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--
Days in Journal
1 day
Last played
January 29, 2019
Platforms Played
GOTY 2018 - NUMBER ONE
Video version
Nothing loves videogames as much as Super Smash Bros. As inscrutable as its tightly-tuned controls and movesets are, the real draw of Smash Bros is the celebration, and no entry in the series has ever celebrated games so much as Ultimate does. Every bit of its aesthetic, its characters, its settings is a celebration of videogames. Ultimate knows how much we love all this stuff and goes the extra mile to make sure each fan of every wildly distinct property is completely satisfied.
It’s not just its massive character roster. Ultimate explores everything with ridiculous depth. The most obvious part to point to here is the new Spirits system. Hundreds of obscure characters and items from everything Nintendo could access are embodied as equippable stat-boosts, based on their unique characteristics. To unlock them, you’ll need to fight a character that represents them in some way, with witty, loving choices made in terms of costume, music, stage and items. I was never let down by how a beloved character’s Spirit was represented by the game’s roster, and again, it’s ridiculous how obscure some of the Spirits are. There’s characters from FlingSmash, Looksley’s Look Up and the Famicom Disk System Volleyball, and if I was a massive fan of any of those properties, I’m confident I’d love how their characters were translated into the forms of Smash Bros event fights. It’s clear how much fun the team must have had putting this stuff together, and how eager they were to tribute forgotten projects they’d worked on or been a fan of.
That’s the thing with Ultimate. The fan service is so great, you almost forget about the game itself. And the game’s terrific. To me, Smash Bros is a very natural form for this big meet-up to take. It’s a fighting game, yes, but you’re not really thinking about hurting your opponents. You’re just knocking them off the platform. There’s a sense of innocence and fun to it, like a playground game. I’m very much of the opinion that Smash Bros is less Mortal Kombat and more Duck Duck Goose. It feels like the perfect way to make a game where Princess Daisy from Super Mario Land can high-kick Dracula.
Ultimate is also an attempt to summarise the 20 years of incredibly ambitious Smash Bros titles in one game, and whether you’ve been playing from the start, or there’s entries you missed, that’s a real thrill. If you’ve got strong memories of something from the series, there’s about a 98% chance you’ll be able to recreate it here. If you’re not such a dedicated follower, you might get several games worth of content that’s completely new to you. There’s a lot to like about the arrangement.
Here’s something I didn’t anticipate – in the process of making this GOTY content, I’ve started playing Smash Bros online in times I’d usually play Splatoon. I don’t want to think it’s replaced it, but it’s now pretty common for me to end my nights with half an hour of Smash Bros online. It’s just fun, and I’m actually interested in whether my player ranking is going up or down. I want to make sure I’m doing best with my favourite characters, and bullying those I don’t like. I thought I knew Smash Bros fairly well, but it’s managed to surprise me.
Ultimate is such an overwhelming treat for long-time fans of games, and the more you’re interested in games, the more you’re likely to get out of it. Being able to play as Inklings, Snake and Isabelle in one game is a really big deal for me. I couldn’t ask for more. If Super Smash Bros. Ultimate was the last game ever made, I think I’d be okay with that. Where could you possibly go from here?
Video version
Nothing loves videogames as much as Super Smash Bros. As inscrutable as its tightly-tuned controls and movesets are, the real draw of Smash Bros is the celebration, and no entry in the series has ever celebrated games so much as Ultimate does. Every bit of its aesthetic, its characters, its settings is a celebration of videogames. Ultimate knows how much we love all this stuff and goes the extra mile to make sure each fan of every wildly distinct property is completely satisfied.
It’s not just its massive character roster. Ultimate explores everything with ridiculous depth. The most obvious part to point to here is the new Spirits system. Hundreds of obscure characters and items from everything Nintendo could access are embodied as equippable stat-boosts, based on their unique characteristics. To unlock them, you’ll need to fight a character that represents them in some way, with witty, loving choices made in terms of costume, music, stage and items. I was never let down by how a beloved character’s Spirit was represented by the game’s roster, and again, it’s ridiculous how obscure some of the Spirits are. There’s characters from FlingSmash, Looksley’s Look Up and the Famicom Disk System Volleyball, and if I was a massive fan of any of those properties, I’m confident I’d love how their characters were translated into the forms of Smash Bros event fights. It’s clear how much fun the team must have had putting this stuff together, and how eager they were to tribute forgotten projects they’d worked on or been a fan of.
That’s the thing with Ultimate. The fan service is so great, you almost forget about the game itself. And the game’s terrific. To me, Smash Bros is a very natural form for this big meet-up to take. It’s a fighting game, yes, but you’re not really thinking about hurting your opponents. You’re just knocking them off the platform. There’s a sense of innocence and fun to it, like a playground game. I’m very much of the opinion that Smash Bros is less Mortal Kombat and more Duck Duck Goose. It feels like the perfect way to make a game where Princess Daisy from Super Mario Land can high-kick Dracula.
Ultimate is also an attempt to summarise the 20 years of incredibly ambitious Smash Bros titles in one game, and whether you’ve been playing from the start, or there’s entries you missed, that’s a real thrill. If you’ve got strong memories of something from the series, there’s about a 98% chance you’ll be able to recreate it here. If you’re not such a dedicated follower, you might get several games worth of content that’s completely new to you. There’s a lot to like about the arrangement.
Here’s something I didn’t anticipate – in the process of making this GOTY content, I’ve started playing Smash Bros online in times I’d usually play Splatoon. I don’t want to think it’s replaced it, but it’s now pretty common for me to end my nights with half an hour of Smash Bros online. It’s just fun, and I’m actually interested in whether my player ranking is going up or down. I want to make sure I’m doing best with my favourite characters, and bullying those I don’t like. I thought I knew Smash Bros fairly well, but it’s managed to surprise me.
Ultimate is such an overwhelming treat for long-time fans of games, and the more you’re interested in games, the more you’re likely to get out of it. Being able to play as Inklings, Snake and Isabelle in one game is a really big deal for me. I couldn’t ask for more. If Super Smash Bros. Ultimate was the last game ever made, I think I’d be okay with that. Where could you possibly go from here?