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Super Smash Bros. Ultimate - the biggest and best smash ever

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate – the biggest and best smash ever

GameCentral gets to play a near final version of the new Smash Bros. for Switch, including the massively improved new single-player.

Its been a quiet year for Nintendo in 2018. The amazing success of the Switchs first year was fuelled largely by repurposed Wii U games and with most of the biggest ones already used up the first half of this year has been treading water until developers can catch up with the unexpected success of the console. As such, Nintendos two most significant games are stuck in the last two months of the year. Pokémon: Lets Go, Pikachu! has already turned out well, but its the new Smash Bros. which is set to be the biggest Switch game yet.

Before last week wed already played Ultimate briefly at both E3 and Gamescom. But if youve been near a Nintendo console in the last 19 years youll likely already know the basics of Smash Bros. Although theres some argument over exactly how youd classify its genre its essentially a 2D fighting game. But unlike Street Fighter and its progeny the default style of play has four players battling it out at once on complex stages that often incorporate platform elements, interactive backdrops, and collectible items.

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Despite their huge success (even the Wii U version managed to sell 5 million copies) the Smash Bros. games have always suffered from two major problems: they lack the pick up and play immediacy of Nintendos other multiplayer greats and their single-player modes have always ranged from uninspired to downright bad. We didnt see quite enough to judge the former – especially as we didnt get to play the tutorials or training modes – but in terms of solo play Smash Bros. has finally cracked it.

There are three main single-player modes in Ultimate, which doesnt necessary sound like the right lessons have been learnt from the bloat of previous games. But theyre all quite distinct and dominated by the new World of Light story campaign. Previous Smash games have tried to turn the single-player into some strange platform hybrid, but World of Light is much more like the original SoulCalibur games in that it presents a large map for you to explore and lots (and lots) of one-off battles with unique rules and opponents.

You start off as Kirby (the lone survivor from the intro video above) and move around a hand-drawn map thats vaguely reminiscent of Super Mario World but incorporates elements from all the many different franchises in the game. As you explore, youre able to unlock additional fighters, by beating their evil possessed forms, but the main reward for the individual fights is new spirits.

The concept of spirits was introduced in the last Nintendo Direct and revolves around the idea that all the characters in the game have had their souls ripped out (or something) and that includes lots of more minor characters that arent playable fighters. These really trawl the depths of video game obscurity, with everyone from Charlotte Aulin from Castelvania: Portrait Of Ruin on the DS to Don Bongo from Yoshis Story. If the character has an animated assist trophy then they appear in the fight itself but usually they dont and so the game picks the fighter that most resembles them and recolours them to match.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate - Simon Belmont has a real Conan look going on

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate – Simon Belmont has a real Conan look going on

So, for example, Charlotte is a recoloured Zelda and Don Bongo is secretly King Dedeee. This works surprisingly well and the attempts to represent even the most obscure character in some way is an incredible bit of fan service that more than makes up for the fact that there are no trophies in the game anymore. Instead, the characters are represented as 2D artwork and once the spirit is claimed, by winning the fight, you can use them with your current fighter to add buffs and special abilities.

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These can range from simple health or speed bonuses to an extra jump or immunity to the fog that permeates some levels. Spirits can be switched in and out whenever you want and you can have multiple ones active at once – although mercifully theres an auto select option so you dont have to spend time setting them up if you dont want to.

There is an almost frightening amount of depth to the game, since each spirit can be levelled up as you use them, but theres also a skill tree of additional abilities to unlock and a rock, paper, scissors relationship between grab, shield, and attack moves. And thats forgetting the special rules for each stage that can range from opponents occasionally gaining metal skins to being giant-sized or twice as fast.

World of Light is clearly a vastly better idea for Smash Bros. single-player than anything thats been seen before and it seems like it will take many hours to complete. But if you dont have so much time the second single-player mode is called Spirit Battle and is designed for much shorter bouts. It works along similar principles to World of Light, in that youre battling spirits to earn the right to use them, but the fights are selected from a small grid of options where the battles are only available for a set period of time and when its over, or you lose, you have to wait until they come back later.

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The intention is clearly to provide something new every time you return to the mode, with the anticipation of who youll be facing increased further by an even deeper dive into the Nintendo back catalogue. For example, one of our favourite fights involved battling the three Elite Beat Divas from Elite Beat Agents, who were represented as recoloured female Corrins with jetpacks (which you can knock off and steal).

Then there were two characters from Zangeki No Reginleiv, which we alone recognised (we were so proud!) as a Japanese-only Wii game by Earth Defense Force developer Sandlot, where you had to fight the pair as a giant Ken from Street Fighter. Other wonderful obscurities included Ayumi Tachibana (a recoloured Villager from Animal Crossing) from Famicom Tantei Club, T. Hawk (a recoloured Incineroar) from Street Fighter II, and a giant robot from Chōsōjū Mecha MG represented by a recoloured R.O.B.

We literally had to be dragged off both modes, after 20 minutes on each, but even the third option was perfectly entertaining. Its simply called Classic and works pretty much the same as it has in the last few Smash Bros., where you battle a collection of related fighters (actual fighters, not recolours) before ending with an appropriately themed boss battle. We played as Mario in ours and ended up with Bowser who transformed into Giga Bowser as his final form.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate - the Switch's latest multiplayer masterpiece

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate – the Switchs latest multiplayer masterpiece

The single-player modes are much better suited to both the gameplay of Smash Bros. and the status of the series as a sort of interactive museum of Nintendo (and a few others) history. But theyre also entertaining simply because Smash itself is so much fun, and Ultimate more than ever. The second you play it feels both faster and more precise than the last game. Where previously we would tend to avoid platforming, here we immediately felt more confident and were able to move around much more fluidly no matter the character.

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Its still not quite as fast as tournament favourite Melee on the GameCube, but whereas that games bursts of speed seemed almost accidental here everything feels much more controlled. The emphasis on using the analogue stick for attacks, and the jumping abilities of most characters, can still make the action seem a little floaty but the feedback from attacks feels a lot more solid than it ever has before.

The new characters impressed too, with Simon Belmont from Castelvania being a solid starter fighter with a no-nonsense selection of moves that simply revolve around him throwing heavy objects at people. By comparison, the Inkling from Splatoon is more involved as you have to keep your eye on their supply of ink and top it up as needed. Isabelle from Animal Crossing seems to be the most technical new fighter though, with a range of blocks and counters and a long-range throw (with her fishing rod) that we were only able to scratch the surface of.

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Pokémon Incineroar has clearly been added for his wrestling moves, while Ridley from Metroid seems almost too competent, with surprising speed for his size, flying abilities, and long-range attacks. King K. Rool from Donkey Kong Country is similarly flexible, despite his size, with a useful counter available via his distended stomach. The echo fighters really are just recolours, although the timing and animations on Dark Samus are particularly cool.

What the tournament players (Super Smash Bros. Melee is still an eSports favourite) will think of Ultimate we dont know but we had a tremendous amount of fun with it. And we say that despite never usually considering it amongst our favourite Nintendo franchises. But this time the formula seems to have been perfected in terms of both gameplay and game modes.

Considering how 2018 has been it wont be much of an achievement when Super Smash Bros. Ultimate becomes the biggest Switch game of the year, but it seems to deserve every part of that inevitable success as it ends the year with a definite bang.

Formats: Nintendo Switch
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Bandai Namco Studios and Sora
Release Date: 7th December 2018

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