By: Tyler Miller
Ever since Tuesday afternoon at the Nintendo store in New York City, people have been able to go and get hands on time with Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Yesterday, I finally got a chance to see for myself what the new game is going to be like, and I’m happy to say that I absolutely loved every second of my time with it.
I’ve been a fan of the series ever since its inception on the Nintendo 64, but I didn’t really get into the series until Melee on the Gamecube. I went all in on unlocking characters, doing challenges, and just having a grand ‘ol time. Then came along Brawl for the Wii, and my love for the series grew exponentially. It also introduced my current main to this day, Sonic the Hedgehog. Many hardcore fans of the series don’t like Brawl for its slower speed and more floaty gameplay when compared to Melee, but I personally never minded it. When it comes to Smash for Wii U and 3DS, I didn’t play it too much since I didn’t have the console, but I did play it enough to know that it was a better game than Brawl.
Going into Smash Ultimate I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but I was sure I’d at least have a good time with the game. I only got to play for a little over five minutes. This consisted of two matches against three other players. These matches were timed, with only 2 minutes and thirty seconds for us to duke it out and see who could have the highest score by the end. We were also playing with the Switch Pro Controller as well, so I had to adjust to the controller and how the buttons were mapped on it too.
The first change that was made immediately apparent is the fact that you now pick your stage before you pick your fighter. I like this change because it allows you to know what type of arena you’ll be on when you choose your fighter as opposed to in past games where you would pick a fighter only to then choose a stage. It would be very frustrating to pick a stage where a horizontal aerial recovery move would be best, but it’s too late to change your fighter, so now you’re stuck with someone whose aerial recovery is more vertical. We chose random for our stage selection each time, so character choice wouldn’t matter too much. I was going to pick Sonic anyway, so I knew I’d be fine.
Our first match took place on the Kongo Jungle stage from Melee. Right off the bat, I was able to notice that the game was much faster than Brawl, and at least a bit faster than Smash 4. Because it’s been so long since I played that game, I couldn’t tell how much faster it was, but I am sure that there is a speed increase between the Smash 4 and Ultimate. I do like the increased speed though. It makes the action more frenetic and chaotic which is what Smash is all about. On top of that, it speeds up the flow of the game, encouraging you to really get in there and pummel your opponents.
It was in this match when I realized one of the biggest changes to the game; your Smash Attacks can be charged and held for as long as you want. In past games when you charged up your Smash attack, it would automatically release once it charged up to the max. Now though, you can charge to the max and proceed to hold it until you’re ready to release it, provided you don’t move. This is a game changer, as it means that you can set yourself up for a powerful attack on anyone who comes within your range well in advance of them actually getting close enough to you. At the same time, this change is going to require people relearn when their Smash attack is at max power quickly, or else they’ll be standing there holding it for a split second too long because they expect it to go off on its own, and they’ll suffer the consequences.
I also noticed that whenever anyone flies off the screen, a box appears in the corner that shows where everyone is on the stage. This is helpful for those times where you’re alive offscreen, but not quite sure just how far away you are from the stage itself, since it’ll allow you to see where you are and take the appropriate measures to try and make it back. While this is more of a quality of life change, it’s one that makes me wonder how I’ve played without it for all these years.
Because this first match was more of a warm up for me, I got beat pretty badly and ended up in third place. The Kongo Jungle stage has never been a favorite of mine, so playing on it as Sonic for the first time in years took a bit of adjusting. I also had to get used to the changes made to Sonic, such as the fact that his spin dash side special move has reverted to its Brawl version and now goes straight into the dash, as opposed to the Smash 4 version which had Sonic do a small hop first before going into the dash. The people I was playing against were pretty good too, so it made for a nice challenge. I came back with a vengeance in our second match though.
The second match was on the Wily Castle stage from Smash 4, yet another stage that I’m not too fond of. I can’t complain though since we chose random, so we had to lay in our bed. When the match started I gave it my all. I put all my years of skill with Sonic to use and employed every technique that I remembered using with him. This match introduced me to the much faster Final Smashes that Ultimate has.
Previously, Final Smashes would be long affairs that could drag on for a bit too long, although they were very powerful and flashy. This time around, they get straight to the point and are over quickly, allowing everyone to get back to fighting faster. When I got the Smash Ball I activated my Final Smash, which is still Super Sonic. In Ultimate though, Sonic dashes across the screen on his own in an X-formation. The only thing you control is the height of dashes. It’s over very quickly though, so any adjustments you want to make need to be done right at the start of the move.
The final change I noticed was actually an addition to the game in the form of a new Pokémon! During the fight, someone used a Pokéball item and out came the psychic Pokémon Abra. What he does is open a portal and teleport everyone that’s not his user to a random point on the stage, and he does this more than once. It caught me off guard when it happened because I never saw Abra come out. I had only seen my character disappear, and then reappear at the edge of the stage. After making it back to safety, I got teleported away again off the stage, only to realize that it was Abra causing all this ruckus after I managed to survive his psychic tricks. I can already tell Abra will be a great help if he’s on my team, and a major annoyance if he’s not.
After a hard fought match that felt longer than it actually was, I managed to come out on top with a first place win, and a reminder of just how much I love Smash. I was elated and excited that I won, but bummed out that my time with the game was over. I just wanted to stand there and play for the rest of the night, a feeling that I haven’t felt since I played Brawl on my Wii every single night. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is just as fun as I hoped it would be, and I’m excited to dig deep into the game and discover just what other changes and additions have been made. It may have only been a little more than five minutes, but I walked away from the game feeling very confident in the game and certain that this will be the game that leads me to get a Switch.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate releases on December 7, 2018.
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