Super Smash Bros. Ultimate: First Impressions

Sadly, I haven't gotten my copy of the game yet. But I had to borrow a Switch from someone anyway, since I don't have a Switch of my own yet, and that someone also got the game, so I could play Super Smash Bros. Ultimate quite a bit over the weekend despite my circumstances.

During the weekend we / I unlocked all the characters, either by playing the Smash mode together or me playing the new Classic mode with various characters. Overall unlocking all the characters was quite fast and fun. I would even say that stages should have been unlockable on similar terms, because it's nice to have a small selection in the beginning and then unlocking everything bit by bit gradually to try things out when you unlock them.

On the other hand I haven't unlocked all stages in Super Smash Bros. Melee to this day, because some of them were tied to rather difficult tasks... So, I'm happy that I don't have to go through something like that again to have a full selection of stages and characters ready. On the other hand they could let you unlock stages in a simple fashion as well, where it's fun to get one stage after another.

It's also fun to have the revert with the new "Smashdown" mode, which is really interesting for me, because I tend to play the same character(s) in fighting games. In case of Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and so far Ultimate it's Zero Suit Samus, but I've been playing many other characters more frequently in the latter, including Simon and Richter, Ridley, King K. Rool, Young Link, Cloud, the Fire Emblem cast and more. But with "Smashdown" I again wish that this mode would apply to stages as well, where once a stage has been played, it can't be picked again for the remainder of the mode.

Stages, Stages, Stages

Overall most of my complaints about Super Smash Bros. Ultimate revolve around stages. For starters, while I like the new rule sets, I really don't like that Stage Morphing and toggling Stage Hazards are part of them. This should have been on the stage select screen and not in the rule sets. Because the way it is now, I have to make four variants for each rule set, depending on whether I want to turn on morphing or hazards or both... It's super inconvenient.

As for stage hazards, turning them off does not stop the scrolling stages, they are still going. With that there is actually no reason why they didn't bring back (vertically scrolling) stages like Rumble Falls other than that they would bring some development efforts. The only stage that probably wasn't brought back due to technical limitations is Jungle Hijinx, because the background layer wouldn't work with the Stage Morph feature.

The stage select screen is a mess as well, where both this and the character select screen should get an option for sorting everything by series.

And while I enjoy having this gigantic collection of past stages, the lack of new stages made things boring fast, because I was already familiar with over 90% of the content here. Luckily, I didn't get the Mario Maker and Midgar stages for the previous games, so I had two more new stages to explore. It's also nice to re-explore the Melee and 3DS stages with nice new graphics. But it was overall quite disappointing to only get a few new stages, where some of them aren't even all that good. I like the Great Plateau Tower and Dracula's Castle is amazing, but the Moray Towers and the New Donk City stage weren't really my thing.

In addition, there's no Stage Builder, so I can't even make my own stages for now and maybe ever. There's some hope that they might patch one in, but that's quite unlikely.

Classic Mode

While I haven't tried the "Spirits" stuff yet, including World of Light, because in the end this won't be my savegame, I was really busy playing a good part of the new Classic Mode, which I enjoy a lot. Every character has a short campaign of six different fights and a boss at the end, where it's a different experience for everybody. This is so much more fun to play this with all the characters than it was in previous games and it's easily the best Classic Mode yet. It's short, it's simple and it's addicting.

The bonus games, however, show how terribly repetitive it can be to play the same thing over and over again with different characters, so ultimately the mode would probably have been better without the Bonus Stage and playing the credits each single time (though you can skip the latter, but it means that you get fewer rewards).

But it's nice to see what you will have to face with each characters, where some ideas are quite interesting and unique. For example you keep fighting dark enemies as Link, including Dark Pit, Dark Samus and of course Dark Link and at the end...

You face Ganon from Ocarina of Time as a boss. He seems to be the toughest boss in Classic Mode, because like in Ocarina of Time you can only damage him by attacking his tail. But unlike the original you can't just go underneath him, which makes it quite challenging. (With the other Links you can just jump over him and Zelda can even teleport behind him, so that's easier then.)

There is even a special stage just for this boss fight, where you fight in some castle ruins that are on fire. And they use the Calamity Ganon music for this fight, which fits quite well. It's really an epic boss battle and I enjoy it a lot, where it's nice to see that Zelda got some attention here.

And overall it's really good that you don't simply fight Master Hand each single time. Marth has Rathalos as his boss for example and the Belmonts face Dracula, of course. It adds to the variety.

There's other interesting details as well. For example in Isabelle's Classic Mode you fight the entire female staff of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. And for the last battle they let you face Sheik alone, which might be a big hint at the forever ongoing debate about Sheik's gender.

Zelda Contents

While it is still disappointing that Zelda didn't get a newcomer this time around, you have to say that they treated the Zelda franchise quite nicely and with care in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. I've already mentioned some cool Zelda things from the Classic Mode, but the redesigned characters all look and play great as well. Zelda looks cute and Link's Remote Bombs are a powerful tool.

Even Ganondorf feels quite good in this, the higher speed of the game does him well and his new Smash Attacks with the Spaceworld sword are fantastic and a killer. I even used Ganondorf to unlock quite a few of the later characters, where the AI gets a bit trickier. I kept calling him the "Unlocker" during this, because that's what he did for me (King K. Rool also did a good job here).

It's also fun to use Ganondorf in an 8 Player Smash in a crowded stage. Just stand there and smash and you're almost guaranteed to make some easy kills. Of course he's still quite slow and the Special Moves still aren't the most fitting choice, but it was a step in the right direction.

And then we got Young Link back, who currently seems really overpowered with his Fire Arrows. Those things launch you, where you can even snipe characters into oblivion, who are trying to get back on the stage. But it's likely that this will be nerfed soon...

I also like the Great Plateau Tower stage quite a bit and all the past Zelda stages are looking better than ever. The only complaint I have here is about the Pirate Ship's Omega form, which doesn't have a roof anymore, probably to match the Battlefield version. But I liked the Wii U version a lot more, because it really looked like one of the Lookout Platforms from the Wind Waker there.

For the first time I also found interest in the Mii costumes and making my own Mii Fighters. While Skull Kid might not be playable, his outfit is really nice and makes a Mii almost look like him. Of course that's just a sad consolation price, but it's still nice to have. And I really like the Yiga costume, which even gets used in some of the Classic Mode scenarios for the Zelda characters. This is the type of stuff the Mii costumes are ideal for. I never would expect a Yiga to become playable, but as Mii Sword Fighters they leave a good impression. Good stuff!

Still, it's a shame that Zelda didn't get a newcomer in all of this... But maybe, just maybe, there will be some free DLC Echo Fighters, where Impa could be one of them. Which leads us to the next topic... (Upcoming post.)