Nintendo Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Review by Jon from Eigotaku’s Pubstomper Podcast
December 20, 2018 4:53 am | Leave your thoughts
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Review
Ultimate Warriors.
From humble beginnings… Actually that’s not accurate. The truth is that even back in the haze of the N64 era, a party style fighting game starring a bunch of Nintendo mascots had ”smash hit” written all over it. While Mario Kart and Goldeneye were trashing dorm rooms and ruining friendships, the fighting game genre on Nintendo consoles was left to arcade titans Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat and relative newcomer Killer Instinct, while Sony and Sega traded blows with Tekken and Virtua Fighter respectively. From a modest 12 original character roster, the Super Smash Bros. series has grown in stature exponentially on its journey from N64 to Gamecube and then Wii, Wii U and 3DS.
Make sure your arse holds on to something, because the newest entry in the series has just launched on Nintendo’s prepubescent hybrid console, and by crikey, it’s an absolute sodding beast.
Earlier this year when the game was initially ”revealed” (even though it was a complete given), the mythical sorcerer slash director, reverse aging and father of Kirby Masahiro Sakurai dangled the bogus carrot of character reveals, while riding the fevered hype train donkey to high heaven.
When those immortal words appeared, the community lost their collective shit.
Everyone. Is. Here.
Every character from previous entries were in, but it didn’t stop there, as the first of five character packs was just revealed at The Game Awards. It was as if Nintendo went up to every arm chair pundit, made an obscene hand gesture to their face, screwed up the rule book, lobbed it into a fire and then jumped out the window.
Suffice to say I’ve never heard of nor given a shit about Joker from Persona 5, but in terms of just being so bat shit bonkers that no one saw it coming, really shows the amount of fucks Nintendo are giving regarding the selection of future possible characters. Not that they don’t care (on the contrary), its a statement that is right up there with Final Fantasy’s Cloud, Metal Gear Sold’s Snake and the new inclusions such as Donkey Kongs nemesis King K.Rool and Castlevania Protagonist Simon Belmont.
So, a roster of almost 75 (mostly unique) would mean absolutely nothing if the game wasn’t packing where it counted. As a relief to some and the surprise to, well, no one, probably, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is another masterclass is Nintendo’s ”easy to pick up, almost fucking impossible to master (or be the best)” mantra.
While the game and the series was never officially intended to be more than a party game, Smash Bros. Melee has become a staple in fighting game tournaments and has some of the most loyal fans and dedicated competitors in gaming. From wave dashing to five hour documentaries, Melee has tried to resist over a decades worth of competition from subsequent entries. Ultimate is its biggest threat yet. It’s tight, fast, smooth, gorgeous and while it wouldn’t be completely fair to call the 3DS version gimped, it’s almost unbelievable that the game is portable.
So let’s take stock. Yes, for all intents and purposes, Smash Bros. Ultimate is a fighting game and Smash is still Smash, so if you’ve never had any interest in the series, this isn’t the ”back to its roots but also refreshing reinvention” that Breath of the Wild is, but more of a gluttonous collection fest and celebration of history more akin to Super Mario Odyssey. Over 100 stages, almost one thousand music tracks and an increasing roster from the obvious to the obscure.
The main difference between Ultimate and its predecessors (every other fighting game out there that I can think of) is its massive single player mode, dubbed ”World of Light”. Kirby is the soul survivor of some apocalyptic attack by some giant winged thing and all the characters are ghosts for you to find and free. Or something like that.
Granted, stories in fighting games are about as well regarded as those in porn, but World of Light, and more specifically, the implementation of 2D sticker trophies called ”spirits”, adds grind, resource management and a collection of random characters from games you seriously have never fucking heard of.
The scenario based gameplay loop of fight, collect, level up and choose is boring and repetitive in theory, but the constant progression along with the option to work through a card deck type set up or explore the vast and beautiful world map do keep things moving.
The other option is a good old fashioned arcade mode, pitting you against a handful of foes to progress via a painted mural. The difficulty (or intensity) increases with every victory, and drops with every loss, with the option to retain your level by spending coins and tickets. Characters unlock at a brisk pace and in classic mode you’ll see the credits shoot past every 10-15 minutes or so. The ”platforming” mini game is still utter gash, though.
Is the new “Spirits” single player mode perfect? No. It’s meandering (also read fucking convoluted) process of leveling up and counteracting an opponents strengths could have been much more streamlined, not to mention the ridiculous amount of odd character spirits there are to collect (around a thousand).
While the online has also been incredibly ropey so far, which is kind of understandable if not excusable considering Switch owners are now paying for their service which no doubt is trying to facilitate the metric shit ton of people playing this game, local multiplayer Smash Bros. is the clear winner and what the series has been about from day one, from a beer filled student night in to an awkward family get together all the way up to The Super Bowl of competitive gaming, EVO. Brackets, lobbies and every single rule is customizable so your fights will be as old school or as chaotic as you want.
There is the odd bust in terms of frustratingly Difficult fights or the frankly shit dashing level, and the trophies this time round arguably sacrifice quality for quantity, but a game that has the same level of beauty and polish as Mario Kart 8, coupled with the mind boggling and almost detrimental amount of content make Smash Bros. Ultimate the definitive yet a somewhat bloated experience, but a complete no brainer for Switch owners.
Whatever your skill level, if you have even a remote interest in Nintendo or fighting games then there really isn’t a more accessible yet deep and satisfying brawler on the system and as long as online can punch above its weight, all will be well. This one will be standing for many rounds to come.
Tupper- where’s Waluigi…?!
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Tags: Eigotaku's Pubstomper Podcast, Nintendo, nintendo switch, Super Mario Brothers, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, video games
Categorised in: Toy Addict
This post was written by Leftover Brian
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