New Characters, Stages, and Modes Revealed for Super Smash Bros Ultimate

Super Smash Bros Ultimate is one of the most anticipated Switch games, and has been showing off tons of new features and characters, but today there was a 27 minute livestream showing tons of new things, but what exactly was shown off?

The first thing shown off was Luigi investigating a much darker mansion than normal, and he was actually killed by Death itself, and who better to avenge him but Simon Belmont. He’s joined Smash with his iconic whip, and sub weapons in tow. This means he’s got his ax, cross, holy water, and can drop kick into enemies. But joining him is his echo fighter, Richter Belmont, and in the vain of echo fighters, he has roughly the same move set. Their final smash is also called the Grand Cross, where the enemies get trapped in a large coffin, which is berated by glowing crosses. The Castlevania stage is no other than Dracula’s castle, and he can be fought in this stage, alongside many other classic enemies like Mummies and Zombies. Even further than that, Alucard will be available as an assist trophy. Alucard will be able to fly around as a bat, turn into mist to avoid attacks, and fight with his sword, with his moves being very reminiscent of his Symphony of the Night attacks.

On the topic of echo fighters, two more were introduced. First was Chrom, who seems to be an echo of not only Marth, but Ike as well. After that we see another assist trophy turned fighter, Dark Samus. She seems to be like a much more powerful Samus. It was also announced that all fighters will be revealed before the game is released, and that there are more characters to be announced.

For stages, there are many returning favorites like Great Bay and Pokemon Stadium. There are also new stages like New Donk City Hall. And while stages have been updated graphically, the N64 stages have been preserved to have a nostalgic feel. When looking at the amount of stages, Ultimate has the largest count of stages with 103. But if you count Omega, Battlefield, and Big Battlefield forms, there are over 300 stages. All stages will be playable as soon as you get the game. There’s also an option to turn off stage hazards if you want. There’s another new feature called stage morph, which, when turned on, has the current stage change into a different stage, after you select the two stages from the menu.

When it comes to music, you can now change the likelihood of songs from the game series to play. But when you look at the amount of songs, there are roughly 900 in total, which equates to over 28 hours of music.

Rules are an important in fighting games, and Ultimate has a way were you can set your own rules, and then instantly select them. There’s also the returning stamina mode, which functions like a regular fighting game. Stage selection has also come before fighter selection, or have stages be determined by the last battle’s loser. And in sudden death mode, the edges of the screen close in on the fighters. There’s now also an option for chargeable final smashes that will build up throughout the battle, but the charged final smash is weaker than normal.

Now there are new battle modes, the first being Squad Strike. It can be 3 on 3 or 5 on 5. This can be either two players, or two teams against each other. There’s also Tourney mode, which has the computer set up a tournament with up to 32 players. Smashdown changes things up, and doesn’t allow fighters used in previous battles to be used again. Training mode has a special new stage, and shows how far enemies will go when hit. There’s also the returning Classic mode which has you fighting against tons of enemies.

There are also dozens of new items, like the Banana Gun, Death’s Scythe, and the Ramblin’ Evil Mushroom. There are also new Pokemon being added, such as Alolan Exeggutor, Abra, and Mimikyu. There are also some Pokemon with both regular and Alolan forms, like Vulpix. There’s also Ditto, who copies the person who released him and fights alongside him. And finally, new assist trophies have been shown. These trophies can fight alongside you like Zero and Gray Fox, attack other players like Shovel Knight and Kapp’n, or ones that affect the stage, like Majora’s Mask’s moon or Nikki. You can also fight Rathalos as a boss or an assist trophy, the first character in the series to do both.

As we head towards the end we see the end, and see a mysterious option that is blocked out. This is most likely a single player mode.

At the very end of the trailer, we see King K. Rool make his appearance by killing King Dedede. We see his attacks are a mix of his cannon gun, his stomach, and his claws. He also has his iconic crown throw from the Donkey Kong Country games. His final smash has him using his island from Donkey Kong 64 to shoot a laser at Donkey Kong’s island with the enemy trapped inside.

You will be able to play Super Smash Bros Ultimate on December 7th.