Super Smash Bros is a series that needs no introduction. Simultaneously one of if not the biggest crossover in all of gaming, one of the most beloved party games in all of gaming, and one of the most prolific competitive games in all of gaming, which inevitably led to a fandom that is constantly at war over which of these aspects should be given more priority. Personally, I don't know, I'm kind of in the middle? I respect how Smash is able to have such a high skill ceiling, but it's not really my go-to fighting game if I'm the mood to be competitive. That would be saved for something like Garou or Soulcalibur. Primarily, I love the Super Smash Bros games for being these massive love letters to gaming as a medium, and from that standpoint, Super Smash Bros Ultimate is the culmination of everything that makes this series great.
Before we talk about Super Smash Bros Ultimate, though, I should probably bring up Masahiro Sakurai. Sakurai is pretty much the figurehead of the Smash Bros series, and Ultimate in particular is pretty much his child. And to be perfectly real, I feel like he's one of the few people in the world capable of pulling off a crossover as big as Smash Bros, not only because of his impressive commitment to these games, but because of his visible love for gaming as a whole. You can see it in any of Sakurai's presentations through the Ultimate hype cycle, he spent all of Terry and Byleth's reveals gushing about SNK and Fire Emblem respectively. Dude loves video games, and that infectious passion permeates through the entire Smash Bros series, from the detailed movesets for each character to the intricate stage designs to the massive song lists to all the trophies and spirits across all the games. What I want to make clear right from the get-go is that what I most appreciate about Super Smash Bros Ultimate is just how much of an unprecedented celebration of all things gaming, even indie games and games from western developers have begun to get a spotlight. However good of a fighting game Smash Bros Ultimate is doesn't really matter in the face of this achievement alone.
Super Smash Bros as a series introduced the concept of the platform
fighter, essentially a fusion between a fighting game and a platformer.
In platform fighters, the main goal isn't to deplete a health bar, but
rather to knock your opponent off of the stage, and as a result, there's
a much stronger emphasis on movement which ends up making fights feel
really dynamic. Throw items and the absolutely bonkers stage hazards
into the mix and you get a fighting game that feels uniquely scrappy,
where you're encouraged to use everything in your environment to your advantage. But the brilliance of Smash Bros is that it works just as well with all of those items, hazards, and gimmicks turned off, and the customization options on offer are usually so wide that you're always able to do just that. Every single character in Super Smash Bros has an incredibly robust and fleshed-out moveset, and every entry in the series has a ton of fun tech so that even basic one-on-one fights on Final Destination feel super engaging and fun. It's a game that can be both Street Fighter and Power Stone at the same time, and that's really unique within the genre.
But what makes Ultimate in particular stand out? Well, personally, I think Ultimate toes the line between competitive and casual the best. Melee, as good as it is, can feel incredibly unwieldy and unforgiving for newcomers. Anytime I tried introducing someone to that game, they bounced off it real fast. Brawl has an unprecedented level of single-player and casual-focused content, but its slower pace, unbalanced roster, and the addition of stuff like tripping lowers the skill ceiling. Smash Bros Ultimate manages to do both. It's a game that I can introduce to anyone and they'll have a great time, but it's also a game that can support a competitive community, with an impressively balanced roster (barring a few overpowered DLC characters) considering the fact that there's over 80 playable characters. It's kind of wild how polished this game is on every front. Nearly every character is competitively viable, movement feels tighter and more refined than ever, and all the effects work and UI is both flashy and clear. For a game of this scale to be so all-encompassing is just really impressive.
And let's talk about those roster for a sec, but man, is it something. We got a ton of characters from all across Nintendo's history ranging from icons like Mario, Link, and Kirby, to more obscure characters who haven't gotten games in years like Captain Falcon, Little Mac, and ROB. And over the course of the last few games, we've even accumulated an impressive amount of third party characters like Sonic, Terry, Kazuya, Cloud, Sora, Joker, Simon Belmont, Snake, Minecraft Steve, and Banjo-freaking-Kazooie. The Banjo-Kazooie reveal in particular was one of the most thrilling reveals in any game trailer ever for me, I've been waiting to see those two make a comeback for years and it was everything I could've possibly imagined. All 89 of these characters have diverse movesets and animations that convey their personality quite well, but what's really impressive is just how well everyone meshes together. Sakurai and his team had the impossible task of making cartoonish characters like Mario and Pikachu and more realistic characters like Samus and Snake fit together without breaking your immersion, and somehow, Smash Bros Ultimate pulls it off effortlessly. I also really can't understate how influential the Smash Bros series was to my taste in games. If it wasn't for me being introduced to characters like Shulk, Terry, or Bayonetta, there's quite a bunch of my favorite video game series I probably would have never discovered. Hell, Smash Bros is how I even learned about SNK to begin with!
It's also worth noting just how massive Super Smash Bros Ultimate is in terms of content. Putting aside the 80+ characters, 100+, and the ridiculous amount of customization options just for the basic fighting mode alone, there's also tournament modes, 8-player modes, minigames like Mob Smash and Home-Run Contest, a stage builder, tons of collectibles to get like Mii costumes and spirits, achievements, a Classic Mode with a custom campaign for every single character, and biggest of all, an entire 30+ hour campaign in the form of World Of Light. I know World Of Light is a bit of a divisive topic nowadays since it lacks all the original level design and fun cutscenes of Subspace Emissary, and that's true, Subspace is the better story mode. However, World Of Light isn't trying to be Subspace, it instead feels kind of like a Smash Bros RPG with each battle feeling like an encounter in a Final Fantasy game for example. There's skill trees, build customization, a massive overworld full of secrets and charming details, and a pretty stellar finale that packs some great new secrets. When the game come out, I sunk a ton of hours into World Of Light and I had a great time. It's not as instantly replayable as Subspace, but it was an incredibly fun and substantial addition to an already massive package.
And I already praised Smash Bros Ultimate's presentation a bunch. The visuals still look very good, and as I said, it's incredibly impressive how well it's able to make a ton of characters from entirely different series and genres fit together so seamlessly. And the UI is just simply impeccable. Sakurai's UI has always been eye-catching, but there are times when it's been a bit style over substance like in Smash 4. He himself said his team took inspiration from Persona 5 for Ultimate's UI and it shows, it manages to be both stylish and readable at the same time. And as for the music, I mean, come on. Super Smash Bros Ultimate has over 1,000 tracks from tons of different video games, ranging from straight rips to an impressive amount of remixes from all sorts of legendary video game composers. Ever wanted to hear a remix of Psycho Soldier by Yuzo Koshiro (Streets Of Rage, Ys, Actraiser)? Or Banjo-Kazooie's Treasure Trove Cove remixed by Yoko Shimomura (Mario & Luigi, Kingdom Hearts)? Or Pikmin's world map theme by Yasunori Mitsuda (Chrono Trigger/Cross)? Splatoon's Bomb Rush Blush by Tomoya Ohtani (Sonic)? A love letter to F-Zero by Daytona USA's Takenobu Mitsuyoshi? Not to mention the remixes by Manabu Namiki (Battle Garegga), Mahito Yokota (Mario Galaxy), Kenji Yamamoto (Metroid), Kumi Tanioka (Crystal Chronicles), Tomoko Sasaki (Ristar), Motoi Sakuraba (Golden Sun, Dark Souls), the list truly goes on.
There is a lot about Super Smash Bros Ultimate that I didn't even get to, like the gripping hype cycle of the DLC and its reveal trailers or the incredibly fun multiplayer, but these are the aspects that stuck out to me the most personally. The fact that Smash Bros Ultimate even exists in the first place is hard to believe, but the fact that it's also such a polished, well-calibrated, feature-rich fighting game that's able to accomodate for all kinds of players in a genre known for its inaccessibility just makes it all the more impressive.
No comments:
Post a Comment