History VideoGame / SuperSmashBrosUltimate

** Concerning World of Light, some characters' spirits are way more powerful here than in their home games. For instance, Pauline, who has been a total noncombatant since her debut and is famous for being the first DistressedDamsel Mario saved, is a Legend spirit, the highest rank available (and one of the hardest fights in the game). Another example is Hinawa, who is just [[VideoGame/Mother3 Lucas's]] mother and isn't known for any fighting skills in her original game, and is notably killed in the game's first chapter due to that fact, yet is also ranked as a Legend and puts up a very difficult fight.

** One of Doc Louis's quotes when Little Mac wins a match is "And the winner is... Little Mac! Hahaha!" This quote comes from ''[=3DS=]/Wii U'', where it was said in tandem with the announcer, but ''Ultimate'' changed the announcer's dialogue to "[character name] wins!", leaving Doc without a partner to sync up with.

** Despite the improvement to the AI, they still have issues with stage navigation/awareness and overextension that can lead to self-destructing, which resulted in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMGY23AleHs yet another video]] showcasing every level nine CPU being beaten by the player doing nothing.
** The AI of certain characters are particularly infamous for certain suicidal tendencies:

** Instead of ignoring stage hazards like they usually did in the prior games, the AI goes to the other extreme and is now ultra-cautious of them, where they will try very hard to avoid them, often using their up-specials to get away from them even if nowhere near them, and in the process leaving themselves heavily vulnerable or even outright self-destructing from their recovery moves carrying them offstage.
** In ''World of Light'', setting the AI difficulty to Hard can result in the AI jumping around a lot and end up killing itself by falling off a ledge and being unable to recover.
** At least in Spirit Board, [=AIs=] and Super Launch Stars do not mix very well.
** That thing where you kill a wounded ally Assist Trophy for an extra point? [=AIs=] will do it in Spirit Battles where the points don't matter.
** The [=AI=] can adapt surprisingly well to certain Custom Stages, but a lot of things will trip them up. One obvious problem is them not knowing whether or not a shape of terrain is usable. For example, if there is a square of terrain and an identical square directly on top of it, the [=AI=] will plummet trying to hang on to the lower square, which is blocked by the higher one.

** Dark Samus was a regular trophy in ''Brawl'' and an Assist Trophy in ''3DS/Wii U'' before becoming Samus's Echo Fighter.

** The Spirit for Ness's Dad is represented by a telephone, and [[TheFaceless requires fighting an invisible Snake]]. In addition, the ability for it is [[ParentalAbandonment "Running Start"]].

** In the highest CPU levels, the CPU fighters react to the ''button press'' instead of the player character's movement, so the player character and the AI character move simultaneously and according to the command the player sent. Of course, an actual player wouldn't be able to know this, as players would react to the opponent's movement. This can be justified under PurposelyOverpowered.

** For most of the Challenges and Spirit battles, anything is fair game as long as you stick to the rules. Because most of these involve AI opponents, you can get away with particularly cheesy methods to clear them with far less difficulty than you were expected to have, most notably [[TakingYouWithMe sacrificial KOs]] like Kirbycide.

** Fans noted that Creator/XanderMobus's narration for the overview was reminiscent of All Might in ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia''. [[https://twitter.com/XanderMobusVO/status/1064901015265132544 He didn't exactly deny that it was intentional.]]

** Peach (and Daisy)'s Toads function the exact same in ''Ultimate'' as in previous installments, but now appear more confident. Whereas they looked like they were being used as human shields in prior games, they jump out to protect their Princess instead. They're also now a part of their Princess's throw animation.

-> ''"Everyone is here. And everything...IS...'''ULTIMATE!'''"''

** Sephiroth's Classic Mode route has him take on all of the boss battles (sans Galeem and [[spoiler: Dharkon]]) featured in the game.

The biggest ''Smash Bros.'' game to date, the title features a grand total of 89 [[note]]counting all 3 members of Pokémon Trainer's team[[/note]] fighters in the roster, including [[TheBusCameBack every single character from previous installments]] (including several not seen since ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosMelee'' in 2001), newly christened "[[MovesetClone Echo Fighters]]", and several brand new characters, including the Inklings from the ''VideoGame/{{Splatoon}}'' series and {{Guest Fighter}}s like Simon Belmont from the ''Franchise/{{Castlevania}}'' series.

'''Previews:''' [[https://youtu.be/w3Gt42kVgCw Reveal Trailer,]] [[https://youtu.be/L93H7YC-83o E3 2018 Reveal]], [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fccgHnBQ0YM Last Pre-Launch Direct]] ([[https://youtu.be/WShCN-AYHqA World of Light Trailer]]), [[https://youtu.be/WLu7e8RZoYc Overview Trailer.]]

** Music can be freely chosen before picking a stage, unlike past games where My Music was used to determine what song would play during a match. So now if there’s a particular song you want to fight to, you don’t have to hope that it will get picked by the RNG.

** In Byleth’s reveal trailer, Sothis asks him, "Too many swordsmen, are there?" This is a reference to the grievance some players have regarding the number of fighters who wield swords.

** The start of Byleth’s trailer plays out almost identically to the original scene in Chapter 10 of ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses'', but (presumably for both trailer length and the sake of ''Smash''’s lower age ratings) leaves out Kronya from the scene, and thus the part where Solon [[spoiler:tears out Kronya’s heart]] in order to activate the Zahras spell.

** Downplayed with Sakurai’s comment on the changes to Super Sonic. He references the “You’re Too Slow” taunt, which hadn’t changed for the Japanese version, but was replaced with different quotes for each language in the previous and this game, so those not introduced to Sonic in ''Brawl'' may not understand the reference.

** Fighters possessed by Spirits both look like and act like the characters they’re being possessed by; see MythologyGag for an extensive list of them.

** The Triforce Trio’s designs are not all based on the same game, instead being based on four different games (''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild Breath of the Wild]]'' for Link, ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast A Link to the Past]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkBetweenWorlds A Link Between Worlds]]'' for Zelda, and ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime Ocarina of Time]]'' for Ganondorf).

* {{Nerf}}: In previous games, only a couple Assist Trophies could be KO'd. The majority of them are now susceptible to being damaged and defeated (including some you wouldn’t expect to be vulnerable).

** In the opening cutscene of World of Light, Galeem absorbs his army of Master Hands so that he can shoot his instant-death light beams. You could say that “many hands make light work”.

** One of Sora’s battles in his Classic Mode route has him fighting Cloud inside the Coliseum, which is a MythologyGag to a boss fight in ''Kingdom Hearts''. The stage is standing in for the Olympus Coliseum without directly referencing ''WesternAnimation/{{Hercules}}''.

* CruelAndUnusualDeath: Two of them, in fact! [[spoiler:Bad Ending #1: Dharkon is [[NoBodyLeftBehind straight-up vaporized]]. Bad Ending #2: Galeem is [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice impaled by a dozen needle tentacle spike things]].]]

* ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles1'': Shulk, Pyra & Mythra (DLC)

* ''Franchise/{{Kirby}}'': Dream Land, [[VideoGame/KirbysAdventure Fountain of Dreams]], Green Greens, Halberd, [[VideoGame/KirbysDreamLand Dream Land GB]], [[VideoGame/KirbySuperStar The Great Cave Offensive]]

* ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'': [[VideoGame/SuperMario64 Peach's Castle]], [[VideoGame/SuperMarioBros1 Mushroom Kingdom]], [[VideoGame/SuperMario64 Princess Peach's Castle, Rainbow Cruise]], [[VideoGame/SuperMarioBros2 Mushroom Kingdom II]], [[VideoGame/SuperMarioSunshine Delfino Plaza]], VideoGame/LuigisMansion, Mushroomy Kingdom, [[VideoGame/MarioKart Figure 8-Circuit]], VideoGame/MarioBros, [[VideoGame/SuperMario3DLand 3D Land]], [[VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBros2 Golden Plains]], VideoGame/PaperMario, [[VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBrosU Mushroom Kingdom U]], [[VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy Mario Galaxy]], [[VideoGame/MarioKart8 Mario Circuit]], VideoGame/SuperMarioMaker, [[VideoGame/SuperMarioOdyssey New Donk City Hall]]

** ''VideoGame/{{Wario}}'': [=WarioWare=] Inc., Gamer

* ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles1'': Gaur Plain, [[VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2 Cloud Sea of Alrest]] (DLC)

*** ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles1'': Riki

* AbsenteeActor: Despite Sora's reveal trailer being the GrandFinale for the game and the trailer giving the impression that all other fighters are present, a few are notably absent, including characters that already have variants and alternate forms represented[[note]]such as the male Pokémon Trainer (and his Squirtle and Ivysaur), the female Wii Fit Trainer, Zero Suit Samus and Mythra, although Zelda and Sheik still appear separately)[[/note]], Mii Fighters, and at least some third-party characters other than Cloud, Sephiroth and Sora himself.

Examples of Spirits can be found in their own MythologyGag page [[MythologyGag/SuperSmashBrosUltimateSpirits here]].

Its website can be found [[http://www.smashbros.com/en_US/index.html here]].

'''Previews:''' [[https://youtu.be/w3Gt42kVgCw Reveal Trailer]], [[https://youtu.be/L93H7YC-83o E3 2018 Reveal]], [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fccgHnBQ0YM Last Pre-Launch Direct]] ([[https://youtu.be/WShCN-AYHqA World of Light Trailer]]), [[https://youtu.be/WLu7e8RZoYc Overview Trailer]]

* SkillTree: "World of Light" has a grid for learning new Skills that looks a little similar to the Sphere Grid from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX''. Skill Spheres earned from clearing Adventure Mode battles can be spent on the Skill Tree to unlock a variety of upgrades and powers that apply regardless of the equipped Spirits. Such abilities include boosting the power of your Tilts or Neutrals to giving you a second mid-air jump, giving you a second Final Smash right after using one, or giving you ImmuneToFlinching while charging Smash Attacks.

** Ridley's infamous reveal is [[MookHorrorShow shot like a horror movie]], with only brief flashes of him being visible as he ambushes and apparently [[FamilyUnfriendlyViolence violently murders]] [[HeroKiller Mario and Mega Man]]. When Samus realizes that her compatriots are gone, and who's responsible, she closes her eyes in resignation, and turns around to find Ridley standing behind her, spinning Mario's hat around on his finger with a [[SlasherSmile ginormous smile]] on his face.
** King K. Rool's starts with the Kongs' cabin being shaken by [[BadVibrations massive footsteps]], and as they look out the window to see who it is, a massive crowned silhouette rises up to blot out the sun... [[SubvertedTrope only to unmask himself as]] [[{{Troll}} King Dedede]]. While Dedede is laughing at the Kongs, [[DoubleSubversion the real K. Rool]] [[EnemyRisingBehind rises up behind him]] and casually knocks Dedede aside with one slap before [[SlasherSmile baring his teeth]] and roaring at the Kongs.

* EverybodyCallsHimBarkeep: The main female deuteragonist from the obscure 1999 Japan-only SNES game ''Famicom Bunko: Hajimari no Mori'' appears as a Spirit, simply titled "Girl from Hajimari no Mori". This is quite strange considering that not only is every other Spirit with a given name referred to as such, but she does have an actual name, Komurasaki.

** ''Ultimate'' is also the first time a [[{{mook}} Piranha]] [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Plant]] is playable in any game.

** In the Nov. 1, 2018 ''Smash'' Direct, after discussing plans to develop DLC fighters through to early 2020, Sakurai is shown [[{{Beat}} sitting silently for a couple seconds]] [[{{Workaholic}} before wondering aloud if he'll ever get to take a break.]]

** There is an option to group Echo Fighters in the same slots as the characters on which they are based. Considering [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters how many total fighters]] are in this game, this is done to make the character select screen more easily navigable to players who prefer it this way.

*** Rather than milestone numbers of total Smashes played (which would get incredibly grindy given the [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters sheer number involved]]), a new challenger fight appears every ten minutes or so, working its way down a predetermined list. If you lose, you just have to wait until the chance comes around again — and even then, the timer can be skipped by resetting the game or changing the language.

* GottaCatchEmAll: Spirits, taking over the role of trophies in the previous games. There's several ways to find them; most spirits have to be battled in either World of Light or the lucky-dip Spirit Board, several can only be purchased in the World of Light shops, a few can only be gotten be releasing spirits and using the cores they leave to summon different ones (which then means you have to get the spirits you released again), some are earned by leveling specific spirits to 99 so they can be enhanced into a new form, and a select few are locked behind Challenges that need to be completed before you earn them and have them start appearing normally. Spirits can also be snagged from the Vault shop, and received as rewards in modes like Classic Mode, Home-Run Contest, and Online Tourney. A special category of Spirits, Fighter Spirits, can only be gotten via Classic Mode or the shop in the Vault; these can't be equipped, and instead represent the fighters themselves. ''Ultimate'' also has regularly-occurring events that introduce more spirits to the game, which last for a few days at a time; while the events are limited-time, the spirits eventually get added to the base game a few months later. Additionally, there's the [[VideoGame/PokemonLetsGoPikachuAndLetsGoEevee Partner Pikachu and Partner Eevee]] spirits and [[VideoGame/DragonQuestXI Tockles]] spirit, which were exclusive to {{Old Save Bonus}}es of their respective games, but they were made obtainable through normal means in updates (2.0.0 for the former, and 6.0.0, only fightable on Hero's Spirit Board, for the latter). As of the ''Cuphead'' event in 7.0.0, there are [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters 1,401]] unique Spirits.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: Considering the game has every playable character in series history and still adds more on top of that, definitely. Including DLC, there are 82 numbered fighters, not even including other characters playable as [[MovesetClone Echo Fighters]] and [[PaletteSwap alternate costumes]]. There’s also the Assist Trophies, Mii Costumes, Final Smash helpers, and bosses, adding dozens more. And if you include Spirits into the mix, of which there are '''''over 1000''''', the number of characters becomes truly nuts. There’s even several background characters without Spirits to make things even more insane.

** For the LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters, there's only one case of this on the roster itself. Two Roys are playable in the game — the [[Franchise/FireEmblem swordsman]] and the [[Franchise/{{SuperMarioBros}} Koopa]].

--->'''[[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters EVERYONE]] [[TheBusCameBack IS HERE!]]'''

** Krystal, who was already MsFanservice in [[https://www.models-resource.com/resources/big_icons/20/19319.png her original appearance]], is now [[https://www.models-resource.com/resources/big_icons/29/28687.png slimmer and more muscular.]] Also, manipulating the camera to... ''[[VideoGamePerversityPotential very]] [[PantyShot specific]]'' [[https://i.imgur.com/cii6uuu.jpg angles]] reveals that she [[GoingCommando isn't wearing any underwear]].

** The ''Franchise/AssassinsCreed'', ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'', ''VideoGame/NoMoreHeroes'', ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'', ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry'', and ''Franchise/{{Doom}}'' franchises aren't explicitly named in the North American trailers showing off the Altaïr, Vault Boy, Travis Touchdown, Dragonborn, Dante, and Doomslayer Mii costumes.[[note]]In ''Doom's'' case, this also extends to the European trailer.[[/note]] The game logos on the list of Fighters Pass characters were also removed in every trailer since Terry's and Sakurai's Min Min presentation was also edited to remove him namedropping ''Fallout''. This is due to UsefulNotes/{{ESRB}} regulations introduced in 2020 that prohibited ESRB M-rated games from being promoted alongside lower rated games. This explains why ''VideoGame/MetalGear'', ''VideoGame/{{Bayonetta}}'', and ''VideoGame/Persona5'' didn't get the same treatment, as their videos were released prior to the change in regulations.

** In an example that doesn't have to do with copyright or trademarks, new UsefulNotes/{{ESRB}} rules went into effect in 2020 that banned M-rated games from being promoted alongside non-M rated games. This prevented promotional material for ''Ultimate'' from naming M-rated games, which Nintendo got around by replacing the "''Super Smash Bros.'' × <game title>" template that marks the introduction of a new franchise to ''Smash'' with "''Super Smash Bros.'' × <character name>", with the character name styled like the logo of the series. Some notable affectees of this rule include Mii Costumes for [[Franchise/AssassinsCreed Altair]] and [[Franchise/{{Doom}} Doom Slayer]].

** The World of Light map can only be described as a mishmash of random Nintendo elements and VideoGameSettings woven together. You have your [[JungleJapes jungle]] right next to a military base and a [[BigBoosHaunt foggy forest]] that happens to have a [[EternalEngine power plant]] in it, just as an example. The most baffling thing, however, is the retro {{Cyberspace}} maze found to the east of the map, in-between a [[PalmtreePanic beach town]] and a [[DeathMountain mountain settlement]].

** When playing against a CPU opponent (or in a match with just CPU fighters) in an Omega-form stage, even if they're Level 9 CPUs, if they're trying to recover and are close to the platform, they'll almost always air dodge towards it even if they can fall safely on the stage and regardless of if an opponent is nearby, meaning they are defenseless against an attack that might KO them.

* AnyoneCanDie: In ''World of Light'', as mentioned below. [[spoiler:Even ''[[SoleSurvivor Kirby]]'' won't live if you end up with either of the bad endings.]]

** In the trailer revealing the third DLC fighter in Fighters Pass Vol. 2, the heroes are beaten down by Galeem, but before he can unleash his light, he's suddenly [[SingleStrokeBattle bisected down the middle]]...and then the dreaded timpani and violins of [[OminousLatinChanting "One-Winged Angel"]] start to play, heralding the arrival of [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII Sephiroth]].

** Separately from the spirit battles, each character has a Classic Mode series of battles where they face off against themed opponents. Sometimes these directly involve actual fighters where appropriate, but in many cases fighters, modified with palette swaps or size increases or decreases, are used as close-enough stand-ins for other characters. For instance, [[VideoGame/{{Metroid}} Samus]]'s path uses a giant [[VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry King K. Rool]] to represent Kraid, [[VideoGame/KidIcarus Pit]]'s uses VideoGame/{{Bayonetta}} to represent Medusa, and [[VideoGame/{{Minecraft}} Steve]]'s uses various fighters to represents ''Minecraft'' mobs and ends in a battle against Ridley as the Ender Dragon.

* AssetActor: {{Justified|Trope}} as the concept of Spirit Battles; the characters aren't present in person, but are fought in the form of being stuffed into the fighter they're closest to.

* AnyoneCanDie: Taken UpToEleven in ''World of Light'', as mentioned below. [[spoiler:Even ''[[SoleSurvivor Kirby]]'' won't live if you end up with either of the bad endings.]]

** The Marketting of the game even drove this home with the slogan: "Everyone is Here!" This was ultimately bookend with the final DLC character, [[Franchise/KingdomHearts Sora]] with the title card being "Sora is Finally Here!"

** The Marketting of the game even drove this home with the slogan: "Everyone is Here!" This was ultimately bookend with the final DLC character, [[Series/KingdomHearts Sora]] with the title card being "Sora is Finally Here!"

* DreamMatchGame: Although ''Super Smash Bros.'' as a series is already based upon this concept, this game takes it further by bringing back every fighter up to the point of this game's release, including the [[GuestFighter third-party]] characters, which allows for matchups that wouldn't have been possible at the time of their releases (such as Snake being able to fight Mega Man), and adding more third-party characters for good measure.

** The I-Tetromino is an Ace attack spirit that happens to sport the fourth highest attack stats among spirits in the game, higher than [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask Fierce Deity Link]] and [[VideoGame/SuperMario3DWorld Fury Bowser]] and only beaten by [[Franchise/StreetFighter Evil Ryu, Akuma]] and [[VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2 Malos]] in terms of raw attack power (and all of the spirits listed are Legend class). Impressive for cyan-colored blocks arranged in a line.

* TwoAndAHalfD: As quite a few gameplay clips on Twitter will attest to, ''Super Smash Bros. Ultimate'' overhauled the hitboxes for both attacks and characters since ''Smash 4'': the moves have been adjusted so that they need to actually ''make contact'' with the enemy to hit and not just be ''in the same area'' as them, which can lead to situations like Marth’s Shield Breaker missing Piranha Plant because [[SerendipitousSurvival its “stunned” animation moved its stem out of Falchion’s way for JUST long enough to avoid the strike.]]

** In an example that doesn't have to do with copyright or trademarks, new UsefulNotes/{{ESRB}} rules went into effect in 2020 that banned M-rated games from being promoted alongside non-M rated games. This prevented promotional material for ''Ultimate'' from naming M-rated games, which Nintendo got around by replacing the "''Super Smash Bros.'' × <game title>" template that marks the introduction of a new franchise to ''Smash'' with "''Super Smash Bros.'' × <character name>". Some notable affectees of this rule include Mii Costumes for [[Franchise/AssassinsCreed Altair]] and [[Franchise/{{Doom}} Doom Slayer]].