Back in March, Nintendo teased a new game in its Super Smash Bros. series slated for a release in 2018, and it was already known the company would be talking more about the game at E3. The title, now named Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, ended up taking up most of the length of the presentation, and it promises to be the best title ever in the series.
For starters, the Switch game includes the highest number of characters of any entry in the franchise, bringing together every character that"s ever been present in past entries, even those that were removed in later entries, such Wolf from the Star Fox franchise or Young Link from The Legend of Zelda. Plus, the game introduces two new characters: Inkling from the more recent Splatoon franchise and Ridley, the main antagonist of games in the Metroid series. Characters previously released as paid downloadable content are also included in the game.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate focuses on refining nearly every aspect of the gameplay. Final smash attacks have been reworked for some of the characters, such as Sonic, Zelda, and Pac-Man, and on the whole, they"ve been given more straight-to-the-point animations, which bring players back to the fight more quickly.
New indicators have also been added for certain characters, making it easier to understand what"s happening. For instance, when the Villager character captures an item, an icon will show up next to his picture at the bottom of the screen, so that the player knows what item has been captured and can plan accordingly.
Almost every character has seen changes in the way they"re used, from different sets of attacks to different designs, more customization options and other adjustments to improve the pace of the game, including a more natural progression system for obtaining new characters. The company spent a great deal of time addressing all of the changes, a lot of which may seem minor. If you"re interested, you can watch the video above for a thorough explanation of almost every change made to the game.
The last entry in the series was one of the first to use Nintendo"s amiibo figures, and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate supports all the amiibo from the existing Super Smash Bros. collection, as well as amiibo from other collections, provided they represent characters that are included in the game. Also returning from the previous game in the series is the ability to play with up to eight characters on the screen.
Lastly, Nintendo announced the release date for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. As promised, the game will still be coming in 2018, just in time for the holiday season. The release date is December 7, and you can pre-order it now through the official website.