Nintendo’s Smash Bros Ultimate Direct did not disappoint fans Wednesday Morning.
During EVO 2018 to the surprise of fans, Nintendo announced a Direct focused on Smash Bros Ultimate to stream on the 8th of August. Now that the direct has passed, it’s time to unpack and bring the important highlights from it.
New characters were announced during the Direct. Simon and Richter Belmont, with Richter being an Echo fighter for Simon. Simon’s move-set was shown off. His trademark weapons, the Holy whip, Holy water, cross, and upper cut are available. His final Smash is called Grand Cross, where Simon puts a fighter in a coffin, wraps it in chains and sends it in the air. Other echo fighters announced are Chrom and Dark Samus. We were also shown that King K. Roll is coming as a fighter in recent Nintendo bait and switch.
Stages
There will be over one hundred stages in Smash Bros Ultimate. This includes new stages from Castelvania and Monster Hunter. From Castlevania will be Dracula’s Castle which will have features such as franchise bosses coming during the match, the candles in the stage when broken release items, and Dracula is a boss in the stage. It will come with 34 music tracks both old and new.
With Monster Hunter, the stage is an open field though it has it’s own boss, Rathalos. However he can be used as an assist trophy. There is also a New Donk City stage which has a interactive feature with the band that when they are hit, they sing the song from Super Mario Odyssey.
The rest of the stages are from previous games. However they have been updated and upgraded. That is except for the Nintendo 64 stages as they will be focused on nostalgia more than anything else.
There are also new features with the stages. Stage Morph allows the game to switch between two stages that are selected in the menu. You can also shut off stage hazards as well. All stages will be available from the start.
Features
New Features have been added as well as changes in setting up a match. First you now select your rules, then stage, and finally fighters. Stamina Battle is now a standard option in the game. Sudden death now has the camera zooming in slowly on top of being at three hundred percent damage. Final Smash Meter allows you to charge up a final smash in a match, however it is weaker and only one can be used at a time.
The My Music feature has returned and has been refined to sort out the music by franchise as well as by game. You are able to pick the stage music and have access to all of the franchise’s music for that stage. However the biggest news to come out of this is that not only can you make playlists, but you can listen to them with the system in sleep mode or with the screen off.
New and Old Modes and Items
There are new battle modes added to the game as well, along with returning modes. Starting with Squad Strike, a new mode where players pick a team of five for either a Five v Five or Three v Three elimination battles. This mode supports multiple players as each player can control a character on the team and rotate out each match. Tournament mode returns as up to thirty two players can be part of a tournament. Smashdown mode is set up so previous fighters can be used only once before they have to rotate out.
Training Mode has an exclusive grid stage that will help players measure distances of regular attacks and launch distances. Classic mode also returns.
New Items, assist trophies, and Pokemon have been added. Most notably Pokemon from gens one and seven. Assist Trophies include Alucard, Moon, Klaptrap, Shovel Knight. Items include the Banana gun, Killing Edge, Death Scythe, and Rage Blaster.
Super Smash Bros Ultimate is slated for a December 7th 2018 release. Watch the Direct below.
