Reviewed in Canada on September 8, 2023
Great game to play with friends and family. The cover art looks beautiful, especially when you open it, I am fond of how it shows all the characters inside. I like how you can play with maximum 8 people, even though Nintendo only allows you to connect 4 controllers at a time, which is perfect for big families and people with a lot of friends. High resolution on any kind of TV and it runs very smooth. A nice feature is when you enter the game, it plays the intro, it really excites the kids. Picking soundtracks is really fun and really inriches the game experience. I love how there are items in the game that appear and you can choose how consistent the items can appear and also specifically which items can appear. One of my favourite items id the Pokéball because there are all sorts of Pokémon that can appear, and in "training mode", you can pick exactly what Pokémon comes out, which makes for some fun experiments. It never gets boring because there are a bunch of characters you could play with along with many maps from different games. It is nice how all of the characters are from different Nintendo games and some even have multiple characters from one game such as:
-Mario, Luigi, Peach, Daisy, Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, Bowser, Bowser Jr.(&different variations), Wario & R.O.B? (Mario Franchise)
-Pokémon Trainer, Jigglypuff, Greninja, Mewtwo, Lucario, Incineroar, Pichu & Pikachu (Pokemon)
-Link, Toon Link, Young Link, Zelda, Shiek & Ganondorf (Zelda)
-Meta Knight, King Dedede & Kirby (Kirby)
-Roy, Chrom, Marth, Lucina, Robin, Ike, & Corrin (Fire Emblem)
-Samus, Dark Samus, Zero Suit Samus & Ridley (Metroid)
-Isabelle & Villager (Animal Crossing)
-Simon & Richter (Castlevania)
-Falco, Fox & Wolf (Star Fox)
-Pit, Dark Pit & Palutena (Kid Icarus)
-Ryu & Ken (Street Fighter)
It makes the game unique and more interesting. For the CPU's, they are coded very carefully and I like how you can make them hard or easy with level 1-9. It is great how Smash Bros does not let you spam, the CPU continues to learn your moves and tactics. One of the interesting characters I found was Pokemon Trainer, where you can switch from Bulbasaur, Squirtle, and Charizard (I use mostly Charizard) by doing joystick down+b. Also I just fount this out recently, but the L or R button makes the character hold the opponent, and different movements of the joystick result on where that opponent is thrown/slammed. All of the characters match their attacks such as Snake who has all weapon attacks (missiles, rockets, mines, and grenades). Some characters are obviously better than others at certain skills. Here are some examples of the skills that some are better at:
Melee: Short-range combat (punch, kick, body check, slam, etc.)
Strength: Long-range shots (ex: laser blasts, guns, missiles, etc.)
Skills: What your special moves do:
-Just b= standard special move (things like weak blasts, strong blasts, etc.)
-Joystick down+b= unique and different moves- my personal favourite (Things like missiles, a powerful punch, etc.)
-Joystick up+b= air recovery (some damage while going up, some go up and down)
-Joystick left/right+b= side special move (things like slide punch, idk)
How fast you can punch: Some characters can punch/hit several times, some just have one big hit, and some can just punch one time and it is weak. (Ex: Zelda & Little Mac)
Air recovery: How good you can get back on the ground after being blasted into the sky (jump, jump, joystick up+b)
Final smash: There are two ways to obtain this, hitting an Infinity Ball (not a fake one) and charging it up (Final Smash Meter/FS Meter, it apparently has a time limit now)
There are infinite possibilities, whether it is testing out all the items in training, baseball to see how far you can hit the ball with the right joystick, mob smash (with three modes: Century Smash, All-Star Smash, and Cruel Smash), or normal Smash. You can also unlock new characters on the way which is really fun. Story mode or the World of Light is cool too, you can unlock spirits and things like that to actually play in the normal games. I absolutely love how there are statistics at the end of the game, here are all of them:
-KOs (how much people you eliminated, and who they are)
-Falls (how much people eliminated you, and who they are)
-Self-Destructs/SD's (examples are jumping off a cliff, running into the wall, etc)
-Damage Given (how much damage you have inflicted)
-Damage Taken (how much damage has been inflicted on you)
-Damage Recovered (healing)
-Peak Damage (how much damage you are at before you die)
-Launch Distance (how far you have been launched into the air)
-Ground Time (how long you were on the ground)
-Air Time (how long you were in the air)
-Swim Time (how long you were in the water, if possible)
-Hit Percentage (how accurate your hits are)
-Ground Attacks (how much attacks you did on the ground)
-Air Attacks (how much attacks you did in the air)
-Smash Attacks (how much finishing blows you have done- tap the control stick and attack button, a, at the same time)
-Grabs (how many times you grabbed an opponent- L/R)
-Edge Grabs (how many times you grabbed on the edge)
-Projectiles (how much projectiles you have launched)
-Items Grabbed (how much items you have grabbed)
-Max Launch Speed (the maximum speed you have been launched by)
-Max Launcher Speed (the maximum speed you have launched the opponent)
-Longest Drought (how long you spent without attacking)
-Transformation Time (how long you had the effects of transformation objects)
-Final Smashes (how much Final Smashes you have done)
-Team Attacks (how many times you attacked your teammate- there is an option on Team Mode to attack eachother to maybe give them another 3 jumps or hit them to get them back on the stage)
Now I will talk about amiibos and the "paying aspect" of the game, and yes, there is a Part where you can pay in the game. It is completely optional though which is what I love about this game (no pay-to-win ;)). You can buy amiibos or dlc packs to further enhance your battalion of characters if you are getting bored with the old characters. Here are all of the characters you can unlock:
Vol.1:
-Joker (Persona 5)
-Hero (Square Enix)
-Banjo and Kazooie (Banjo and Kazooie)
-Terry (King of Fighters)
-Byleth (Fire Emblem Heroes)
Vol.2:
-Min Min (ARMS)
-Steve and Alex (Minecraft)
-Sephiroth (A bunch of Final Fantasy games)
-Pyra and Mythra (Xenoblade Chronicles 2)
-Kazuya (Tekken)
-Sora (Kingdom Hearts)
Individual:
-Piranha Plant (Mario)
The DLC packs (fighters pass) costs like $25-$32. There are also individual DLC packs to purchase characters individually. You can also get a Fighter's Pack Volume 2, which features six more players, music, and a bonus Mii Swordfighter Ancient Soldier Gear skin? It costs like $30-$38. For each character you buy (if you buy them individually) you get 1 new stage and additional soundtracks from the game. These are, again, completely optional, they are just for enriching your experience and also, you know, showing off.
Overall, Super Smash Bros Ultimate is a great game for kids and I highly recommend it for people ages 10-20 due to fantasy violence.
