Super Smash Bros Ultimate

So we've got some definite information on this at last.

• Every character returning from every game in the series
• Lots of old stages returning too and some
• New characters include Inkling, Daisy and Ridley (potentially more to come)
• Old characters have new moves and appearances (Mario has Cappy, Link has BOTW items etc)
• New Final Smashes for what looks like pretty much half the cast
• Lots of balance tweaks, new features like directional air dodging, new assist trophies etc
• Overall game speed looks to have been increased too

So it's very much an enhanced port of Wii U Smash 4 - but with enough in here to make it a very worthwhile purchase plus of course whatever they reveal between now and December AND it's going to be an absolute goldmine for DLC characters.

I'm happy. My main concern was that third-party characters like Cloud and Bayonetta wouldn't make the cut, so it's great to see them back together with even older favourites like Snake and Ice Climbers. Can't wait to see what else gets revealed.

Nope, not getting sucked in this time. I've bought every Smash previously, played them for five minutes and then realised I don't like Smash. I think my old age has finally caught up to me, because this doesn't even elicit a murmur of excitement.

Nice try, Nintendo. IF THAT'S EVEN YOUR REAL NAME. :)

I'm totally hyped, because we've been playing Smash 4 for months and this is exactly what we wanted to see from the Nintendo Direct. In fact I think I'm the only person completely happy with what they showed today.

Smash fans are never happy - they're entitled arseholes. They'll see all of that and be going 'But there'll be more characters, right? RIGHT?'. I've seen loads of them doing it on Twitter already. Wankers.

Everyone else will be going 'Well, if you don't like Smash, you're fucked', but seriously… Smash is their big game for the end of the year, AND there's other first-party stuff nearly every month as well. There was no way they'd waste anything new - whether it's known new like Metroid 4 or new new like Animal Crossing - because it'd dilute the message. Nintendo Directs happen all the bloody time, they can reveal this stuff whenever they like. And that's good! Spreads things out, gives us something to talk about. As they say, always leave them wanting more.

Sadly, leaving gaming people wanting more just makes them complain because they're entitled arseholes. I seem to be saying that a lot recently. :)

Animal Crossing - announcing at Gamescom in August for March 2019. Fiver on that now.

New Direct today was nuts, they seem to be really going all out on this one now. We're getting Simon Belmont and King K. Rool as new fighters; Chrom, Richter Belmont and Dark Samus as new echo fighters; loads of new items, assist trophies and Pokemon; RATHALOS FROM MONSTER HUNTER; 103 stages; new game modes and heaven knows what else. It doesn't feel like they're remotely done announcing stuff for this game yet.

It's Smash. Of course they're not done. :)

My only slight disappointment is that Sakurai said they'll be announcing all the characters ahead of release. That isn't really their fault, because the internet is what it is; the only other option is that some prick will datamine the website, leak all the information in there, IGN will do a huge 'Here are all the fighters!' expose and then all the magic will be gone. It's a shame though, because I miss the mystery of it all… not knowing who the hell was going to appear, which fighters you'd discover, whether someone new was waiting to surprise you while you're actually playing, not just in the build-up to release. There's just no surprises in games any more, because (and I keep saying it) people are entitled pricks who think they should know everything right away.

God, I hate people. Especially gaming people.

The Simon (and Richter!) trailer was amazing.

I didn't watch the thing. Why is Luigi dead?

Death took his soul by swiping him with a Scythe iirc and then absorbing it.

Okay, but why?

Because killing its own characters is a thing now for Nintendo in Smash reveals. Ridley killed Mario. Death killed Luigi. K.Rool killed Dedede. It's funny. I guess. :)

I wonder if they're building to a final reveal of a character that somehow brings them all back to life; but I can't think of anyone obvious who has that ability.

Jesus.

That's the final Nintendo Direct today then for Smash - two new characters (Ken from Street Fighter and the gen 7 Pokemon Incineroar), Pirhana Plant incoming as DLC in the new year (free if you pre-order the game), and 5 more characters planned as paid DLC over the course of the next year.

Plus a big new single-player mode revolving around "Spirits" - rescuing characters from hundreds of different titles and eras to boost your characters' stats - it's all a bit unclear to be honest but I'm sure it'll make sense when it's released.

Bring on December.

The cutscene with the light beams was fucking amazing. God bless Kirby.

Really don't get this series. Is the idea of Mario fighting Ken fighting some Pokemon, not just really silly?

Yes, yes it is and that's the entire point.

It is exactly the point, but it’s also a damn good fighting game - accessible but deep. And with 74 characters, most of which play very differently, there’s something for everyone.

I'm happy for those into it. But I think I've finally turned the corner, though, and realised that Smash isn't for me. I've bought every single one and stopped playing it after only a few weeks. This one's not going to get me. Not this time.

The first DLC character has been announced and it’s going to be… Joker from Persona 5. Which has surprised pretty much everyone, given that it’s not a series that’s traditionally been associated with Nintendo consoles. I wonder if this is an indication that Persona 5 itself is coming to the Switch?

I'm happy for those into it. But I think I've finally turned the corner, though, and realised that Smash isn't for me. I've bought every single one and stopped playing it after only a few weeks. This one's not going to get me. Not this time.

[Arrested Development narrator] mart hadn't really turned a corner.

I am resolute that I am not buying this.*

(* for myself, I have to buy it for my son on Sunday since that's what he wants for Christmas and the divorcee dad always gets the kids what they want)

So I've put a bit of time into this over the last couple of days, not enough really to do more than scratch the surface but here are some initial impressions.

It really is at heart an updated version of the Wii U game. It plays the same and largely looks the same. It's maybe slightly quicker and some of the characters have been rebalanced but at heart it feels very familiar. That's not a bad thing, I think a game of this size has to be iterative.

This time round you start with 8 characters and have to unlock the others. You can do this in any mode - ten minutes of play on anything (e.g. versus mode with friends) and you get a "New Challenger Approaching" screen and get to fight the new character, if you beat them then they get added to the roster. I don't know if the order is predetermined or random but they're not unlocked in chronological order - we got Inkling quite early on and have been unlocking new and old characters as we go.

You can also unlock them in the Adventure mode which is - surprisingly - a pretty decent single-player mode. You travel around a map fighting a variety of themed battles to unlock and level up "Spirits" which can be attached to your character to give power boosts, special abilities and so on. There's quite a lot to it, the map is huge, there's a skill tree, a few basic puzzles to solve and some quite creative match-ups. It's still Smash at heart but it gives structure and a sense of progression to things and I can see myself playing this quite a bit.

There are loads of stages and a surprising number of new items and new assist trophies so you're constantly dealing with new stuff even if you haven't unlocked many characters yet.

I'm surprised at some of the stuff that hasn't made it across though. There's no Home Run challenge, no Break The Targets, the Smash Tour and Smash Run modes have gone, no Trophies to collect and most surprisingly you can no longer unlock custom moves for the characters (which was a pretty big part of the Smash 4 end game). You can play with the Spirits you've unlocked if you want - though it's not compulsory - so I guess that replaces the custom moves but it feels like a simplification. Maybe people didn't use the custom moves much; and I can certainly imagine it makes the game easier to balance.

Online has been lag-free for me so far (I'm using a wired connection though) but you can't choose particular match-ups, you can simply express preferences and then it puts you in whatever it can find. I've been trying to get 1-on-1 matches with no items but I keep getting dumped into 4-player free-for-alls. I think you can eventually unlock an Elite League which is a variety of the "For Honor" settings from the previous game so I guess I'll get there in the end.

The menus are absolutely baffling, as always. I thought All-Star Mode had also gone then I found it about three levels down in the menu hidden under something else entirely.

In short: it's Smash, there aren't many surprises here (apart from the fact the single-player mode is actually quite fun for once) but it's absolutely massive and there's probably weeks of play just unlocking the full roster. I love it, but then I always knew I would.

I am resolute that I am not buying this.*

(* for myself, I have to buy it for my son on Sunday since that's what he wants for Christmas and the divorcee dad always gets the kids what they want)

Tell me about it :(

Starts with one of the best intros I've ever seen for a game, for such a family friendly, wacky fighting game it basically starts off with Neon Genesis Evangelion level genocide, countless fan favourites literally blown away, amazing scene. This is the lead in to a really fun story mode about travelling a map, fighting a series of quick gimmicky fights to free everyone one by one. Sometimes you need to return to an area with a spirit that can blow up rocks or power up an electric generator. There's a certain amount of freedom in where you go, at the start you even choose from an early three way fork. This freedom is also present in upgrading your character, you get skill points after every battle and you can choose to go whate er direction you like on the FFX Sphere Grid style skill tree. In addition to that you equip 'spirits' which give you immunity to stage hazards, start you off with an item or increase your attack. I'm rocking a set that increases crits and punches and I'm two shotting people with Donkey Kong's claps, it's super fun.

Finally unlocked everyone and it was such a buzz beating the alert for a new challenger and not knowing who it is going to be and then it's fucking Cloud from FF7 and you remember he's in the game and realize how utterly insane the game roster is.

Gameplay is really fun so far, there isn't much more satisfying than the way a KO freezes the screen for a sit second before firing the other guy into orbit and it feels like every character has at least one 'boom' move.

This game is a level of fanservice we will likely never see again due to the sheet enormity of it all, the ost alone is like 200 or so tracks, it even even had a song from Castlevania Harmony of Despair!

I did the Classic mode with Bowser yesterday and got to fight a Rathalos! An actual proper Monster Hunter Rathalos too, with all the same moves and tells that it has in the main series. I could tell what it was going to do before it did it, just because of my experience playing the main game. A really exceptional implementation for a two-minute boss fight.

This will be the first Smash game I've ever played (aside from renting the N64 game for two days from Blockbuster, and spamming Pikachu's lightning thing).

Is it welcoming to newbies? I have no idea what the hell is happening in the Directs.

It can be quite overwhelming to start with. Best advice is to pick a character and play some 1-on-1 matches on a simple map like Battlefield with items turned off. You'll get the hang of the controls quickly enough. There's a big difference between normal attacks, Smash attacks and specials, so focus on those. The hints section in the menu is surprisingly detailed, or find a beginners guide on the internet somewhere.

Turning on items adds massive amounts of chaos almost immediately, so only activate that when you feel comfortable with what's going on.

The movie section should have a short tutorial but I couldn't say how good it is.

Has anyone else noticed that the single player modes – both classic and Spirits – only seem to use a limited number of maps?

I've clocked about 25 hours in single-player so far, and last night went online for the first time. In four matches I saw four maps I'd never experienced, and lots of brand new items. Seems odd that they would hold some maps back purely for multiplayer, especially when Spirits is all about using every prop/level/detail to create an approximation of thousands of characters.

To be fair there's so many maps (so much of anything tbh) that I can't even remember 75% of them off the top of my head. How far are you in story mode btw because I beat it recently and it's longer than I thought, I really enjoyed it though because it did some cool things, especially for bosses.

I've broken down those three coloured barriers at the top of the map and done everything inside, and I'd say I've uncovered about 50% of the map so far. I don't really know what my end goal is but I'm having fun just hoovering up every spirit.

I've finally gotten to a point where I can beat the 4-star spirits, too, after a few goes.

Use a powerful fighter spirit with 3 punch spirits added and pubch people into space with the right analog stick with Little Mac, its extremely satisfying.

So my copy arrived as it's half term and played a hour and a bit today. I lost every match to the CPU but I enjoyed this significantly more than I did the Wii U one. I like that it starts with a narrowed roster and pointed out 'this is a good place to start' on the menu. So far I always inflict more damage than my opponent but keep falling of the edge missing attacks.

I see Super Smash Bros Ultimate, a fighting game with the option of choosing its roster from amongst the most imaginative characters from any game in any era, has unveiled… yet another boring sword-wielding bastard from Fire Emblem. What is that, 8 or 9 of them now?