When you have the word Ultimate in your title, it certainly raises the bar for expectations,
especially when it’s for the latest entry in Nintendo’s long-running fighting game series, Super Smash Bros.
After all the directs, character reveals, and every leak, fake, real, or in-between,
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is finally upon us.
Ultimate is the most comprehensive iteration of Smash Bros. to date, and it’s not even close.
This game not only boasts an incredible amount of multiplayer content,
but perhaps the strongest single player mode in the history of the series.
It’s impressive from top to bottom, though it falls short in a few areas,
including one mode that this series just doesn’t seem to be able to figure out after nearly a decade.
The brand new single player adventure mode, World of Light, is a massive undertaking
that’s surprisingly light on story and heavy on content.
It’s an amazing effort that excels at finding clever uses of the existing roster, stages,
items, and unique rules to replicate iconic situations from numerous game series.
It’s an incredible rush of nostalgia and joy to see these come to life in each battle.
While progressing through the map, you eventually unlock new areas and find branching paths
that give you a small degree of freedom in how to proceed.
Some of the more notable features of the world
are the sub-map environments that serve as twisted dungeons or challenge-like areas
that are themed after certain video game franchises.
Many of these are fantastic to experience - like
seeing the original first world of Donkey Kong Country come to life in a new way
thanks to a completely redrawn map that doesn’t skimp even on the little details.
Waiting for you at the ends of these gauntlets are unique boss encounters
that utilize iconic villains from many of these beloved games.
Whether it’s fighting Dracula in a recreation of the famous final battle of Castlevania
or taking on Monster Hunter’s Rathalos in an open field,
Nintendo perfectly captures the essence of these heart-pounding encounters.
World of Light is not without some drawbacks, though.
Clocking in at nearly 30 hours to fully complete on normal difficulty, it’s quite the undertaking.
Honestly, it runs a bit too long for its own good -
while many of the battles you encounter are great,
there are several that miss the mark.
The nature of fighting against opponent after opponent, no matter how good the mechanics are,
eventually does become mundane after being exposed to it for so long.
Another hurdle you’ll have to overcome if you want to finish World of Light
is dealing with the occasionally brutal difficulty spike.
Every so often you’ll run into a battle where the AI thoroughly dismantles you, no matter what you try.
Even knocking down the difficulty setting, which can be adjusted at any time from the options menu,
isn’t enough to curb the challenge of some of these fights.
Only by possessing certain abilities and buffs obtained through Ultimate’s new “spirits” system
will you truly get a fair fight and have a chance of winning.
It can be maddening at times and feel downright cheap,
but the best advice is to move on from these roadblocks until you can come back later with new spirits.
Spirits are 2D collectible images that replace trophies
and can be used to power-up your fighter before a match,
and if you spend enough time in World of Light,
you’ll find the new spirits system to be essential to your success.
That being said, it really boils down to the fact that only a handful of these spirits are incredibly useful, like
ones that nullify certain stage hazards or buff your stats against certain types of opponents.
You can equip a single primary spirit, which
can then have up to three additional support spirits attached.
Utilizing these effectively will make the difference between ripping your hair out
and snagging a relatively easy victory.
You will also need to level up your primary spirits individually, but there isn’t a need to grind
as you can boost their level by giving them items you collect after every battle
or leaving them at a training dojo you’ll unlock along your journey in World of Light.
There are also additional dojos that unlock new traits for your spirits,
but in the early goings, it’s not quite apparent what the payoff will be in the long run.
Ultimately, you can largely ignore these dojos as they’re not really worth the effort.
Nor are the exploration mini-games you will gain access to
because the haul you get at the end of each of these lengthy waits
is something you can earn in a fraction of the time doing normal battles.
Given how long World of Light is,
it definitely feels like some of these additional systems could have been left out
to make things less overwhelming.
Though it takes up the lion’s share of the single player content,
there are other solo offerings besides World of Light.
The return of Classic Mode lets you go through a short adventure
that fits the theme of each fighter, culminating with a boss fight,
some of which are identical to the ones found in World of Light.
It’s a brief alternative that provides some reward,
and tailoring the fights and stages to each fighter is a nice touch.
Both Classic Mode and World of Light are a significant combination of single player content.
There’s also the Spirit Board where you can try to collect bounties in the form of new spirits
by completing special fight conditions.
They go a long way in helping you forget the omission of long-running modes
like break the targets and home run contest, which are strangely absent.
Another odd decision was to turn All-Star mode into Mob Smash,
a new version of the multi-person melee fights - those insane endurance battles
where you have to take down up to 100 opponents as fast you can.
It wasn’t exactly the most creative mode to begin with, but it feels more shoehorned in then ever now.
The omission of some long-running content seems even more suspect
when you consider that Nintendo managed to not only bring back Mii Fighters,
custom fighters you create from scratch that use a variety of pre-existing move sets,
but also the same exact amiibo functionality seen in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and 3DS.
They both feel a bit out of place on the Switch iteration,
especially since they offer up absolutely nothing new.
While some modes are missing, in terms of characters, everyone is here as promised.
You only start with a base roster comprised of the 8 fighters from the original N64 game,
though eventually you will unlock over 70 combatants.
There are several ways to unlock new fighters,
with challengers appearing after rounds of classic mode
or between multiplayer matches.
If you take on the random challengers, they get progressively more difficult,
and you can periodically gain access to rematches.
Whereas if you choose to unlock them through World of Light,
it can take longer to find all of them, but difficulty is more even
and you can retry as much as you need.
Either way, it feels very rewarding each time you unlock a character.
However, it should be noted that the process of unlocking this many characters
can be an issue for some who aren’t as interested in single player
or who just want to unlock a specific character.
Despite the massive roster, the new characters are great additions.
Whether it's the item tossing and whip slashing of Richter and Simon, the tricky style of King K. Rool,
or the grappling mastery of Incineroar, the newcomers all provide unique play styles
you don’t find in any of the other veterans,
which is quite an accomplishment given the size of this lineup.
The changes Sakurai and his team made to the returning characters are mostly for the better, too.
The feel of Ultimate is so much better than the past few installments.
Characters move faster and recover more quickly,
putting the overall style of the game a bit closer to the much revered Super Smash Bros. Melee,
though the two are still distinctly different.
While the local multiplayer experience in Ultimate is as amazing as ever
with the wide range of options and support we’ve come to expect from this series,
the online still falls a bit short of where it needs to be.
Sakurai warned consumers that you should really get a wired connection
via a LAN adapter for the Switch, and he wasn’t exaggerating.
With one or two exceptions, we’ve found it nearly impossible to get a decent match
when connecting to other players via Wi-Fi.
Even when utilizing an ethernet cable, many of the online matches suffer from varying degrees of latency.
It isn’t so much of an issue when it comes to 4-player free-for-all battles which are just chaotic by nature,
but when you’re trying to have a serious one-on-one match, it’s just doesn’t cut it.
The lobbies are a decent workaround for playing with others,
especially friends who have better connections, but they’re capped to 8 players per room.
There is no way to see the strength of another player’s connection before a match,
so you could be walking into a fight that’s simply unplayable.
And once you’re in a match, backing out will incur a warning from the system
designed to punish rage quitters and griefers,
with repeat offenses leading to a temporary lockout from online play.
On top of that, creating a set of preferred options
hasn’t worked most of the time at the game’s launch
because the matchmaking system favored getting you into a fight as soon as possible
over making you wait a bit longer for the rules you desire.
However, since the latest patch, that algorithm seems to have shifted in favor your options now, which
lines up with the claim in the patch notes that this has now been addressed.
Many online matches are enjoyable
and mostly devoid of any serious connection issues, but it’s important to remember
that the online service for the Switch now requires a paid subscription,
and even for its meager price, the online under-delivers and is easily the weakest link of Ultimate.
Rounding out Ultimate’s many offerings is a great soundtrack.
Its gargantuan selection goes hundreds of tracks deep, including songs from all of the previous games
as well as a healthy supplement of new remixes.
It consistently delivers, and the new tunes are a phenomenal effort.
The menus look fantastic with a sleek, stylish, and clean appearance
that’s unlike anything else out there.
Ultimate’s visuals are an improvement over the last entry,
and it’s wonderful to see old favorites updated for a new generation,
though it’s obvious some areas received a bit more care than others.
The inclusion of a slow-down effect when delivering a critical hit is an excellent addition, too.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is a fantastic game and one of the best entries in the series,
and the only serious issue holding it back is the online performance.
The various modes and features will satisfy those seeking a significant single player component
and those desiring countless hours of local multiplayer mayhem.
Ultimate celebrates the rich history of Nintendo and several other beloved franchises,
and it’s the perfect game to end the year on.
This is an excellent fighting game that people will clearly be playing for many years to come.
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