So honestly, my favourite entry into the series. I personally enjoyed the single player content, the multiplayer content(when it worked) and the whole shtick with the spirits.

World of Light was fun enough and acted as a decent single player mode. I just think that in general, while fun, it isn't enough to keep you on it. Sure you might have fun for a while, but then you sort of, just leave it, because you have better games you could be playing.

Some characters being unbalanced returns, but this time around there's a paywall in the name of Minecraft Steve who tournament organisers had to ban him because of the outcry.

Sound design is amazing, with remixes for most characters, every character is unique enough, with the exception of mirror fighters, still no Waluigi in a smash game except in the form of assist trophies (which you won't see when playing properly anyway) and some innovative stage design with hazards galore.

There's not a lot of variety in what you're actually experiencing throughout the game. Smash Bros. as a series has the issue of homogenizing its mode experiences with each successive entry, and it's at its most pronounced in Ultimate. The most egregious examples here, besides the obvious I'm not addressing at the moment, are the Spirits losing Trophy descriptions and All-Stars Mode becoming Multi-Man Melee, but you see that in much of what the game has to offer. Heck, Home Run Contest had to be patched in long after the game's release. If that variety in gameplay modes is what you look for in Smash Bros., this is not the game for you.

That is my only complaint of any real consequence.

Smash Bros. games are always impossibly special releases to me. That first playthrough is always a golden day, or couple of days, as I experience it all for the first time. With time, it becomes easier for me to see and come to terms with the game's failings, and it eventually becomes an exercise in how much remains of that first blush.

So it said a lot to me that Ultimate has stayed as comfortably on top of the throne for me as it did during my initial four-day weekend playing it. In fact, when I replayed World of Light over three years later, on-stream no less, I found myself feeling a lot of the same simple joy I did that first time around.

Let's not beat around the bush - World of Light is putting all of its eggs in one basket. If you find the Spirit Battles repetitive, you're sadly out of luck, as that's all the game has to offer for singleplayer content (not just in World of Light; Spirit fights is where most of the game's longevity comes from besides multiplayer). I completely understand that Ultimate is not for everyone.

Me, I think all the Spirit stuff brilliant. An Adventure Mode like Melee or Subspace Emissary has more potential, but I love the self-imposed challenge the developers had with Spirit Fights: convey the essence and soul of over a thousand video games, characters, items, and properties in the limited context of a single Smash Bros. battle. And so much is accomplished with this! The mechanics of Smash Bros. itself has become a language used to communicate very specific ideas, and it impresses me how over and over and over again, these ideas are fairly well-communicated. The Elite Beat Agents being fought in Saffron City with "Escape from the City" playing is one of those things that FEELS correct, and there's little moments like that with every fight. It's a bit old-school, in the sense that you have to suspend disbelief and play along with the intended illusion in places (you aren't beating up Green Dedede and three Dr. Marios; you're beating up Gruntilda and running through the three Klungo fights from Tooie), but I'm all right with that.

Smash Ultimate for me is hype, in the sense that I STILL look back at certain character reveals with fondness. But it's also a quietly meditative game in a lot of places. Running through Spirit fights and World of Light, I find myself thinking a lot about all the efforts of various creators, distilled into each of the individual battles, all collected under a single title. I don't expect that to be everyone's take, but that's mine: a game that encapsulates so, so much of the history of gaming itself. I'm so grateful it exists.

We definitely need a different direction for the next game, if they do make another one. It's unfair to expect the impossible miracle of "Everyone is Here" to happen again. A complete shift in direction would make a reduced roster more palatable, for sure...

This is quite likely my most played game ever, and it will probably always be like that. I like this game a lot but after so much time playing it I have to say that it has some major issues. Maybe it is just preference but I find this game to lack polish in the areas where it actually counts. Don't get me wrong, the polish put into the characters looks, animations, and movesets (i.e. their inspiration) is fantastic and what draws many to the game over other platform fighters. However, things such as input delay, character balance, and hitboxes/hurtboxes did not feel, to me, as well cared for. Obviously this was not as big of a priority for Sakurai when bringing third parties into the game, but gameplay should have been given more attention.

Something else that bothers me is that this game does not seem to appeal well to any particular audience. I know it is a "family party game" but the items are not fun to play with. I have played with people who have never touched this game before and even they do not enjoy many of the items in this game. I suspect this is due to many of them simply removing player control while they are whaled on for up to 70% damage taken or more, making it less engaging. On the other hand this game has zero support for anyone trying to take this game seriously. The online is terrible and is outclassed by literally any other game out there and tournaments are hardly a thing anymore.

I speak rather negatively but I did still play it a lot, if you can find a group of friends who genuinely want to learn the game and try their hearts out, it can be enjoyable. However I feel your time would still be better spent on something like Rivals of Aether if you cared that much about gameplay. It is less popular certainly, but with smash only really being playable in person (bad online), you'll likely find the same group of people interested in playing both.

There are single player parts of this game such as World of Light and Homerun Contest, but in all honesty, no one should be buying this game to play just these, Brawl already did it better and can be emulated much easier.

I really can't think of who to recommend this game to since if you are into platformers or fighters, you already know of or have played this game. I hate to be so negative about it but when is the last time a group of you and your friends have decided on playing a party game and someone said "yeah let's play smash!" and it lasted more than 10 minutes before switching to something else like Mario Party? I believe Nintendo or more specifically Sakurai has catered to the wrong audience with this series of games. They've ignored that its initial popularity upon new game releases is due to known IPs being in the game (i.e. people drive sales since they recognize a host of characters in one game and just buy it), followed by a sustained popularity of dedicated fans who are constantly shunned by Nintendo for trying to enjoy the game in the way they like. I suspect the next game, if it even happens, will only continue this trend or regress due to usual supporters leaving the game (especially with recent drama and many big tournaments no longer hosting the game) who would have otherwise stuck with the game forever.

This was not an in-depth report but my general thoughts on the game, hope it helps.

El juego que volvió sobrevalorado (al de por sí sobrevalorado) de Sakurai... no niño,Sakurai no hizo sólo este juego, hay un grupo detrás de personas que hicieron mucho más que él.

Claro ejemplo de que más no significa mejor... Aunque los nintenderos lo nieguen, esto es simplemente un port de wiiu, cosa que no estaría mal si al menos se hubieran esforzado en agregar contenido de calidad de verdad.

Un modo historia decepcionante y repetitivo, un online de mierda a pesar de estar pagando una suscripción y lo peor, hipocresía en cuanto a la censura de los personajes, personajes dlc que aunque no esperaba a que metiesen a ninguno, fueron en su mayoría decepciones.

Con anteriores Smash como melee y el de 3ds dure años jugándolo sin aburrirme, pero con este no dure ni 3 meses.

Narrative: N/A
Gameplay: 5
Graphics: 4
X-Factor: 4.5
Network: 2
Overall: 4