Super Smash Bros Ultimate Final Nintendo Direct - What's New And My Thoughts

Yesterday, Nintendo released the final Nintendo Direct for Super Smash Bros Ultimate. People had a lot of expectations, some of which were shattered, some of which people really liked.

The Super Smash Bros Ultimate November Direct started with the announcement of Ken from Street Fighter as an echo fighter for Ryu. This was extremely obvious and everyone was expecting it. It's a solid addition but it's nothing worth getting extremely excited about.

The final character announced before release (well excluding the later surprise) was Incineroar, who brings with him a lot of wrestling moves. There are a lot of Pokemon in Super Smash Bros Ultimate, but Incineroar brings a unique wrestling-style moveset and it prevents the Pokemon of Smash ending up like Fire Emblem characters all being the same (sword yielders with counters).

Nintendo also announced there will be five characters released as DLC for $5.99 a piece, or you can buy a season pass type deal for $24.99. Each piece of DLC will include the character, a stage, and some music. The price has gone up from Smash 4's DLC.

I'm not sure what Nintendo is planning, since they pretty much made it look like Geno, Isaac, and a few other favorites weren't going to be added to Smash Bros by making them assist trophies or the like. Banjoo Kazooie, Mach Rider, and a few other characters are still on the table, though (haha Minecraft Steve).

I had hopes for having Rex in the game, as I thought it would be fun to have Rex be able to switch between blades in battle, much like Pokemon Trainer switches between Pokemon. But, it was confirmed in the direct that Rex will not be in Smash Bros Ultimate (at least at launch) because they started working on Smash earlier than Xenoblade Chronicles 2. We got a Mii outfit instead.

Trophies were replaced by Spirits, because trophies were "too much work" and there would be too many of them. Trophies have been a staple of Smash Bros since the first one, it's going to be odd to have them not included. Part of (trying) to 100% complete earlier Smash Bros games involved getting all the trophies.

This definitely was a controversial change, from what I've seen. Personally, I think it's a good improvement, because you can use the spirits to make changes to a fighter's performance. It adds more of a purpose to trophies as opposed to just being something you can collect.

Online mode was detailed, and overall I really liked the changes that are coming to Smash Ultimate.

Matches won't be limited to For Glory omega forms with no items and For Fun maps with items. Instead, everyone chooses their own rule set for a game, and then those rule sets are chosen for each round. I think this is going to really liven up online Smash and make it a lot less repetitive. Each game should be a different, and it's going to add a lot of replay value to Smash Online.

They're going to try and make matchmaking depend more on where you are and where everyone else is. Smash 4 had a huge problem with matchmaking me with people who are far away and had very bad internet. There was nothing quite like playing Smash 4 online against someone with horrible internet, and having each in game minute take 5 minutes because their connection is so bad and it's slowing down the game. This is a huge improvement and I hope it reduces a lot of lag.

Nintendo also seems to be pretty aware of the lag issue, because they really pushed for people to get off of WiFi for playing Smash Ultimate and get onto a wired connection.

There will now be a Global Smash Power for your playing online, which tells you how many Smash Bros players you're better than. This is going to be another awesome addition to online, since you'll be playing to rank up and you'll have something to measure your progress with as you improve at the game. Smash 4 didn't have anything like this, you just played For Glory and had no idea how you were doing.

Once you make it high enough in rankings, you'll enter "Elite Smash." Nintendo says they're going to balance the game around people in "Elite Smash", so being there means you have quite a bit of say in how Smash Bros gets balanced. And anyone who started playing Smash 4 on Wii U or 3DS from release knows there's going to be a lot of changes. Getting into Elite Smash as soon as possible will give you a huge amount of influence of how the game is balanced.

Of course, more Amiibo were announced for the fighters in Smash Ultimate that don't yet have an Amiibo. This is no surprise, though they didn't announce if you'll be able to use Amiibo to fight like in Smash 4, though it's pretty implied that's coming back.

Single Player mode was revealed. It's not something like Subspace Emissary. It looks more like an adventure game where you wander around a map and enter fights. It's a step up from the single player modes on Smash 4 (at least the Wii U version I'm familiar with), but it's not really the ultimate single player experience you'll get in a Smash Bros game. I still think that sits with Brawl, even though Brawl isn't that great of a Smash Bros game. I think I'll enjoy single player, but online and local battles will probably still be where I get the most enjoyment out of Smash Bros Ultimate.

Finally, there was a surprise character announcement. Generic Piranha Plant is now a playable fighter. This has been extremely controversial. Personally, I think it's a really unique and cool addition. But, it's been tainted by the fact that they've basically ruled out some other very cool fighters (Lip, Waluigi, Rex, Geeno, etc) earlier in the Direct. It felt like a huge slap in the face to see those characters very likely ruled out of Smash Ultimate, only to get Piranha Plant that no one really asked for.