To quote myself from last time:
The absolute best case scenario would be, if they bring everyone back. Everyone from Super Smash Bros. 4 and its DLC, plus the Ice Climbers, Wolf, Snake, Young Link and even the missing Pokémon. To make the ultimate Smash Bros. that has everything. This isn't likely, but we can always dream, right...?
Yes, we can dream. And sometimes, in rare occasions, dreams come true. I originally made an argument as to why "Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo Switch" should be based on a port of the Wii U and 3DS versions, where you get all characters and stages from these games and add on top of that to create the ultimate Smash Bros. game.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate isn't a port, but it does everything I was hoping for and more, which makes it even better than anything I had imagined. I'm really happy about this announcement, because this looks like the Super Smash Bros. that I always wanted. One that has almost everything from past Smash games and new content on top.
While I enjoyed, how Super Smash Bros. 4 played, I never really liked how the game got split between the 3DS and the Wii U versions with its contents, especially the stages. I wanted all in one. And even back in Brawl I always thought that they could have added some stages from the Nintendo 64 game and maybe even more stuff from Melee. It always felt like there was something missing. A character, some stages, something. And Super Smash Bros. 4 even made money from selling returning characters and stages, like the Pirate Ship or Roy...
Now, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate does everything right. They announced this game by saying, "everyone is back!" And that's the best case scenario. They won't reveal one returning character after another, so you have to keep worrying for months, whether your main will be back or not. Well, he, she or it will be back, whether that character was from Melee, Brawl or 4. No one is left out this time!
In addition they will bring tons of stages back. Smash Bros. Wiki lists a over 60 returning stages that were sighted. That's already more than there used to be in any Smash game! And that's probably not all of it, maybe the developers are even so ambitious to bring all stages back.
Though, of course there will be some exceptions like redundant stages or the Miiverse stage, which might not work anymore. Though, they technically could just add fake Miiverse messages to it to replicate the experience. But in the end that was just a Battlefield clone anyway, so it's not that important...
Apropos Battlefield, in my original suggestions for Smash Switch I mentioned "Alpha Stages", which are like the Omega Stages just for the Battlefield layout. They made this finally happen, which is another dream come true! (Update: plus they also added the option to turn off stage hazard. This will increase the options for competitive play significantly.)
Everything also looks a lot more polished. Super Smash Bros. 4 often felt like a cheap effort to me, where stages got directly ported from Brawl and most characters just got simple recolor alts. This time they are putting a lot more efforts into the graphics, offering costumes with different models and graphical updates to past stages. Well, to be honest, the new Bridge of Eldin looks very "wrong", but otherwise I'm really happy about these efforts. I especially like, how the Zelda characters are all from different eras this time, but more about Zelda in Smash in an upcoming post.
And of course there is also new stuff... And what better way to prove this than to finally add Ridley? There had been some doubts about this because of his size, even from Sakurai himself in the past, but seeing him in action like this is quite satisfying. And finally the Metroid series got a proper new after all those years. I'm curious, whether the Pyrosphere stage will be back and still feature Ridley as a boss, but it basically would become his stage.
Sakurai said that we shouldn't expect too many newcomers and I'm okay with that. By bringing back all characters and a majority of the stages from all previous Smash games, there will be already more than enough content. New stuff is the icing on the cake here. However, there are still characters left that feel likely:
- Simon Belmont
- Captain Toad (w/ Captain Toadette alt)
- Dixie Kong
- King K. Rool
- Spring Man (w/ Springtron alt)
- Ribbon Girl (Spring Man Echo or semi-clone)
- Another Xenoblade character
With those it would feel quite complete, covering some cult classics, as well as some recent games on Wii U and Switch. There is probably some stuff that I'm missing here, like some new Pokémon, but I wanted to keep it short.
There is also the possibility of DLC in the future, like some character from Fire Emblem - Three Houses (Edelgard looks very beautiful and promising) or maybe even Sylux from Metroid Prime 4, once that is finally shown. Some characters in the above list, like Spring Man / Ribbon Girl and Rex, could also be DLC candidates, depending on how early the base game roster was decided.
Bomberman sadly got turned into an Assist Trophy or otherwise he could be on this list as well. But I understand the design decision behind this, because these large explosions would be overpowered for a normal character.
Anyway, Assist Trophies are another interesting topic, especially which ones haven't been shown yet. Since Little Mac got promoted from one, it's possible that a few of the previous Assist Trophies get turned into actual characters as well, including Skull Kid, Dark Samus,
Overall I'm super excited for this, which makes me happy, because I wasn't all that interested in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U. This is finally the ultimate Smash I was always craving for. And I'm super excited about all upcoming announcements for this game.
That being said, it won't make me buy a Switch yet. As much as I love the "Ultimate" approach, it's all about stuff that I already have in some form with the previous games. I want it and it will be one of the absolute must-have games for the system, but it can wait. I don't need to play this as soon as possible, so I will be waiting for a real reason to finally buy the Switch. Plus, I can always play this at friends'.
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