the online is great but it is executed poorly.
With all that said this is by far the best Super Smash Bros game ever made and by far. Everything you could ever ask for is in this game and more. However, because it is Smash Bros the novelty wears off fast because after all the characters are open and you have played versus enough times it becomes the same as it always has, just Super Smash Bros.
Even though there are plenty of new characters, and even though there is an entire Spirit World to explore I cannot rate the game on just that. If the Spirit World was also a full-fledged RPG then that would have made a difference, but it feels tacked on. This game has a lot of content and lets be real it technically has all of the content ever but the game as a whole fails to bring really anything new to the table. Like said above, every single concept in this game just leads me back to the same thing, “It is just more Smash.” The game is polished to a level like no other, the controls are tight, and the music is spot on. It is fun like Smash always is and the game is beautiful. For the reasons listed just now and the reasons listed earlier this game is a 9.5 out of 10.