Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Direct Recap

super smash bros ultimate direct recap

Nintendo

The long awaited and rumored Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Direct has come and gone.

The presentation was highly anticipated after the game’s prominence at Nintendo’s E3 2018 showcase. While E3 dropped the bombshells of having every playable fighter from all Super Smash Bros. games along with the new fighters of Ridley and Inkling, the dedicated Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Direct had quite a few surprises of its own.

Here’s everything you need to know:

  • Simon Belmont has been confirmed along with an echo fighter known as Richter. Simon wields the long range yet slow Vampire Killer as well as iconic Castlevania items like Holy Water and Axes. Simon’s inclusion in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate was leaked the night before the Direct.
  • Simon and Richter get their own exclusive stage known as Dracula’s Castle, the darkest stage in the game. The stage has candlesticks that turn into items when hit. The stage can see appearances from classic Castlevania bosses including Dracula himself. Dracula will require a special and undisclosed condition to appear. 34 music tracks are included in the stage.
  • Alucard from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is a new assist trophy. He can turn into a bat and dodge attacks by turning into mist.
  • Chrom is coming to the game as an echo fighter of Marth.
  • Dark Samus is coming to the game as an echo fighter of Samus.
  • Pokemon Stadium, Garden of Hope, Brinstar Depths, Summit, Unova Pokemon League, Magicant, Gamer, Final Destination, Fountain of Dreams, Saffron City, Hyrule Castle (N64), Dream Land (N64), and Kongo Jungle (N64) are returning. It looks like the Hanenbow stage is also returning judging by the stage select screen.
  • New Donk City Hall was shown off as a new stage similar to Delfino Plaza. You travel on a platform while going up and down New Donk City Hall while occasionally stopping at certain parts of the building. Musicians fly in and start playing when touched by a fighter.
  • 103 stages are in the game. That’s up from 56 stages (including DLC) in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U.
  • All stages can be transformed into Battlefield and Omega forms, bringing the total number of stages to over 300.
  • All stages are available from the start of the game. Also all of them are available for 8-player battles.
  • Stage hazards can be turned off.
  • Stages can morph into one another. You can choose to have the stage morph either at random or every minute. That way the same fight can take place on two different stages.
  • My Music returns, letting you pick the probability of hearing certain tracks in stages.
  • 900 music tracks are in the game. That adds up to 28 hours of music.
  • In handheld mode, you can play music while the Switch’s screen is turned off.
  • You can select rules first before selecting characters and stages.
  • Stamina battle is a standard mode.
  • Stage selection comes before fighter selection.
  • In Sudden Death, the camera will zoom in.
  • You can charge Final Smashes to use a less powerful Final Smash. It appears to charge as you take damage. Final Smashes cannot occur at the same time. This option can be toggled on and off in the options menu.
  • Squad Strike are 5-on-5 or 3-on-3 elimination match. You can either use five or three fighters per player or one fighter per player.
  • Tourney mode lets you select the number of participants and CPU fighters. The game will automatically structure a tournament bracket for you. Tourneys can hold up to 32 players.
  • Smashdown will eliminate previously selected fighters from the roster with each match.
  • Training mode has an exclusive stage that measures distance from the opponent. It can display launch distance.
  • Classic mode returns.
  • The banana gun fires one explosive banana. Killing Edge glows and becomes more powerful. Bomber creates a huge explosion when lifted up. Death’s Scythe will instantly kill opponents at high damage. The Staff deals more damage from long range. The Ramblin’ Evil Mushroom reverses the opponent’s controls. Rage Blaster gets more powerful the more damage you have.
  • Alolan Exeggutor creates a wall that divides the stage where it lands. Abra teleports fighters. Solgaleo fires a big beam from the middle of the stage. Lunala fires a big beam from the background of the stage. Mimikyu grabs opponents and KOs them. Pyukumuku counters attacks. Alolan Vulpix shoots ice breath. Vulpix shoots fire breath. Marshadow sneaks up on opponents and punches them. Ditto transforms into fighters.
  • Zero, Knuckles, Krystal, Klaptrap, Kappa, Chef Kawasaki, Gray Fox, Nikki, Shovel Knight, Majora’s Mask Moon, and the Rathalos from Monster Hunter are new assist trophies. Rathalos is unique in that it’s also a boss as well as an assist trophy.
  • They hinted at a new mode on the main menu.
  • King K. Rool is here! His gun from Donkey Kong Country 2 can shoot cannonballs, suck them back in, and spit them back out. His gun can also suck in fighters. He has a counter attack with his tummy. His dash attack appears to have super armor. He can toss his crown like a boomerang just like in Donkey Kong Country. His recovery appears to be a backpack helicopter. His Final Smash is the Blast-O-Matic from Donkey Kong 64.

    What was your favorite part of the Direct? Let us know in the comment section below. Be sure to share this article if you enjoyed it.

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