Super Smash Bros. Ultimate facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Super Smash Bros. Ultimate |
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Box art, showcasing some of the game's large playable roster
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| Developer(s) |
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| Publisher(s) | Nintendo |
| Director(s) | Masahiro Sakurai |
| Producer(s) |
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| Programmer(s) | Tetsuya Otaguro |
| Artist(s) | Yusuke Nakano |
| Composer(s) | Hideki Sakamoto |
| Series | Super Smash Bros. |
| Platform(s) | Nintendo Switch |
| Release date(s) | December 7, 2018 |
| Genre(s) | Fighting |
| Mode(s) | Single-player, multiplayer |
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is an exciting fighting game released in 2018 for the Nintendo Switch. It was made by Bandai Namco Studios and Sora Ltd. and published by Nintendo. This game is the fifth one in the popular Super Smash Bros. series.
In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, players pick from a huge list of characters. They use special attacks to make their opponents weaker and knock them off the screen. The game has many different ways to play, including a story mode for one player and fun battles for many players. Ultimate has 89 playable characters, which is amazing! It includes every character from past Super Smash Bros. games, plus new ones. These characters come from Nintendo games and other famous video game series.
The idea for the game started in 2015. Full development began after the previous game's extra content was finished. Masahiro Sakurai, the series creator, led the project again. His main goal was to include every character from the series, even though it was a big challenge. Many well-known video game musicians helped create the game's music. The main song is called "Lifelight."
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate was first shown in March 2018. It was officially revealed at E3 2018 in June. The game was released on December 7, 2018. It received great reviews from critics who loved its improved gameplay and huge amount of content. However, some people found the online mode had issues. Ultimate is often called one of the best games on the Switch and one of the greatest video games ever. It's also the best-selling fighting game in history, with over 36 million copies sold by March 2025.
Contents
Gameplay Basics
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is a special kind of fighting game called a platform fighter. Up to eight players can battle each other. Characters from Nintendo games and other series fight to knock their opponents off the stage.
When a character takes damage, a percentage meter goes up. The higher the percentage, the easier it is to launch them off the screen. There are three main ways to win a battle:
- Timed: Players try to get the most KOs (knockouts) before time runs out.
- Stock: Each player or team has a set number of lives. The last player or team standing wins.
- Stamina: Instead of a percentage, characters have health points. Players win by reducing their opponent's health to zero.
You can change the rules to fit how you like to play. You can even save your favorite rule sets!
Battle Items and Stages
Players can choose to have different items appear during battles. These items can give you an advantage. For example, Pokémon can be summoned from Poké Balls to help you. Assist Trophies call other characters to join the fight.
Each character also has a powerful move called a Final Smash. You can use it by grabbing a Smash Ball or by filling up a special meter. The game has 103 different stages to fight on. Many stages have moving parts or hazards that you can turn on or off. You can also make stages simpler with "Battlefield" or "Omega" forms. A cool new feature called Stage Morph lets you pick two stages that the game will switch between during a match.
New Ways to Play
Ultimate brings back popular modes like Classic, Special Smash, and Home-Run Contest. It also adds new ones:
- Smashdown: Once you play a character, you can't use them again in the next battle.
- Squad Strike: Players battle in teams using multiple characters.
- Tourney: This mode lets up to 32 players compete in a tournament bracket.
Spirits Mode
A new feature in Ultimate is the Spirits mechanic. Spirits are like special power-ups based on characters from different games. You can attach Spirits to your fighter to give them unique abilities.
You mainly get Spirits by winning "Spirit Battles." These battles are designed to represent the character the Spirit depicts. For example, to get the Rayquaza Spirit, you might fight a large Ridley character with wind effects, because Rayquaza is a flying dragon Pokémon. You need to choose your Spirits carefully to match the battle's challenges. Spirits can also level up to become stronger or be used to create new Spirits.
World of Light Story
Ultimate has a story mode called "World of Light." It uses the Spirits mechanic in a big way. The story starts with an evil being named Galeem destroying the Smash Bros. world. Almost all the fighters are captured, except for Kirby. Kirby escapes and explores the new world Galeem created.
Your goal is to rescue the captured fighters and Spirits. You do this by winning Spirit Battles on the map. As you rescue allies and Spirits, you become stronger and can overcome more challenges. After you defeat Galeem, a new enemy named Dharkon appears. To truly win, you must defeat both Galeem and Dharkon.
Other Cool Features
The game supports playing with friends locally, wirelessly with other Switches, and online. You can earn tags by playing online, which you can trade for in-game money. This money lets you buy new Spirits, music, and costumes for your Mii Fighters.
Ultimate works with different controllers, including Joy-Cons, the Nintendo Switch Pro Controller, and even GameCube controllers. You can also use amiibo figures to create AI-controlled Figure Players. These Figure Players can learn and get stronger as you train them.
The game has over 900 music tracks! You can even listen to them outside the game when your Switch is in handheld mode. An update in April 2019 added a Stage Builder, letting players create and share their own custom stages.
Playable Characters
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has a huge cast of fighters from many different video game series. This includes characters from Nintendo games and from other companies like Konami, Sega, Capcom, and Square Enix.
The main game launched with 74 playable fighters. This includes all 63 characters from previous Smash Bros. games and 11 new ones. Some of the newcomers are the Inklings from Splatoon, Princess Daisy from Mario, and Ridley from Metroid. When you first start the game, you only have access to the original eight characters from the very first Super Smash Bros. game. You unlock the rest by playing through Classic mode, World of Light, or by fighting a certain number of battles.
Some characters are called "Echo Fighters." They have similar moves to other characters but look different and have unique animations. For example, Dark Samus is an Echo Fighter of Samus. Many returning characters also got updated looks, like Link from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
New fighters were added to the game after it launched through extra content called downloadable content (DLC). The first DLC character was Piranha Plant from the Mario series. More fighters were released in two "Fighters Pass" bundles.
The first Fighters Pass included five characters:
- Joker from Persona 5
- The Hero from the Dragon Quest series
- Banjo & Kazooie from the Banjo-Kazooie series
- Terry Bogard from the Fatal Fury series
- Byleth from Fire Emblem: Three Houses
The second Fighters Pass, called Fighters Pass Volume 2, added six more characters. This was the final planned content for Ultimate. These characters included:
- Min Min from ARMS
- Steve from Minecraft
- Sephiroth from Final Fantasy VII
- Pyra and Mythra from Xenoblade Chronicles 2
- Kazuya Mishima from Tekken
- Sora from the Kingdom Hearts series, who was the very last fighter added in October 2021.
Game Development
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate was created by Bandai Namco Studios and Sora Ltd.. These are the same studios that made the previous Super Smash Bros. games for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U. Masahiro Sakurai was the director again. Unlike past games, the team didn't have to start from scratch, which helped them work faster.
The plan for the game began in December 2015. It was a special request from former Nintendo president Satoru Iwata before he passed away. Sakurai wanted to make the best game possible to honor him. His big goal was to include every character from previous games. This was a huge challenge because of how complex it was to develop and get permission for all the characters. The return of the Bandai Namco and Sora teams made this goal easier to achieve.
Sakurai also wanted to make the game faster and adjust character abilities. He knew Ultimate was a very important game for Nintendo and its dedicated fans. He felt it was necessary to include all past characters to make fans happy. He believed this would be the only Smash game to have such a complete roster. He said the effort to include all characters, music, and stages was "unprecedented."
The team built Ultimate with new parts and content. They greatly improved the lighting and textures from the Wii U version. The "World of Light" story mode was inspired by a similar mode in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. The team created the Spirits mechanic because they wanted a fun single-player mode but didn't have enough resources to create new character models for every single character. This allowed them to use many different characters and items in a new way.
Music in the Game
Like other games in the series, Ultimate features music from many famous video game composers. There are over 1,000 music tracks in total! A new feature in Ultimate is that music tracks are linked to game series instead of just individual stages. You can also create your own music playlists to listen to outside the game. Hideki Sakamoto composed the main theme, "Lifelight."
Extra Downloadable Content
Nintendo planned to add new fighters through DLC. Unlike the previous game, Nintendo chose which characters to add. They also released extra costumes for Mii Fighters as paid DLC.
The first announced DLC fighter was Joker. Sakurai said that even though characters like Joker weren't usually linked with Nintendo, they were added because they brought "a whole different level of fun." Piranha Plant was chosen as a DLC character to add more variety to the roster.
The development of the second Fighters Pass was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The team had to work from home. The inclusion of Steve from Minecraft required the team to change every stage in the game to fit his unique moves. Sakurai had wanted to include Sora from Kingdom Hearts because he was the most requested fighter in a fan vote for the previous Smash Bros. game. It was difficult to get permission from Disney and Square Enix, but negotiations eventually worked out. Sora was the final fighter added to the game.
Game Release
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On March 8, 2018, Nintendo announced a new Super Smash Bros. game for the Nintendo Switch. The teaser showed characters like Mario, Link, and the Inklings from Splatoon. The Inklings were new to the Smash Bros. series. At E3 2018 in June, Nintendo revealed the game's title as Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. They announced it would be released on December 7, 2018. The E3 presentation showed many changes to the gameplay. It also confirmed that every playable character from past games would return, along with new ones like the Inklings and Ridley.
Demo versions of the game were available to play at E3 and at San Diego Comic-Con. IGN nominated Ultimate for its "Best Game of E3 2018" award. The game won "Best Nintendo Switch Game" from both IGN and Gamescom. Nintendo held two more online presentations in 2018 to reveal new characters, stages, and game modes.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate was released worldwide on December 7, 2018. Besides the regular game, special editions were also released. These included a Super Smash Bros.-themed Nintendo Switch Pro Controller or special Joy-Con controllers and a themed Switch console. A GameCube controller with the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate logo was also released.
Esports and Tournaments
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is a very popular game in Esports, which are organized video game competitions.
EVO 2019, a major fighting game tournament, featured Ultimate as one of its main events. It was the biggest Smash Bros. tournament ever, with over 3,500 players. It also set a new record for viewers watching online.
In 2020, the Smash World Tour was announced. It planned to have tournaments for both Super Smash Bros. Melee and Ultimate with a big prize pool. However, the COVID-19 pandemic caused many of the events to be postponed or canceled. The Smash World Tour successfully returned in 2021 with online and offline events. In 2022, an official tournament series called the Panda Cup was introduced. However, the Smash World Tour 2022 and the Panda Cup were later canceled due to licensing issues with Nintendo.
See also
In Spanish: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate para niños
