Super Smash Bros. Ultimate: Final Direct Letdown

The last months have been a joy ride. The anticipation for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and all the theories for what could be still be included in the game were a lot of fun and the main focus of this blog for five months straight. But this probably ends soon.

The Direct was quite the hype killer. "Kencineroar" became a reality. The box was right and we really only had Ken and Incineroar left, which is certainly disappointing and didn't really end the roster on a high note. At least Sakurai wasn't lying or exaggerating when he said that we shouldn't expect many more fighters... But he could have spaced out the reveals more evenly, keep some of the bigger ones for the end, instead of revealing half of the additions in August.

On top of they deconfirmed many potential popular characters as Assist Trophies, including Shadow, Isaac, Spring Man and... Skull Kid. They didn't even bother with showing the latter during the Direct, he was simply put on the website, where it's like Nintendo wasn't even aware that the fans expected him. They also deconfirmed Echo Fighters for DLC (for now), so there goes my hope for a playable Princess Hilda yet again.

The whole Spirits Mode was lame. We are not getting trophies, but glorified stickers, where for each one you have to do lazily made substitute missions. "The Imprisoned in Smash? Well, we sure are too lazy to make him an actual boss, so we will just let you fight a giant K. Rool!" This reminds me partly of the Hyrule Warriors DLC, where they used huge Bokoblins as the four Giants from Majora's Mask and the Sealed Grounds as Clock Town, while Skull Kid was Lana wearing a costume.

It feels so lazy and it really hurts... There could have been so much amazing content in this game, but instead we are getting quick efforts left and right.

Stages are another disappointment. Yes, we're getting five more stages for a total of 108, but the five new stages will be DLC. So, there's only four new stages in the base game and so many missed opportunities for great stages from recent games, like Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze or Metroid: Samus Returns. Having 99 old stages back is nice and all, but we already know all these stages, so they aren't as exciting.

At least there could have been a Stage Builder, so I can make my own new stages. But no, this feature was cut altogether. And this alone doesn't feel like the "ultimate" Smash to me (given, the game is subtitled "Special" in Japan, but hey, it's what it is in English). This was probably the biggest disappointment of the Direct. I can live with not getting the characters that I was hoping for, but the Stage Builder was one of my favorite features in the previous games, which probably just got cut because it would have meant more development effort. Or they thought that people wouldn't want to make their own stages, now that we have so many old stages back...

The Metroid fan in me is happy that we got Ridley and Dark Samus, but he's also disappointed that there were no new Metroid stages. The Zelda fan in me is happy that all Zelda stages are back and we're getting a new one with the Great Plateau Tower, but he's also disappointed that there were no new Zelda fighters and that almost every potential character got deconfirmed as an Assist Trophy again, like in Smash 4.

Well, as for a Zelda newcomer, I initially didn't expect one and I probably should have kept listening to this notion, instead of obsessing over the possibility that Skull Kid could make it in as a playable fighter this time. But with the August Direct it really seemed like this possibility was a reality with all factors combined. If they had revealed Skull Kid as an Assist Trophy together with the Moon, this wouldn't have happened, but instead they kept him off the list until the last second, keeping up the hopes of Zelda fans for all this time. This was really unlucky und poorly executed by Nintendo.

Of course DLC is a thing, but there will be only five packs from what it seems and the Piranha Plant. This character is certainly fun, but after the big blow from today I can't laugh about it right now. Maybe later. Hopefully, Vergeben was right about Minecraft as well and there will be a Minecraft pack. I would like that very much. I don't care about the rest, because there is probably nothing in it for me...

 

ARMS is out of the picture with Spring Man being an Assist Trophy (unless they are going for some other ARMS character, like Ribbon Girl, Min Min or Twintelle) and so seems to be Xenoblade Chronicles 2. This doesn't really leave much for fighters from newer Nintendo games. Maybe some older stuff, but older Nintendo characters feel more like something that they would do in the base game, like Ridley.

Most of it will probably be 3rd party anyway. Vergeben confirmed that there will be another Square Enix character. Nintendo could also be making deals with Bethesda for Smash and there might be something coming from Bandai Namco as well, like Heihachi from Tekken or KOS-MOS. Ryu Hayabusa from Koei Tecmo's Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive series feels also like a must.


Update: They showed Young Link's Final Smash on stream and it's simply the Triforce Slash. No Fierce Deity or anything. The disappointment continues...