It feels illegal to not love this game. If you don't like this game then you don't like video games. I will say half of the joy of the smash brothers games is the community and all the reactions around the characters. But this was the first one where I felt really involved and the DLC reps are from some of my favorite games every. Like it's too good to be true that I got Joker, Pyra, Byleth, Sephiroth, and Sora as new fighters.

The gameplay here is also probably a series second best, right behind Melee. I've dumped unholy amounts of hours into this game usually playing as Lucas or Pyra/Mythra, and I'm itching to play more. Please make Smash 6 :)

This is a hard game for me to rank since I play this game competitively. I don't think I can exactly separate my competitive experience with this game however. I enjoy this game a ton, hence why I've put in the effort to play it competitively. But as a competitive fighting game it is objectively really flawed. And you could say "well it's not a competitive fighting game it's just a fun party game", but it's undeniable that this game has a big competitive scene and the game was partly designed around this as well. I like playing this game competitively but there are so many choices made that are kinda baffling and jeopardise the competitive experience for me. Additionally I think this game has gotten significantly worse post fighters pass 2 due to characters that are insanely overtuned and broken. But despite all that I still really enjoy this game and have gotten so much out of it and made so many memories with it.

This game is great and sucks at the same time. Its core gameplay is complex in a way that makes learning the game take ample time, but is simple enough for a casual player to be able to pick up (usually). It also gives the player the ability to customize each match with different items, item spawn rates, togglable features like stage morph and team attack, and more (even though most of the time the same basic ruleset is used). However, the game has several flaws:
-It lacks an in-depth tutorial on the nuances of the game, and even some basic mechanics like shorthopping and using/dropping/throwing different types of items
-Its single-player content is repetitive and boring
-Spirits could have been good – however, the power imbalance is very noticeable between primary spirits, the support spirit abilities and dojo styles are uninspired (for the most part), and the rock-paper-scissors matchup of primary spirit types too strongly determines the outcome of a match with spirits (and there’s also no way to take spirits into an online mode against random players);
-Despite being the most well-balanced smash game in terms of character viability (probably), the characters are still imbalanced (Steve being a notable offender)
-The game has been left in an unfinished state, where several multi-hit moves don’t connect properly and bugs (like sometimes being unable to fall through platforms when standing on them) are aplenty
-some characters’ movesets are uninspired (e.g. Kirby)

In spite of these several flaws, the game is still enjoyable at parties or online, and not much can compare with the hype of past fighter reveals (Steve breaking Twitter is a good example). I enjoy playing this game sometimes, but overall, I’d only give it a 3 out of 5.

Great party game, just came back from 8-player matches. Ultimate is absolutely not built for this, just in terms of each level’s scope which is why it is so crazy that they either optimised the option or they just realised they could do it so they did. My friends won’t do lives, so on the basic timed settings it’s really difficult to make out who you are and nobody really knows what the Smash Ball is, just changes the map’s lighting for seemingly no reason.

Either way, I had a great time! No notes, 5/5.