The gaming world is abuzz at the announcements in the recent Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Direct, as five new characters were revealed to be coming to the game. We will be seeing fan favorites like Chrom, Dark Samus, King K. Rool, Richter Belmont, and Simon Belmont joining the game when it is released this December.

The Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Direct was more than just a couple of character reveals, as a ton of new announcements were made that are sure to please both the casual and hardcore fans of the series. The Direct also ended on a mysterious note, suggesting that some huge addition is coming to the game.

Stages

New Super Smash Bros. Ultimate stages have been shown off in the period of time between E3 and the latest Direct, so Sakurai made sure to give them proper introductions.

The addition of two Castlevania characters also means that Dracula's Castle is being added to the game. Dracula's Castle seems to contain the most amount of stage bosses in the game, with the likes of Carmilla, Death, and Dracula appearing to fight the player.

The Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Direct also showed off other stages like the Pokémon Stadium, the Garden of Hope from Pikmin, Brinstar Depths from Metroid, the Summit from Ice Climbers, the Unova Pokémon League, Magicant from EarthBound, Gamer from WarioWare, and the latest version of Final Destination.

New Donk City Hall from Super Mario Odyssey will also receive a stage, with Pauline and her band singing "Jump Up, Super Star" in the background.

One of the big changes to the game involves putting the stage select screen before the character select screen, meaning that players can no longer choose a stage based on whether it suits their character. All of the stages can also now be used for 8-player battles.

There is now an option called Stage Morph, which can change the stage to a different one during the match.

You now have the option to turn off stage hazards, which means being able to play on stages without having to worry about the likes of the Yellow Devil from ruining your day.

The current total stage count is 103, which is almost double the number of stages that appeared in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U. If you count the Battlefield & Omega variants, then there are actually over 300 stages in the game.

Music

One of the returning features from Super Smash Bros. for Wii U is the one that allows you to determine the likelihood of a specific song being played whenever you play on certain stages. This feature has now been upgraded so that each stage shares all of the songs from the series that it belongs to.

The amount of music contained within Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is staggering, with over 900 tracks being included in the game.

Those who take their Nintendo Switch on the go can also listen to the music from Super Smash Bros. Ultimate's sound test, turning the game into an MP3 player.

 

New Assists & Poké Ball Summons

The reveal of new Assist Trophies is always bittersweet, as it means that certain characters won't be playable in the game. We have already experienced the feeling of loss associated with losing Waluigi to the Assist Trophies and several more beloved characters are now relegated to being summons.

Alucard from Castlevania and Shovel Knight are the two biggest upsets, especially considering how popular Shovel Knight was on the previous ballot.

The Assist Trophy summons also include Zero from Mega Man, Knuckles from Sonic the Hedgehog, Krystal from Star Fox, a Klaptrap from Donkey Kong Country, Kapp'n from Animal Crossing, Chef Kawasaki from Kirby, Gray Fox from Metal Gear Solid, Nikki from Swapnote, and the Moon from The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask.

There is also a new Assist Trophy who is also a stage boss: Rathalos from the Monster Hunter series will act as both an ally and an enemy to the player.

There are also several new Poké Ball summons, with Alolan Exeggutor, Abra, Solgaleo, Lunala, Mimikyu, Pyukumuku, Alolan Vulpix, Vulpix, and Marshadow being shown off during the Direct.

The most interesting new Poké Ball summon is Ditto, as it can copy another player and fight them. Ditto was meant to appear in Super Smash Bros. Melee and can still be summoned using the debug menu, but his ability couldn't be implemented into the game. It's nice to see that Ditto is finally appearing in the series.

 

Rules

The most important additions to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate may come in the form of new rules, at least for the hardcore fans of the series.

It seems that a lot of attention has been given to making it easy to run Super Smash Bros. Ultimate at pro gaming events.

You can now easily create your own rule presets and use them before each match. You can also set it so that the loser gets to pick the next stage in a battle, which is a common rule seen in almost every Smash Bros. tournament.

One of the biggest new additions to the game is adding a chargeable meter for Final Smashes, instead of needing to rely on the Smash Ball. These Final Smashes are a lot weaker, as they will be used a lot more frequently in battle.

There is a new mode called Squad Strike, which allows you and your opponent to create a team of fighters and use them one after the other in a single battle. You can also set it so that each team member is controlled by a different player.

The Tournament Mode from Super Smash Bros. for Wii U has also returned, which will automatically set up an appropriate tournament bracket, making it a lot easier to set up local tourneys.

There is also a new mode called Smashdown, where a character cannot be selected again after it is used in battle. This means that the players will have a dwindling supply of characters to choose from as the match progresses.

 

The Mysterious "Censored" Mode

Masahiro Sakurai showed us the main menu of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, which will hopefully curb any more fake leaks showing menus in the future.

The most intriguing part of this segment was a censored part of the menu, which Sakurai promised will be revealed at a later date.

The most common guess seems that it will be a brand new story mode or a return of the Subspace Emissary. It's impossible to tell right now and with so many crazy announcements being made for the game, you can't really say for sure one way or another.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is gearing up to be the biggest game in the series and may even eclipse Super Mario Odyssey and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild as the best games on the Nintendo Switch. It seems that Sakurai and his team have been listening closely to the fan requests made over the years, as Super Smash Bros. Ultimate looks it is going to fulfill the desires of everyone... except for maybe the people who want Shrek in the game.