Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
My favorite game of all time, and for a good reason. Let me explain why!
Gameplay
Smash 4 was the first Smash game I've ever played, and I usually played it when my older brother's friends came over. I used a Wiimote so normally I would be button-mashing and maybe with some luck I would win. Then I started playing more competitively, my younger brother would use Bayonetta or Cloud and have a super campy game of shielding and if not, attacking. Now, don't go mad at my brother, that was 3 years ago.
And then came Ultimate. I remember how it was at first playing with the new physics. At first, I didn't like them, but then I got used to them and realized, "This game has better physics than the last one!". Directional airdodging, the faster launch and the smash attack charge duration were all things I liked and it surprises me that a game I didn't like at first became my favorite game of all time! The controls feel very responsive and the only thing I don't like is when I'm trying to do a forward tilt and I end up doing a forward smash, but I can handle that. Honestly, I think it must be super hard to top these physics, and the balance between competitive and casual battles is just right.
Presentation
Ultimate looks beautiful. There's no other way to put it. Being used to playing games like Zelda: Wind Waker HD and Mario 3D World was strange when I switched to Smash 4. Everything looked more realistic, and even though I've played Persona 5, that game is also not that realistic in its own way. I liked the artistic direction Ultimate took, it gave the Smash look I always imagined it should have. The UI looks clean and fresh, the characters look great, and the particle effects are wonderful.
Content
Ultimate has 88 fighters, 114 stages, +1500 spirits, +900 music tracks, multiple game modes, a massive Adventure mode, online play... There's a lot to cover. Let's divide it in parts.
Fighters
We have every fighter from every Smash game ever, plus new ones! Aside from some unfairness like Zelda having three Links and Kirby only having three fighters while Fire Emblem has eight, previously under-represented franchises have gotten a fighter. Donkey Kong got K. Rool, Metroid got Big- I mean, Ridley, He's too big! and Animal Crossing got Isabelle. We got (as of January 2021) eight new franchises: Splatoon, Castlevania, Persona, Dragon Quest, Banjo and Kazooie, King of Fighters, ARMS and Minecraft. The only thing I don't like is the limited Mii customization with their outfits.
Stages
What else to say? We got almost every stage ever. It's that simple. The new stages include: New Donk City Hall, Great Plateau Tower, Moray Towers, Dracula's Castle, Mementos, Yggaraldi's Altar (hope I spelled that right), Spiral Mountain, King of Fighters Arena, a Fire Emblem stage, ARMS Ring, Minecraft World and North Cave.
(I'll talk about spirits later)
Music
This game... oh boy. This has the best soundtrack ever. They also brought back nearly every song in Smash history. Not much else to say.
Game Modes
This game has multiple game modes:
Smash - your classic brawl.
Custom Smash - customize the battle.
Smashdown - you can only use a fighter once. Win the most battles!
Super Sudden Death - play Sudden Death but with custom settings.
Tournament - play a tournament.
Classic Mode - each fighter has their own route with six battles and a boss battle.
Training - test out stuff and train your combos.
Multi Man - take on hundreds of enemies.
Home Run Contest - send poor Snadbag flying.
Mii Fighter - create Mii fighters.
Stage Builder - create stages, or if you want to, crap.
Online - play laggy matches online.
All in all, we got some pretty good ones! Although I would like to play Target Smash. Online has a lot of lag sometimes, so that's a negative point.
Adventure
Galeem captures all the fighters except Kirby and creates copies that you must fight. Contrary to what most people think about this mode, I actually like it! The concept is really cool and the battles keep it fresh. Although I would've preferred a Subspace-style adventure with platforming stages and a more complex story with dialogue, the team did a good job with this. Rescuing fighters is super satisfying and even more satisfying is when you finally beat that spirit that has been blocking your path. Great job, Smash team!
Completion
This is where the hard part comes in: Spirit Board. To 100% Smash Ultimate, you must get every spirit (alongside completing Classic Mode twice with each fighter at 9.9 difficulty) There are more than one thousand spirits. This takes a long time and a lot of skill. This is the dark side of Ultimate, and the section where it's going to get the least points. This takes hours, days, weeks and months to do and 100%ing World of Light itself (mind you, there are no timers and no Free-The-Spirit) is already really hard.
Conclusion
Ultimate is a great game, and you should really play it.
It'll be getting 17.5/20!
Gameplay: 5/5
Presentation: 5/5
Content: 4.5/5
Completion: 2/5
And that places Super Smash Bros. Ultimate in the #1 Spot! (for now...)
