By Frankie Mesec ‘20

Super Smash Bros Ultimate is one of the biggest and most anticipated Nintendo games of 2018.

With all the downloadable content (DLC) recently announced or added, it seems like a perfect time to review the game (two years after it was first announced).

Now strap on in while I smash through my five points for this game (story/ single player, multiplayer, online, characters/ DLC, and music). At the end, I will be giving the game final score, so if you don’t want to hear details, you can skip to the end.

Story/ Single Player

The story begins with the evil Galeem and their army of Master Hands killing everyone but Kirby with their beam of light. Now you play as Kirby to save everyone from being Galeem’s light slaves.

In the middle of the story, a reverse Galeem with the power of darkness called Dharkon comes in with his master of Crazy Hands and battles Galeem for control. Light versus dark, who will win. Now you have to save everyone from both Dharkon and Galeem before either one of them controls all.

If you are confused now, just wait for the mini-bosses.

In all seriousness, when you’re playing the story mode “World of Light,” it is a lot easier to follow then I can by explaining.

The story is more simple with the common cliche of saving the world from the big bad. Since this is a fighting game, most of the levels are in the same fighting style, except for bosses.

The way Smash Bros mixes the gameplay up from the other parts of the game is with spirits. The enemies you face all have spirits that mix up the battle by making him bigger or smaller, turning the floor to poison or lava, wind, adding weapons, and more.

The catch is that you have spirits too to counter the enemy’s spirits. Spirits help you in battle by giving you ammunition or ways to counter the enemy’s spirits. This makes the story mode more strategic and a lot harder. Even in easy mode, my friend and I had a hard time winning.

In the story mode too, you can unlock character as you go, so you aren’t just stuck with Kirby. You have to battle the character first to “save” him from the light. It is a unique way to unlock characters and adds more strategy for future fights.

Even though the story is a bit cliche, the difficulty and strategy involved with the story mode makes it really fun to play.

Multiplayer

Both stages and characters are really well designed, and feels like they truly came from the game they originated. Each mode for multiplayer (time, stock, and stamina) all play differently and require a similar but different strategy that brings its own fun to the game.

You can also make custom made stages that bring a new level of fun and comedy to the game. They also remind me why giving people this option was a bad idea.

The other games you can play on multiplayer, like homerun, all-star, and classic mode, are really fun, too. You can try and beat bosses, kill hundreds of enemies, and/or just play a custom version of baseball. It is the biggest part of the game and the biggest selling point of the game. If they didn’t get this right, the game would’ve failed.

It can get boring after a while since most modes are similar in format, but there is also online if you want to face people.

There’s not much to say, multiplayer is just fun to play.

Online

Oh boy, the online mode. Where do I begin?

Smash Bros online is really fun, especially when I can play with friends from across the world. Especially in times like this, having something to connect with people is very useful.

The different modes in the online mode are perfect for every type of person. You can create characters or stages, make videos, play with friends, play competitively, and more.

It is really cool to see all the stages  and videos people can make. It is honestly true art, most of the time. Being able to play with anyone of any skill level is useful too. It can help you improve, and helps when you don’t have friends around to play with you.

Now, the bad part is the online part of it. It is really bad.

There’s no secret that Nintendo’s online service isn’t the best, especially with connection issues. Smash Bros is no different. The lag in online is really bad and can really ruin matches.

It doesn’t even matter if you have a great internet connection, it will still be laggy. Once the lag hits, you really can’t play. Sometimes, it can get as bad as having your character frozen, then instantly die.

If Nintendo online was a lot better, then I would play online more than I do already. It is fun to play online, but the lag just makes it harder to play.

Characters/ DLC

Nintendo really knows how to excite people with characters.

Can you blame the people for being excited? Each character feels like they came out of their respective game with different move sets, motion, and strategy. In addition, they all look good and are all really fun to play.

Smash Bros can turn a character like Sans, who has only lived in pixels, and make him in 3D look amazing. Even characters like Pac-Man or Duck Hunt  look great. Even with most alternate costumes, they fit well with the character.

Each character is well balanced with each other. Sure, some play better than others, but they are mostly balanced. If someone is better or worse, Nintendo has released patches to balance them out.

This goes for Smash Four, too. With Smash Four, there were many broken characters like Cloud or Bayonetta. In Ultimate, they are well balanced. Nintendo did a really good job balancing.

In addition to character, there are miis. You can make your own characters from costumes given. Some of the added costumes have created more hype then the official character added, like Sans or Cuphead. It is fun to make characters from scratch and see them fight.

For the DLC, they added new characters and maps to the game that again fit well to the game. The maps looked beautiful and matched the environment of the original game. The characters are well balanced and are fun to play.

I can safely say that the DLC is worth buying. The characters are fun to play, and the music and maps added are great.

Music

The music covers are amazing.

Nintendo and their orchestra did an amazing job covering and remastering game music for this game. Even the other music added is still fun to listen to while you fight.

There are currently 968 music tracks in the game including DLC, and they are all really great. Just fitting all of that music in this game is a feat in itself.

For example, the game’s theme, Lifelight, describes the story of the game well, making you feel hopeful and inspired. In addition, it really fits for the final battle when you are determined to win.

If it wasn’t for the orchestra, I don’t think many of the songs would have been as impactful, especially Lifelight. Sure, we knew a lot of the songs already, but they somehow sound better in this game.

In my Undertale review, I described the music around Megalovania with Sans as a character. In this game, it fits well as fighting music, as well as adds motifs of Undertale in the mix to represent the entire game in general.

In short, the music is amazing, and impressive that they could fit so much good music in one game.

Final Score

With all the hype around this game, was it worth it?

Yes.

This game combines everything good about Nintendo, even gaming as a whole,  into one huge and exciting game. The story mode is good, multiplayer and online is fun, and the characters and music are amazing.

If it wasn’t for Nintendo online, it would be a perfect game. It can get boring after a while with each game being similar, but there are other modes and online.

For being a really fun game, I give Smash Bros a great 9.5/10. If the game fixed the lag issue, or had an easier way of communicating, I would rate the game higher. Other than that one problem, I would highly recommend the game.