The one we've all be waiting for
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is finally out, and spoiler alert: I love it. Already in the short time that I've had Ultimate in my hands, it has become my favorite entry in the Smash series. The gameplay is so fluid and fast, taking the raw energy of Melee and stabilizing it with the polish of Smash 4. The character roster and stage count obviously outpace anything that has come before by a country mile, and the game's side modes all feel rewarding and fun in their own ways. I don't think that the game is even close to perfect, with its downright bad online (I never take my skills online other than playing with friends, but the issue persists nonetheless) and somewhat uninteresting World of Light mode. A few more quality of life improvements, like being able to sort characters and stages as well as not having to re-select characters after each battle would've gone a long way as well. But, those qualms don't come even close to deflating the barn-burning, face-melting cornucopia of Nintendo fandom contained within the slickest Smash Bros. experience to date.
But, I don't really want this to turn into a critique of the game. I've spent the last eleven months of the year dissecting Nintendo's meager output for 2018, all building up to this moment: the launch of Smash Bros. This game really is more than just a check mark in the "win" column of Nintendo's score book though. It is a figurative lighthouse; guiding the community through the fog of one hell of a lackluster year. Better games could've released in Smash Bros. place, sure. I think that when comparing the raw quality of Ultimate to games like Breath of the Wild or Odyssey, Smash isn't the clear victor or even the superior creative endeavor (even if I prefer the game to Odyssey). But, neither of those games so clearly encapsulate why Nintendo is so special, and why fans like myself stick by Nintendo through not only tough years, but entire bad console cycles.
"Nintendo" is a lot of things. Nintendo is a developer. Nintendo is a publisher. Nintendo is a name-brand that resonates with generations of people. If you can't connect your iPhone to your home router, Nintendo is the box you had hooked up under the 80's CRT in your childhood living-room. But, to me, Nintendo is a universe full of creativity and fun. A milky way full of iconic characters and locations that I can see with my eyes closed, punctuated by a galactic sky of smaller, but nonetheless familiar, faces and places. Tucked throughout this cosmic fabric are experiences of all shapes and sizes for any possible occasion. Whether we're talking Mario, Zelda, Splatoon, Smash Bros, Kirby, Animal Crossing, Metroid, F-Zero, Pikmin, Star Fox, or any of Nintendo's other myriad projects, there is something for every mood and situation. But, they're all united by a few underlying principles: creativity, ambition, and above all else, fun.
That unification is never as tangible as with Smash Bros., which has moved tens of millions of games on the back of its master-class combination of these brilliant experiences. The gameplay of Super Smash Bros. is something special, but it is nothing without the rich worlds that Sakurai and his team weave together to create the backbone of the series. And, as I touched on at the top, Ultimate takes this concept and pushes it to the extreme. As Reggie stated during Geoff Keighly's execrable Game Awards presentation this year, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is the most ambitious crossover in entertainment history. Chew on that, Marvel. Joking aside though, I cannot help but agree with this sentiment, as nearly 80 fighters and 1,300 spirits are intermingled in Ultimate.
Seeing all these characters placed side by side just reaffirms the conceptual Nintendo universe in my mind, reaffirms my love and debt of gratitude for all these characters that have always been beside me throughout my life. Whenever I've wanted a world to get lost in, they've been there, and they're literally right here in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. And this is no lazy cross-over. Not to insinuate that the past games ever were, but to merely stress and highlight the lengths to which Sakurai and his team went to give life and attention to each and every pocket of Nintendo's history. I'm not just talking the game's cast of fighters either, which pulls signature characteristics and attacks from every combatant's history to create the Spark Notes version of their sometimes decades-long existence. No, I'm also talking about the more than one thousand spirits in the game which have been paid homage to in the most clever of ways. Whether a Poppy Bros. Jr. spirit was on the line, and I found myself fighting three blue Toon Links who only threw bombs, or a Joan spirit resulting in a confrontation with Peach and a Villager who only tosses turnips, Sakurai stretches his game to the max to pay tribute to even the smallest of Nintendo characters.
That is why I love Nintendo, boxed neatly in one Switch game, written in ones and zeroes and forged by a team of developers who just get it. I'll be playing Super Smash Bros. Ultimate for years to come, not only because it is such a fun, well designed fighting game, but because it is a shoebox full of mementos that evokes all the memories I have with all these respective Nintendo games and franchises that I hold near and dear. Sakurai and his team over at Sora really outdid themselves with Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and I hope they all get some much deserved time to rest and refocus their creative energy on a new endeavor. In the meantime, I've got some spirits to collect.
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