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Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is a 2018 crossover fighting game developed by Bandai Namco Studios and Sora Ltd., and published by Nintendo for its Switch console. It is the fifth installment in the Super Smash Bros. series created by Masahiro Sakurai and the sequel to 2014's Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U.

Gameplay
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is a fighting game in which players use different attacks to weaken their opponents and knock them out of an arena. Each fighter's status is tracked by a percentage meter, starting at 0% and increasing as they take damage. The higher the percent meter, the more vulnerable they are to specific attacks that can knock them into the air and potentially off the screen. In most modes, players are given a fixed number of lives at the start of a match, and when knocked off-screen, they lose one life and respawn shortly thereafter if they still have at least one life remaining. If the player has lost all their lives, they are out of the match. Prior to a match players have the ability to adjust the match rules, including the time length, lives, and knock-down conditions for matches, saving these as presets for future matches.

The game has a number of multiplayer game modes: its base "versus" mode where up to eight opponents, either human or computer-controlled, can battle against each other. Ultimate introduces several new modes: a Tourney mode for up to 32 players, creating the elimination playoff brackets for the players; a Smashdown mode where once a character has been selected and used in a round, the character no longer becomes available to play; and a Squad Strike mode where two players or teams use a set of either three of five selected fighters; when one fighter is eliminated, the next fighter for that side is brought into play. The game also includes single player modes for practice and training, as well as a return of its Classic single player campaign, where the player is given a unique set of battles to complete specific for each playable character in the game.

A new game mechanic called "Spirits" replaces the collectible trophies from previous games. Players can assign a Spirit character, one of hundreds of various characters from the crossover series, to their fighter to add their power to the primary fighter, such as attack strength or special abilities. Spirits themselves can have support Spirits to boost their own values. Spirits are collected by winning Spirit battles against the target Spirit, with rules and conditions inspired by the Spirit character. Winning matches against component opponents or other human fighters in Spirit modes helps to raise the level of the equipped Spirits, and several additional facilities exist to dismiss Spirit and gain their core essence to transfer to another Spirit among other steps. Spirits include characters like Tails from Sonic the Hedgehog, Dr. Wily from Mega Man, and Waddle Dee from Kirby.

The Spirits mechanic is prominent in the single-player campaign, World of Light, which replaces the Subspace Emissary from Brawl (2008). In its story, an evil entity, Galeem, destroys the universe with beams of light and places the playable characters under his imprisonment. However, Kirby manages to escape. The player must explore the ruined world to rescue captured fighters and spirits by completing marked challenges. The player can use regained allies and spirits to overcome certain challenges on the map and eventually defeat Galeem. However, after Galeem is defeated, a new enemy, Dharkon takes over with darkness and, after being defeated, wages war against Galeem, and the player must destroy both of them. If just Galeem is defeated, Dharkon engulfs the world in darkness, but if just Dharkon is defeated, then Galeem destroys the universe with light. If the player defeats both of them at once, the spirits are free from the villains' control and return to their homes.

New power-up items based on the included franchise properties, which trigger unique effects to some or all players, have been added atop previous items, such as a Launch Star from Super Mario Galaxy that propels those passing through it to a different area of the field. Ultimate includes both Assist Trophies and Poké Balls power-ups, which, when activated by a player, briefly summon non-playable characters to aid in battle. These characters will include those previously featured in past games and additional new characters, such as Konami's Bomberman, the Rathalos from Capcom's Monster Hunter series, and Yacht Club Games' Shovel Knight.

In setting up a match, players have the option to select a stage to fight on, or let the game randomly pick a stage from approximately 103 that are available. Each stage, typically based on the included franchises, has a unique configuration of platforms and environmental hazards, along with themed background music. Ultimate will include new stages, such as Moray Towers from Splatoon, in addition to returning ones. Each stage can be customizable by switching off random elements known as stage hazards. Each stage will also include an Omega form where the game field is reduced to a simple single platform, similar to the stage Final Destination, or can also be used in a standard Battlefield layout, a standard three-platform field featured in previous Smash Bros. games but using the visuals and musics from the stage. A new feature in Ultimate is a Stage Morph option, allowing players to select two stages prior to a match; during the match, the stages will swap at fixed or random intervals to mix up the match. Ultimate features over 800 music tracks from the various games it sources; players can customize the game so that matches on battlefields taken from a specific game series can use any track associated with that game series. Ultimate also enables players to use the Switch unit like a music player to listen to any playlist of the tracks while on the go.

The game supports numerous controllers, including the GameCube controller through the GameCube Adapter for Wii U. Ultimate also supports existing Amiibo figures for any of the fighters to provide unique abilities when used with the Joy-Con and Pro Controller NFC sensors. New Amiibo figurines have been introduced alongside the game for characters that did not appear in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS/Wii U. Following release, a mobile app, "Smash World", was released that allows players to check their game statistics, and to share images and videos captured from the game to social media.

Characters
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, as with other games in the Super Smash Bros. series, features a crossover cast of fighters from several different Nintendo franchises—such as the Mario and Metroid series—as well as fighters from series by third-party developers such as Sega, Konami, Capcom, Bandai Namco Entertainment and Square Enix. Ultimate includes every character from previous Super Smash Bros. titles, including those offered through downloadable content in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U. Some characters are classified as "Echo Fighters", each possessing similar attributes and basic movesets to another character, albeit with slight differences in animations and abilities (e.g. Lucina is classified as Marth's Echo Fighter). Within Ultimate, these will be unique characters selectable within the roster.

Each character has a unique set of moves and abilities, as well as a powerful Final Smash attack that often affects all opponents on the field, triggered by activating a Smash Ball power-up that appears on the field. All characters have been updated with new moves and abilities, with many characters rebalanced based on feedback from players of past games. Some characters with abilities that require a charging-up or cooldown period are given visible meters on their on-screen character icons for players to track the status of these abilities; for example, the icon for Final Fantasy's Cloud shows his progress to a special ability, his "Limit Break". Players do not have access to all characters on starting the game and must unlock them by completing various challenges; Nintendo anticipated making it easier for players to unlock all of the game's characters compared to previous games.

Select characters will have alternate variations that can be selected or randomly picked as costumes, such as Bowser Jr. who has a selectable appearance to be any of the other Koopalings, but otherwise have the same set of powers and abilities. Several of the characters have received updates to their outfits, such as Mario having Cappy from Super Mario Odyssey accompanying him and Link wearing his outfit from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

Newcomers to the series include the Inklings from Splatoon, Ridley from the Metroid series, Simon Belmont from the Castlevania series, King K. Rool from the Donkey Kong series, Isabelle from the Animal Crossing series, and the Pokémon Incineroar. New Echo Fighters include Princess Daisy from the Mario series, Chrom from Fire Emblem Awakening, Dark Samus from the Metroid Prime series, Richter Belmont from the Castlevania series, and Ken Masters from Street Fighter. The total base roster of playable characters in Ultimate is 74, the highest number of playable characters in any Super Smash Bros. game. Due to the large number of returning fighters, Nintendo cautioned players that Ultimate may not feature as many newcomers to the roster compared to the previous games in the series.

Six additional characters are planned to be added to the game via downloadable content (DLC) following its launch. The first of these characters, Piranha Plant from the Mario series, was released on January 29, 2019, and made available for free to those who purchased and registered the game with a My Nintendo account before the end of that month. The other five characters will each come with an additional stage and music, and can either be purchased individually or as part of the Fighter's Pass. The first announced paid DLC fighter was Joker, the protagonist of Atlus' role-playing game Persona 5 (2016), who was released in April 2019.

Development

 * https://smashboards.com/threads/newcomer-dlc-speculation-discussion.453424/page-195#post-23349070