User blog:ZeoSpark/The Final Ultimate Direct Review

Hello! ZeoSpark here to discuss about the final Nintendo Direct that aired yesterday! With Ultimate just around the corner, did our beloved hero Sakurai closed this out with a bang? Or was it one huge dud? Spoiler alert, it's right in between. Well, better get right into it because there is a lot to go over.

First off was Ken Masters and Inceroar reveal trailer and I have to say that opening fighting sequence with Ken vs. Little Mac then Ken vs. Inceroar was pretty cool. Ken being in Ultimate is no surprise since he's the perfect Echo Fighter for Ryu but Inceroar was a surprise to me. Now, before anyone asks, I have not seen the "Grinch Leak." I never try to look at any leaks as I want to be 100% surprised when I'm watching a character reveal. Especially since I heard a lot of people were disappointed at characters not being in there due to believing the leak. Anyway, Ken and Inceroar are such cool characters. Ken has his free spirit personality and a lot of flashier attacks than Ryu which is perfect considering despite being best friends, they're personalities are very similar. Inceroar has a pro wrestling theme which is suiting as well considering it's known as the Heel Pokemon (meaning it supposed to play the bad guy but is nice underneath). Ken and Inceroar are the last two main characters added to Ultimate and their spot is well deserved. The trailer may not be as good as the one for Simon and Ritcher but it was still epic otherwise. Also, remember how back in the "Everyone is Here!" Direct where Sakurai said that the starting roster could be as small as the original Super Smash Bros. gang? Well, he was NOT kidding! You start off with just the 8 starting characters from Smash 64 meaning it could take a long time to unlock everyone. Sure it's definitely fun to unlock characters I main as (I main as Fox and Yoshi but Lucario, Wario, and Peach are high on my list as well) but I was thinking since all stages are unlocked from the start, you could unlock a character by playing on their stage a certain number of times. Like, playing on the Gamer stage 5 times could get me Wario. I don't mind too much, I'm up for the challenge!

Next up is that mysterious mode Sakurai himself said on the last Direct that he was going to start talking about. Is it Event Mode? Nope. Is it Smash Run? Nah. Is it Adventure Mode finally? Negative! It's a new unique mode called "Spirits." Now, this is where things get a bit, innovative. Spirits is basically taking the concept of Stickers from Brawl and combining with the idea of the amiibos and a dash of customs. You can take these spirits and level them up to make yourself stronger. The Spirits can help you in battle and can even level up to stronger ones (I saw one with Dixie Kong leveling up to her and Kiddy Kong. RIP Dixie...). I'll admit, this confused me like crazy but it's something different. I'll definitely want to level up some of my favorite characters from different series like Blooper from the Mario series of course or even a Gordo from the Kirby series. It's something new to try out but at least that awful Smash Tour mode is gone.

Alright, what was next was some online stuff. I'm not going to get too much into this as I don't really smash online that much but Sakurai made some good tweaks to make online mode more functional. This was mainly making it possible to play other matches while you're waiting for a match, co-op mode, and even limiting it to different countries. That means if you live in the USA like me, you'll only be playing against others from the USA. That's pretty cool but it would still be cool competing against others in Japan or other places. There is also this phone app thing that I didn't care about, I mean, why voice chat over the phone where it's much easier to do on Discord? That whole online thing was the first big "meh" moment for me. The Spirits was one too but at least it's a very unique feature to Ultimate.

Oh boy, here we go. Next are the Assist Trophies and... Shadow is still one... Not only that, he was the first out of the bunch revealed which is sorta a kick in the pants. It's like Sakurai just wanted to get him out of the way lol. Anyway, others include that girl from Fatal Frame. I didn't know at first until I saw that camera. Fatal Frame is a very scary survivor horror game that involves that girl taking down spirits with her camera. It's clear Ultimate isn't meant for the younger age group because, wow, a horror game rep as an assist trophy. Issac was next and oof. That's another punch in the gut toward others that really wanted him in (since he was absent in SSB4) and the Black Knight from Path of Radiance. Next is Dr. Wily! Mega Man's arch-nemesis from the classic series. I just want to point out that awesome remix theme of We're the Robots from Mega Man 9. That's my favorite track from that game and it really takes me back to the Wii days hearing it. Look it up it's a real good listen! Anyway, the other Assist Trophies were mehs to me except for my man Guile from Street Fighter and Tiki who is definitely my favorite character from Fire Emblem Awakening next to Chrom and Henry. Spring Man was another character others say may be in Ultimate but he's an assist trophy. Unlike with Shadow and Issac, me and other people aren't too disappointed he didn't make it. Arms was one of those games Nintendo tried to make a big deal about but people could never get into it. I mean all you're doing is just punching all day. You'll have more fun playing Pokken. Man, 59 Assist Trophies and even Sakurai pointed out that's more than the Pokemon! Also you can KO your own Assist Trophy so others won't take the point. I don't wanna take out Tiki if she's close to getting KO'ed...

Ahem! Back to topic. Now this is where I felt the Direct admittedly got boring when Sakurai was explaining these little extra things. Like the Help menu, challenges, etc. Nothing too exciting. After that were the Miis but, again, not really too exciting. There were some costumes here and there but nothing too exciting since I don't bother with the Miis at all. However, Sakurai announced that DLC will be a thing as he is 100% done with the main characters. This is cool as characters such as Banjo/Kazooie, Geno, and Bandana Dee still have a shot in Ultimate. The price is around the $6 range for a single pack (which includes one new character, one new stage, and some music). That means each one could be a unique character! We'll see! You can also get the $24.99 pack which includes everything which is a little cheaper. There is also a Rex Mii outfit that comes with it. Very disappointed he wasn't in but Sakurai himself said he would've added Rex but Ultimate was already in development even before Xenoblade Chronicles 2 was announced. That's understandable as that's a valid reason. Sakurai also mentioned a limited time offer on something and we cut to a shot of Luigi and some Yoshi's dazed. Mario, looking pretty miffed, heads toward something which could be the source. And he sees a... Piranha Plant? Okay? Is it a stage hazard? Another Assist Trophy? Wait! It just attacked Mario! It's a character?! Let me tell you, this both shocked me and made me laugh for a good while. It's attacks consists of other Piranha Plant species moves and even his Final Smash is summoning Petey Piranha and trapping others in his cages (like from Brawl). Piranha Plant is that unexpected character we've been waiting for! Should be interesting to play as lol.

Anyway, that's pretty much it for the final direct... except for the final event! A new adventure mode with full on voice acting! And the heroes have to fight off against a giant intinty with a bunch of Master Hands! But they killed off all of the heroes/anti-heroes/villains (I mean the likes of Wario and Ganondorf were also part of that bunch lol) except Kirby. I'm not gonna lie, I knew Kirby was going to be that one person that rescues everyone again but he is Sakurai's character lol...minor gripe but this new mode is called World of Light. Seems like the Spirits are gonna play a huge role in that but we'll find out for ourselves in a month!

And that's it for the Direct! Like I said, it was one giant meh for me. Sure Ken and Inceniroar's additions are cool and the new World of Light adventure mode is cool but I still have mixed receptions of the Spirits since it seems like a big hassle and we could've had at least all of the original SSB characters to play as instead of just the first 8. Oh well, hopefully World of Light will be a fast way to unlock characters. Anyway, looking forward to the game's release next month! Later!