Super Smash Bros. Ultimate - Nintendo Switch
[{'review_meta': 'Reviewed in the United States on December 7, 2018', 'review_star': 'a-icon a-icon-star a-star-5 review-rating', 'review_body': "ALL 63 characters* from past Smash Brothers game are included in this game\n+6 brand new characters\n+5 new echo fighters,\n+6 DLC characters** (not yet released).\n\n-New characters include:\n\nInkling (Splatoon Series)\nRidley (Metroid)\nKing K. Rool (Donkey Kong)\nIsabelle (Animal Crossing)\nIncineroar (Pokemon)\nSimon (Castlevania)\n\n-New Echo Fighters. Echo fighters are essentially clones of original fighters with slightly change stats like different attack, defense, speed and special moves. Think Falco, Dark Pit and Lucina for example.\n\nDaisy (Echo of Peach)\nRichter (Simon)\nDark Samus (Samus)\nChrom (Roy)\nKen (Ryu)\n\nYou start off with original 8 characters from the very first Smash Bros game and have to unlock the others.\n\n*63 if you count pokemon trainer and thier pokemon as one character; otherwise it's 65. No more choosing Lucario and imagining he's Mewtwo, one-time guest characters like Snake makes a return, and ice climbers are not excluded due to hardware limitations, DLC characters in Smash 4 like Ryu, Bayonetta are now part of main roster, etc.\n\n** DLC includes:\nPiranha Plant\nJoker (Persona 5)\n+4 unannounced fighters\n\nDLC Come in character packs 1 fighter, 1 stage, and multiple music tracks\n\nOr you can get fighters (season) pass with 5 fighters, 5 stages and all music\n\nIf you purchase fighter pass you get rex mii costume for free\n\nIf you purchase the Smash Ultimate game near launch and register via MyNintendo (if you have physical version) you get Piranha Plant character for free. For downloaded version registration should be automatic. Piranha plant to release next year (2019)\n\n===\nStages.\n\nUnlike characters, not all stages return. There are 103 stages with 5 planned DLC stages.\n\nStages does not need to be unlocked\n\nAll stages now have a Battlefield form: Omega and Normal. Omega stages are similar to final destination stage with no moving platforms or random hazards.\n\n===\nCore changes/features.\n\n-Graphics improved. details in clothing, facial expression/emotes and stages\n\n-Some characters have a overall design change for example:\nLink now in Breath of the Wild costume\n\nZelda no longer Twlight Princess form, now based off Link Between Worlds\n\nMario wears cappy from Mario Odyssey when doing taunts/moves\n\nFox now based off Star Fox Zero design\n\n-Now can select female forms of characters like pokemon trainer and pikachu for example.\n\n-Characters now displayed by number/when they appeared in the smash series\n\n-13 New items: Banana Gun, Beastball, Black Hole, Bomber, Death's Scythe, Fake Smash Ball, Healing Field, Healing Sprout, Killing Edge, Rage Blaster, Ramblin' evil mushroom, Staff, and Super Launch Star.\n\n-You select stage before character\n\n-8 Player battles make a return\n\n-Stage morph. Can select two stages at a time that transition at different set intervals\n\n-You can turn off stage hazards\n\n-UI changes for some characters next to damage meter for example: Clouds limit gauge, Inkling ink tank gauge, Villager's Pocketed item, Robin's durability counters\n\n-Echo Fighters can either be displayed in their own character slots, or share their slot with the character they are based on, depending on user preference\n\n-No more trophies, have spirits instead (more on this later). Over 1200 to collect\n\n-Charge attacks are longer doing more damage the longer you hold\n\n-Shield changes: Perfect shields are performed in reverse: instead of pressing the shield button several frames before an attack connects, players have to release the shield button when an attack connects on their shield instead.\n\n-Damage meter now display tenth's damage. Example 20.5%\n\n-Grab Cancels: If two players grab the same time; both characters take minimal damage and act as if grab released\n\n-Characters can no longer run through other characters and instead push them backwards. This affects some characters like Fox with his slide kick attack and side special\n\n-More space to come back from being blasted off to the sides, but edge sweet spots have decreased/recovery moves take longer to snap on ledges for most characters. Edge attacks has been buffed.\n\n-Deal more damage in One-on-one fights with no items. Damage is multiplied by 1.2×\n\n-Alternate costumes now shown on bottom character portrait\n\n-Tracks in My Music are now organized by series rather than by stage.There are over 800 tracks per stage totaling over 28 hours\n\n-You can create your own playlist and have the screen turned off in portable mode making your Switch a mp3 player/music player\n\n-Taunts can now be cancelled, and comes out faster\n\n-Continous dodges makes it less effective the more times you use it consecutively\n\n-Characters that originally cannot swim or have a weakness to water (Charizard, Incineroar, Inkling, Sonic, etc) now take slow, constant damage while swimming.\n\n-Sudden Death changes: Screen shrinks in overtime. If the screen has finished zooming in, Bob-ombs will start falling after a while\n\n-Stamina battles can now be combined with stock.\n\n-There are 59 Assist Trophies available in the game. 27 are brand new\n\n-Some assist trophies can be KOed for points. The player who summon assist trophy can also KO there own assist trophy to prevent other players from gaining points\n\n-Some Final Smash Changes:\nNo more temporary power ups/form changes like Wario Man, Fox/Falco/Wolf landmaster transformation, Flying Yoshi, Giga Bowswer, Giga Mac for example. Instead they have one hit KO moves/high damage moves like the other fighters\nSome characters have different final smashes altogether like Link now has ancient arrow, Zelda has sealing triforce, Pit has lighting chariot as final smash.\n\nFor multi-character final smash: Fiora added to shulk final smash, Paula and Poo added to Ness Final Smash, Lucas has kumatora and Boney, Megaman has Protoman and Bass\n\nDonkey Kong has rapid fire punches instead of the lame drum beats\n\n-There is now chargeable final smash option. But no two final smash can be used simultaneously\n\n-A lot of buff/nerfs changes for most, if not all characters\n\n-A lot of Move changes. Example:\nLink no longer has a hookshot (young link and toon link still does), has remote (manually detonate bombs)\nSamus can charge her cannon in air\nZelda's Phantom knight is now chargeable: delayed hit or release.\nPokemon trainer has no penalty for not switching pokemon\nShulks Monato arts are now on text wheel around the character instead of multiple button presses\nRob has fuel gauge on spine for boost meter\n\n-In game gold can be used to purchase Spirits, spirits upgrade and music tracks\n\n-Game supports 11 languages.\n\n-Can make teammates semi-transparent\n\n-Palutena's guidance makes a return with some new voice clips/scenes for new characters and returning characters with cosmetic changes\n\n-Codec also makes a return, but with no new voice recording for characters past Smash Bros Brawl\n==\n\nSpirits Mode.\n\nSpirits are basically add on buff to characters in form of stickers or less known characters that didn't make it into the roster.\n\nThere are different classes: Novice, Advance, Ace, and Legend.\n\nOne primary spirit can be assigned at a time to one character\n\nThere are also support spirits that add on to the primary spirit depending on how many open slots they have\nPrimary spirits increase stats like HP, Speed, Attack etc.\n\nSupport spirits have different attributes like healing, fire boost item pickups, jump higher, etc\n\nYou have to fight spirits to obtain them in event matches.\n\nSpirits Mode has event matches where matches can have different attributes/battle conditions like having the the floor be on fire, random spike balls fly across the screen, you're a mini fighter vs a large fighter (like when eat pick up mushroom but constant throughout match), enemy has a lot of armor but moves slower and deal higher damage, defeat enemy but constantly taking damage due to being poisoned, enemy constantly invisible, fog of war making it hard to see, reduced/increased gravity, only can use one move, etc.\n\nSpirits can level up after battle or by feeding it snacks giving you more stat boosts. Some spirits have an enhanced or evolved form.\n\nSpirits also can level up by having them train in gyms, or battle other spirit teams. The more stronger they are the better rewards you get.\n\nFor spirits you don't' readily use can send them off to collect treasure\n\nYou can also release spirits you don't want to get cores, which can be used to summon other spirits\n\n===\nAdventure Mode.\n\nStory mode of the game dubbed World of Light\n\nGrid based battle system similar to Mario Tennis Aces\n\nPlot: All characters are turned into spirits except Kirby. Must release everyone from spirit form and save the world.\n\nNo in depth story just series of unique battles involving spirits.\n\nMore focused on fun game play scenarios than story\n\n==\nOther Modes:\n\nClassic mode:\n8 rounds, 1 mini game, and different bosses for each character.\nYou are able to select difficulty for challenge and better rewards\n\nTourament mode:\nBasic King of the Hill bracket mode\nUp to 32 players\n\n-Smash Down mode:\nAfter you play a character for a match they'll be unavailable for later matches. Having different characters to choose from each time\n\n-Squad Strike\n3v3 or 5v5 team elimination style match-up\n\n-Training mode\nPractice your moves. Grid based stage to help judge distance. Also displays launch distance trajectory\n\n-Century Smash\nFight 100s of fighters that can be knocked out in one hit. Can be an endless smash mode if you're good enough\n\n-Challenges\nComplete certain challenges to unlock pieces of picture portrait\n\n==\nMultiplayer .\n\nYou can play local wireless or online.\n\nNo more 'For Glory' and 'For Fun' mode\n\nMatch making is now based on preferred rules, global smash power, Distance\nGame will try it's best to match others with same preferred rules. But if you don't have preference match making is much faster\n\nGlobal Smash Power (GSP) is amount of points experience you have or online rank. This can go up or down depending on wins/losses. You can set your GSP based on individual fighters. Game will auto disconnect you if you're griefing or constantly KO yourself off the cliff lowering your score. If your GSP is high enough, you can enter elite battles\nGame will priorities matchups depending on where you are in the world for more stable connection.\nYou can play different mini games and certain modes while waiting for a matchup. There's also spectator mode available.\n\nSmash Tags. If you defeat other players online, you get their smash tag. You do not lose yours or have to try to get it back if you lose. You can trade in smash tags for in-game gold\n\nThere's co-op online. 2 player teams against 2 player teams.\n\nBattle arena. Setup online match making with friends/family\n\nSmash World phone app. Can upload videos and watch them on the go.\n\nOverall, best Smash Bros games to date. MUST BUY if you're a Smash Bros, Nintendo fan."}, {'review_meta': 'Reviewed in the United States on December 7, 2018', 'review_star': 'a-icon a-icon-star a-star-5 review-rating', 'review_body': "My preorder from another store came Thursday afternoon, so I've been playing with my kids for about eight hours. It totally lives up to expectations. It's in no way perfect, but there's just so much good that I don't see how anybody can be sad. It's a game I'm going to be playing for years, and I'm going to enjoy it for years. If you're a parent, your kids will love playing with all their friends. If you're a returning player, all the nostalgia and great Smash gameplay is here. If you're new to Smash, this is a great game to play with other people.\n\nWhen you first boot up, you'll have access to eight characters: Mario, DK, Link, Samus, Yoshi, Kirby, Starfox, and Pikachu. Unlocks happen pretty quick, but we'll see how long it takes to unlock all 74 characters. I love some of the new costumes like the Mario Wedding costume. I read an online unlock guide that said if you quit the game after unlocking a character and play another quick round that you'll unlock lots of characters quickly. When I say quit the game I mean to exit the game on the Switch home menu. That's worked well so I did that for a while on my Switch to unlock quickly so I could play with lots of characters. I didn't tell my kids about this because I want unlocking on their Switch to be more organic and slower.\n\nLots of characters have pretty big differences in how they play and lots of characters have small differences and lots is the same. I don't even know what to tell you. Switching out pokemon with pokemon trainer is really fast. You can detonate Link's bombs remotely. The basic gameplay is the same so Smash fans will pick up on things really fast. I still think that Smash is the best game for fighting game beginners because the controls are very simple.\n\nGameplay is faster than the past few games. This can make battles more crazy. The only complaint about faster gameplay is that it's harder to keep up with both your character and everything else that's happening on the board. I've lost my character a number of times. I almost wish we could get an option for colored outlines for all the characters. I might just be out of practice, so we'll see if this is still an issue after a while.\n\nIs it balanced? There are 74 characters--who knows! And since Smash for Wii U had balancing updates, this will be different in a year from now. I will say that the kids and I have fought with all sorts of characters and nobody's thought that any seemed overpowered. We're just barely starting to see the changes to characters and how new characters work and we're still unlocking characters. The Smash community will be finding things out for months and opinions are going to change over and over.\n\nI love that you can save rulesets. You can customize the game heavily with more or less stuff. You can have lots of items or no items or specific items or more lives or change the Final Smash options. It's really cool to have all your quick pick favorites but at the same time making rulesets is a little slow. I feel that as I get rulesets made that I'll really like it. Today being new, I've really wanted to make a tweak between games and it's been kinda slow because of all the options available. We are a two switch family and it's going to be a pain to make all our rulesets twice. I really wish there was some way to bring rulesets with you.\n\nI don't know how it could be done better, but the stage select is just one big picture of little tiny squares. It's almost too much. I wish there were an option to show you like 12 random stages rather than all of them. We've mostly played on random so far because it's overwhelming!\n\nThe graphics and animation takes a step up from the Wii U more than I thought it would. The stage graphics are awesome and there are so many new touches that are really cool. The N64 stages feel updated but classic. It runs very smoothly in tv mode and we've not played in handheld mode.\n\nThe music is awesome. There's just so much variety. It all sounds like it's made on a computer, but it's all really good music. I hear there are over 800 tracks...\n\nControls feel great. The joycons aren't the perfect smash controller. The thumbsticks can't keep up with a good player. The pro controller is better, but the gamecube controller just feels right. Maybe I'm nostalgic, but I'm really enjoying playing with the gamecube adapter. My daughters prefer the joycon because that's really the controller they know. My 11 year old son also likes the gamecube controllers (but I guess he could be feeding of my choice). If you're really serious about the game, I really suggest your getting the gamecube adapter. Mine that came with Super Smash Bros Wii U works great, but I see they're selling it separate now. It sold out quite a few times in the Wii U era, so you might want to pick one up now!\n\nLocal multiplayer is awesome. I think you can play with 8 players on every stage. We've had five people playing lots of battles and it's been a whole lot of fun. This is Smash Bros to us!\n\nWe don't play online, so I'm just ignoring that. I'm sure lots of people will be talking about how crappy it is or laggy or great or amazing or horrible. We play with family, with friends, with church youth, and with anyone around a TV.\n\nWorld of light is the single player story mode. My first impression is that it's not as good as Sub-Space Emissary from Smash Brawl, but it looks like a decent way to play alone and unlock more stuff. Kinda like I don't play online, I don't play the story mode that much. My son is excited about it, so I'm glad it's here. I'll just let others who want story mode more review it better. Collecting spirits to affect your character and the stage seems really cool, but I hear that it just means that the uniqueness of the stages go away so all the stages seem the same. You will run into stages with fog. If you have a spirit badge that takes away fog, it just makes it another normal Smash battle. We'll see how fast it gets old for my son.\n\nThey've said there will paid and free DLC. Piranha Plant will be free DLC for early adopters and will be available early next year. There will be 5 paid DLC packs that each has 1 new fighter, one new stage, and music tracks. The first one will be a Persona 5 character! They haven't announced any others yet. These packs will be six dollars each or 25 for the set. They haven't set a date for the DLC but they've said all 5 packs will be available by 2020. I assume one will come every few months.\n\nOverall, it's an awesome game. With the free Piranha Plant, you get 75 fighters to pick from. There are over 100 stages. There's just so much Smash. It plays great and it's a lot of fun. I totally suggest this!"}, {'review_meta': 'Reviewed in the United States on December 7, 2018', 'review_star': 'a-icon a-icon-star a-star-3 review-rating', 'review_body': "Great game. A lot of fun. However, I do have some complaints. I am a noob and it took a lot of work, looking online, youtube videos, and going through the menus to try to figure out what the game was even about, how to win, etc. It also does a pretty poor job of tutorials and the menus aren't very intuitive. There are a lot of confusing mechanics and options in the menu and the translation to english in the tutorials seems like there is something lost in translation.\nAdditionally, I got it for a party tonight, excited that there would be 74 fighters as advertised, but only 8 are available. Fighters are randomly unlocked by playing the game for hours. You might unlock 2 in 1 hour or play for 4 and unlock none. Plus you have no control of who gets unlocked. Excited to play as Snake or Bayonetta? Good luck. Literally. Unlocking them is just random luck. Kind of a shame for people that just want this as a party game and don't want to put in all the effort and time to unlock all the characters that were alluded to being available. Still fun, once you put in the time, unlock the characters, and figure out how to play, I think it will be fantastic."}, {'review_meta': 'Reviewed in the United States on December 7, 2018', 'review_star': 'a-icon a-icon-star a-star-5 review-rating', 'review_body': "This is one of those games where the creators really try to do their best to pack-in EVERYTHING in one tiny little cartridge for a standard price. The game has you start out with just EIGHT characters! If you've been caught up with the game and seen how it works, you already know that the character roster is INSANE. Hours upon hours will be spent unlocking everybody!"}, {'review_meta': 'Reviewed in the United States on December 7, 2018', 'review_star': 'a-icon a-icon-star a-star-1 review-rating', 'review_body': "Choosing for glory or for fun was crucial as it didnt force you to play with people who simply wanted to play the game casually online.\n\nNow we must set online preferences and hope we get an opponent with a similar set-up. Not only will you be in matches you didnt agree to be in, but they'll likely be free for all or 1v1 matches with ridiculous and different preferences each match.\n\n.....How does that make the online experience better for anyone?"}, {'review_meta': 'Reviewed in the United States on December 8, 2018', 'review_star': 'a-icon a-icon-star a-star-4 review-rating', 'review_body': 'Update: Some improvement has been made since launch. Online still needs some fixes, but still much better than before. upgrading from 1 star to 4.\n\nGame feels unfinished. Tons of bugs, and the online is embarrassingly bad. I bought a switch just for smash bros, as I’ve been a smash fan since N64.\n\nProblems with online:\n\nExtremely bad lag. I’m even using the eithernet port 3.0 adapter. It’s just how their servers are set up. One person lags, everyone lags. It’s a problem Noted in lots of discussion forms. Also note this was a problem on previous platforms like the Wii U and was never fixed, so don’t count on Nintendo to fix it anytime soon. I’ll update this review if that changes.\n\nYou can’t really select any of your preferences for a game. You will get put in a 1v1 or 4v4 depending on what the game wants. Forget about choice on items, that hasn’t happened yet. For me at least.\n\nIf you’re here for strictly the single player you might be happy with it. That wasn’t what ultimate was advertised as though. People need to hold Nintendo accountable on this one.'}, {'review_meta': 'Reviewed in the United States on December 7, 2018', 'review_star': 'a-icon a-icon-star a-star-2 review-rating', 'review_body': "Visually it's great and tons of characters/stages but the overall concept of the game is shallow. Just a silly fighting game with zero depth. You do the same thing over and over and over.\n\nBiggest problem is that I cant play online with My FRIENDS against random other players. So sick of getting Nintendoed!"}, {'review_meta': 'Reviewed in the United States on December 7, 2018', 'review_star': 'a-icon a-icon-star a-star-5 review-rating', 'review_body': 'My freind told me pokemon lets go pikachu/eevee will outsell super smash ultimate.... I told him he needs to go seek medical help asap.'}, {'review_meta': 'Reviewed in the United States on December 8, 2018', 'review_star': 'a-icon a-icon-star a-star-5 review-rating', 'review_body': 'If you\'ve played Smash Bros. since you got the n64 version, this game shows just how much the game has evolved. I am no means a "pro" when it comes to playing Smash Bros. but this game is the best I have played since it\'s first iteration.\n\nLet this be a disclaimer for all the people who have never played a Smash Bros game before, this game is overwhelming and taking it all in is a task within itself. Look at it this way, you bought a Tesla on the sheer fact that it\'s an electric car, only to find it has so many features you have to read a manual, but when you finally grasp the aspects of the car the reward is tremendous! So my advise to you is to take in each feature, one by one, and indulge in each of it\'s aspects. What you will find is a deep and enriching gaming experience that captures what Nintendo is all about, and at the same time you will learn how to truly Smash... your opponent into oblivion.\n\nLike most Smash Bros. enthusiast I loved melee, and deemed it the best of the the series as Brawl ruined my favorite character (fox) and other aspects of what Smash Bros is, but when the Wii U version came out, I loved that game because it was released on the 3DS and I can play Smash Bros. where ever I want when I want and it has an interesting mix of melee and brawl. Now we have Smash Bros. Ultimate and it\'s on the switch, it\'s portable like the 3DS version, it looks amazing graphically, and it leans more towards Melee in terms of its gameplay and speed but not so much that it\'s hard to pick up and play. In other words, it\'s has the best aspects of the series in a amazing package and did I mention that the switch makes it portable :).\n\nIn short, this game is a must have. There is 100\'s of hours of game play in a small cartridge and is worth your time to invest. Again, if you don\'t have time, it\'s portable so you can indulge when ever and where ever you want in what could possibly be, the best switch game yet!'}, {'review_meta': 'Reviewed in the United States on December 8, 2018', 'review_star': 'a-icon a-icon-star a-star-5 review-rating', 'review_body': 'The Smash Bros franchise games have always been high quality and they just keep getting better. Amazon delivered mine at 9:30am release day with me waiting around the door like a giddy teen girl for her date. I have been awaiting this game more than any other ever since buying a switch. I was hooked right from the opening cinematic which showcases what makes this series so magical to its fans. So many familiar faces from the past 4 decades of gaming as either playable fighters or cameo appearances. All the nostalgia from seeing so many old "friends" gives me the feels... As soon as my wife gets from from her appointment, she joins in. This is her first Smash game and she is seeing what all the hype is about. At 3pm when the 13yo son and 6yo daughter, they both join in. Hours go by with us unlocking new characters and taking turns trying everyone out. We are all jumping out of our chairs/sofa and screaming when someone defeats a challenger and unlocks them for play, clamoring to be the first one to try them out. This game is so much fun, a heartfelt thank you to everyone who had a hand in its creation. The stages are more amazing than ever. The amount of content is staggering,so many items and temporary allies/Pokemon! Whether you have friends or family to play this with, or you are playing solo you owe it to yourself to try this if you have a Switch or are considering getting one. 10/10'}]