Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Direct 08/08/18 — The Belmont Stakes Break the Rools

It’s been less than two months since Super Smash Bros. Ultimate was revealed, but Nintendo was merciful enough to grace us with a Direct dedicated to it today. You could say this was the second Direct dedicated to the game, given how around half the E3 2018 Nintendo Direct focused on it. There were still vocal skeptics who believe this is just an updated port of Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, thanks to the power similarities between the system and Switch. Its visual differences have been pointed out, and Smash Bros. has such a large fanbase that Nintendo has no need to worry about losing sales.

Ultimate will be primarily distinguished through its characters and features, and this Direct showed how it will have plenty of its own. Smash Bros. players were heavily debating which new faces would be revealed, even though at least a facet of them would be unreasonably upset regardless of what occurred. Those particular Smash Bros. fans are a “fun” bunch, but keep in mind that doesn’t apply to most of them, who were simply excited about whatever they had to show.

Director Masahiro Sakurai started the Direct with a good crack of the whip by confirming Simon Belmont from Konami’s Castlevania series. Damage Control’s own Drew Young has been hoping he would join the Super Smash Bros. cast for years, and he finally got his wish. (Now I need to think of a list of characters to send him.) Simon’s existence slightly leaked out when Nintendo almost accidentally uploaded the “Bloody Tears” remix to the official website last night. While that somewhat ruined the surprise, at least he didn’t leak outright. Simon will come with the Dracula’s Castle stage, which will include mainstay Castlevania villain Death as a hazard, who killed Luigi. (Nintendo denies this, but we know the truth.) The Bloody Tears remix, with arrangement supervision from Michiko Naruke (of the Wild Arms series), is now available.

Also coming to the game is Richter Belmont, though as an echo fighter to Simon — but keep in mind echoes aren’t 100 percent identical to the other characters. Alucard will also appear as an assist trophy. Chrom from Fire Emblem Awakening, another Fire Emblem character, will join the cast as an echo for Roy (our boy). Dark Samus will also be available as Samus’ dark echo. Just when you thought the cast was already too large to keep track of.

This installment will have the Ultimate amount of stages by having a total of 103, many of which will have dynamic challenges to dodge (which can still be turned off). Some are new to this installment, like the aforementioned Dracula’s Castle and New Donk City, the latter of which will work well Mario’s wedding outfit from Super Mario Odyssey. New to this game will be stage morphing, where one stage can smoothly transition to another during a match. Making this a Switch-exclusive has allowed for them to add all sorts of tricks.

There will also be options to select specific tracks for each stage, regardless of how ill-fitting some could be. Not to say that’s bad; it’s part of the fun. The game will have a whopping 800 tracks for the stages alone (which doesn’t include tracks for the menus and other options). It’s such a large collection of music that they’re including the option to listen to them while travelling, with the Switch in sleep mode.

For matches, players will have the option to make their own rules, which will include a large — or, let’s say, Ultimate — amount of variety. For example, one option allows each player to have chargeable Final Smash attacks, similar to a fighting game. Though there’s a catch. The Final Smash attacks in this mode won’t do as much damage as they would normally, and only one character can perform one at a time, thanks to the dramatic animations attached to them.

Since we’re keeping this going, the Ultimate number of Smash Bros. fighting modes will be included. This will include Classic Mode, a single-player option where players will face off against a series of fighters in their own stages. Stamina Mode will also be included, where players fight until their stamina is depleted, similar to a traditional fighting game. There’s also Squad Strike, where players will face off in 5-on-5 or 3-on-3 skirmishes. These will join modified modes from previous games, including Tourney Mode (which can involve multiple Switch consoles this time), Smashdown (where previously-selected characters will no longer be available after being defeated), and a more involved Training Mode.

It wouldn’t be a Smash game without several items, even though they’re often banned in tournaments. Several items will return from previous games, while some are new. They’ll include the Killing Edge (from Fire Emblem), the Staff (from Kid Icarus), and a fake Smash Ball. Pokémon will also return, among them being Abra, Lunala, Mimikyu, and the gigantic Alolan Exeggutor.

It also wouldn’t be a Smash game without several assist trophies, including characters some players wish were fully playable. Along with the aforementioned Alucard, this game will add Krystal from the Star Fox series, Zero from the Mega Man X games, the Moon from The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask, Gray Fox from the Metal Gear series, the titular Shovel Knight, and Knuckles. Literally the biggest among the new additions will be Rathalos from the Monster Hunter series, who will be included as both a trophy and a boss — the first character to do so. This opens a lot of possibilities.

After Sakurai bid us farewell again, he left us with a CG video featuring Donkey Kong Country characters. Just when everyone thought series villain King K. Rool was sneaking up on Donkey Kong and Diddy, it was revealed to be the Kirby series’ King Dedede in disguise. But this only teased the appearance of the real K. Rool, the newest character to join the cast, a fitting close to the Direct.

Sakurai managed to stuff, uh, the Ultimate amount of info into a Direct of moderate length, and even if there’s some disappointment over the divisive addition of K. Rool, many in that same audience are cheering the appearance of Castlevania characters. There was something to like for everyone here.

Well, unless you’re in the audience still ardently waiting for Waluigi, but he’s requested enough (something that made the Washington Post, don’t forget) that they wouldn’t reveal him until the last Smash Direct. That is, assuming he’s joining the cast at all. It would be a hell of a thing if they made a fake-out video like the K. Rool one, and didn’t reveal him at the end. Don’t blame me if that ends up happening.