Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Reveals 100’s of Stages, Hours of Music and New Characters

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Posted August 9, 2018 by Richard Lee Breslin in Announcements, Gameplay, Gaming News, Limited Edition, Nintendo Switch, Screenshots, Trailers

A whole lot of information was revealed for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate at the latest Nintendo Direct, dubbed the “Ultimate Direct” in celebration of the brawler’s next outing on the Switch.  We got introduced to some new characters, loads of stages, a huge soundtrack and more!  It really was a packed event, so I’ll bring you the best snippets of information that I have gathered.

Firstly the event kicked off with Luigi turning into a ghost, which could hint at the games story and some kind of death to the brother of Mario. Then we got introduced to Simon Belmont from the iconic Castlevania series as a playable character with his appearance seemingly based upon the 1987 NES game.  Belmont will be accompanied by Richter as his Echo fighter (someone that has appeared in several Castlevania games), and they will both be accompanied by Dracula’s castle and the reveal that the Castlevania inspired content will bring with it a 34 list soundtrack from the series!  There’s more on the stages and soundtracks, but I’ll get on to that later.

In terms of other character reveals, we learned that Dark Samus will be the Echo fighter for the normal Samus from Metroid, and Chrom from the Fire Emblem series will be the Echo fighter for Lucina, and Donkey Kong’s old nemesis, King K. Rool will also be a fully playable character along with Belmont.  Nintendo also announced on Twitter that Simon Belmont, Richter Belmont, King K. Rool, Chrom and Dark Samus (I WANT!) will all be getting Amiibo figures.

Other characters were also revealed as Assist Trophies, which unlike the Echo fighters, Assist Trophies are essentially power-ups that you pick up during a battle and a character from a popular series will swoop in to deal some damage on your opponents.  The Assist Trophies are as followed:

  • Chef Kawasaki (Kirby)
  • Gray Fox (Metal Gear Solid)
  • Kapp’n (Animal Crossing)
  • Klaptrap (Donkey Kong)
  • Knuckles (Sonic the Hedgehog)
  • Krystal (Star Fox)
  • Moon (The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask)
  • Nikki (Mii)
  • Rathalos (Monster Hunter)
  • Zero (Mega Man)

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate will also be very Pokémon heavy and here the latest Pokémon to join the ever growing roster, as playable characters and/or Echo fighters:

  • Abra
  • Ditto
  • Eggsecutor (Alolan)
  • Lunala
  • Marshadow
  • Mimikyu
  • Pyukumuku
  • Solgaleo
  • Vulpix (Normal) and Vulpix (Alolan)

Right now that’s all the characters out of the way for this Nintendo Direct, so let’s get on to all the other good stuff.  In total there will be a whopping 103 different stages at launch, not as DLC, but all included in the base game!  Depending on what settings you choose, these stages can morph into other stages mid-battle, which is quite cool.

During these stages, you can also select what music you wish to hear with many of the franchises featured in the game, essentially coming with their own full soundtrack.  For example, if you wanted to assign a piece of your favourite The Legend of Zelda theme music to your favourite Zelda themed stages, you can.  You can even create your own in-game playlists, not only assigned to your favourite stages, but as a playlist (music assorted by series) on the go with your Switch, which essentially turning your Switch into an iPod.  And you’ll be spoiled for choice with the more than 900+ plus tracks, totalling up to a massive 28 hours worth of music.

Other features revealed at Nintendo Direct were some of the match custom options such as adjusting health and stamina gauges, match timers, adjusting powers, having matches at sudden death and more.  Squad Strike was also revealed, where you can have 5v5, 3v3, 1v1 types matches and so forth.  We’ll also get a Tournament Mode with a bracket system supporting up to 32 fighters.

Smashdown, which is like a survival mode in which players can only use one fighter per battle, when that battle is over, they must select a different fighter and so on.  There will also be a Training Mode with its own unique stage and Classic Mode, which is basically a traditional arcade mode.

During the battles, some of the weapon pick-ups were also showcased, such as the Banana Gum, Killing Edge, Bomber, Death’s Scythe, Staff, Rambling Evil Mushroom and the Rage Blaster.  The in-game menu also looked very streamlined and easy to navigate.

Finally, as announced on the official Nintendo page via Twitter, there will be a Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Limited Edition, which comes with a copy of the game, an official GameCube controller and the official GameCube adaptor so that you can use the controller on your Switch.  I’ll be using my wireless Wavebird for sure!

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate will release for the Nintendo Switch on December 7th this year.  If you missed the Nintendo Direct event, you can find the full video below.


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