Super Smash Bros Ultimate is the best game for the Nintendo Switch period. Matter of fact: Smash Ultimate is the greatest Smash game of all time.
Smash Bros Ultimate is the most recent installment in the Smash Bros franchise. It launched for the Nintendo Switch on December 9, 2018, and has since become the fastest selling Nintendo game of all time. So, why has Smash Ultimate sold so quickly? Because it’s amazing.
Let’s touch on a few of the game’s most impressive elements: Smash Ultimate features 74 playable characters, and 103 stages from games like Metroid, F-Zero, Final Fantasy, Megaman, Pacman, Super Mario, Zelda, Fire Emblem, and more. You can play solo, with friends, or online with players from around the world. It also has an adventure mode with tonnes of content—several fights with different conditions, boss fights, and three possible story endings. Since the Switch can be played at home, or taken wherever you travel, you can play Smash anywhere at any time, you can even play it on the plane like I did over the holidays.
I think the best way to play Smash is with a group of friends, and Nintendo really delivered on that aspect by allowing up to eight people to play at one time if everyone plays with the sideways JoyCon controller. If you don’t own a Nintendo Switch, and don’t have $400 lying around, make friends with someone who does and peer pressure them into buying Smash. Playing Smash will strengthen your friendship, then completely ruin it. There’s no better way to find out who your real friends are than by knocking them out with a solid down B attack from Kirby. Or you can all bond by complaining about how annoying it is to die by falling off the side of the stage over, and over, and over, and over.
There’s a dizzying amount of combinations to master in Smash. Each attack can be altered by pointing the movement stick in a different direction, and some attacks can only be used as a follow-up to others. The controls and combinations get further complicated by the large character roster. There’s also a lot of jargon and technique involved, so I won’t delve into the nitty-gritty here.
For the more serious Smash player, there is a vibrant competitive online community and a pro tournament scene. You can play casually online with strangers, or grind your way to the upper echelons of Smash by earning enough Global Smash Power (GSP) to fight in Elite Smash. Pro players like ZeRo, Choctopus, and quak stream their game sessions via Twitch, they also upload montages and guide videos to YouTube regularly with a wide range of characters. If you’re interested in improving your Smash skills, (and pissing off all your friends), I highly recommend checking them out.
Super Smash Bros Ultimate is the best Smash game ever made. I cannot give it high enough praise. If you haven’t already played it, find a way, even if it’s only the demo version at Best Buy.
It’s worth it.
