Sunday, August 5, 2018

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Direct Announced


The wait is over and we're finally getting more infos about the game on Wednesday! It feels unusual to have a dedicated Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Direct so early already, because normally there is only one of these per game and it's still four months until the release. But I'm happy to learn many new things soon and it's possible that they might do more than one for this game, much like they did with Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS & Wii U.

The biggest topics on Wednesday will probably be "Stages" and "Items". After all these are the sections on the official site that are still offline. They've showcased two new stages and a handful of new items at E3, but it hasn't been a focus yet. Even the large number of returning stages (and items) was only graspable from all the E3 footage so far, but we still don't know the true extent of this.

It's imaginable that they might go through all returning stages, similar to how they went through all veteran fighters during E3. And then show off some new stages to finish things off. One of the new stages could even come hand in hand with a new Echo fighter, e.g. Lorule Castle with Princess Hilda.

Afterwards they could go through most of the items and what has changed, where it would be great to learn about all returning and new Assist Trophies as well, which could finally debunk certain characters. Apropos, Vergeben (the one leaker that I find to be somewhat believable) insisted that Isabelle was going to be playable this time, next to Simon Belmont. So, she would get the promotion from her Assist Trophy status, despite the fact that the Assist Trophy didn't really feature any fighter potential. But she certainly isn't the only candidate for getting promoted: Dark Samus, Ashley, Isaac, Shadow and of course Skull Kid all would be popular picks as well.

Of course there also will be at least one major newcomer reveal: Simon Belmont, Captain Toad, King K. Rool, some Pokémon, you name it... There are many possibilities and I'm open for surprises. But at this point I'm more interested in stages, to be honest, especially the total number of returning ones.

Another big topic would probably be game modes, but I feel like that's something that won't be revealed until later. They haven't even prepared a section on the site yet. With Nintendo Switch Online launching soon, some details about the online mode(s) might also be revealed, but again it's slightly early for this. So, the Direct still might focus on what's in the "Smash" mode of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

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