It's funny to think that 20 years ago (holy crap I am old) the original Super Smash Bros. was a kind of low-budget, experimental game. Two years later, on a new console and with graphics that were about a million times better, the first sequel, Smash Bros. Melee, really cemented the series as an every-generation mainstay of Nintendo's brand.
Since then, we've had Brawl, the split "for Wii U" and "for 3DS" entry, and now, Smash 5 or 6 depending on how you count the previous two wisely went with the very accurate "Ultimate" as its subtitle.
The premise this time around: Everything. Every single fighter they've ever had is in this, and possibly every stage (though I feel like there's a Metroid one from the last entry I don't see.) Even the N64 ones are there (ooh! Not the Starfox one, though that would be pretty redundant with the Starfox one from Melee.)
But every fighter is back. There has been a bit of shuffling: Charizard is now once again simply one third of the options the Pokemon Trainer uses and they've made Zelda and Shiek as well as Samus and Zero Suit Samus into separate fighters (a change that came last time, I believe.)
They've included all of Wii U's DLC fighters (including Cloud, one of my favorites - who ironically made his Nintendo debut with that game) as well as adding a few more. My best friend always felt it was a huge oversight that we never got Simon Belmont in there, and well, guess what? Also, we've wanted Ridley ever since seeing the cinematic intro for Melee. Now he's there. Also, King K. Rool!
Ultimate doesn't reinvent the wheel, but it has definitely polished things to a bright sheen. The fact that there are over 70 fighters (and more coming with DLC!) means that, yes, you'll have to search through piles of Fire Emblem heroes you've never heard of when selecting your fighter (one of them is voiced by Matthew Mercer, though, so that's fun!) but the main philosophy of this entry in the series (and I think the franchise itself) is "the more the merrier," and it works quite nicely that way.
Like Brawl, Ultimate's adventure mode is ludicrous, and like 4's Smash Tour, it introduces a ton of new mechanics. But thankfully, they've streamlined unlocking fighters. You begin with only the first 8 fighters you started with in the original game (not even the four unlockable ones) and as you play, every ten minutes a new fighter will challenge you (waiting for you to finish whatever mode you're in the middle of.) The only downside is that you might feel hesitant to try out fighters you're less comfortable with in case you get a challenge after that match. If you fail one of these challenges, you'll actually be able to get rematches in the Games and More menu (there's a little symbol of a... gate, I think?) though losing a rematch will require you to play a bit more before that fighter pops up again. I think Cloud took me three tries to get.
One cool thing is that Classic Mode now has a set of fights built around a theme for each individual fighter. For example, Samus is sent after various space-based characters. Some characters will face alternate final bosses instead of Master Hand or Crazy Hand: for example, Link fights Ganon (not just Ganondorf, but fully-powered evil pig-god Ganon.)
Another feature I really like is that you can set up your Smashes (standard fights) to have "Stage Morph," where periodically the stage shifts between two selected arenas. Also, if you want a Final Destination or Battlefield-level simple stage but want more visual variety, all stages now have those modes.
And naturally, along with new fighters we have new stages and music. There's a Gerudo Valley stage with an awesome flamenco guitar version of the Gerudo Valley theme.
If you're a fan of the franchise, you'll want this version. It's got essentially everything you liked from previous games and more. And it's on the Switch, so you can take it with you!
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