The stakes have reached their highest peak in Smash Bros. as Ultimate has proven to be the most ambitious game in the series yet...and yet, some pre-release material and the story mode's cutscenes have shown it to be one of, if not the darkest game of the series.
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Trailers
- Ridley's reveal trailer, which serves as a shout-out to the Alien franchise — with Ridley as the Xenomorph, and Samus as Ellen Ripley, but they might have been a little TOO faithful... Samus, Mario, and Mega Man are walking cautiously down a bridge in a dark base. A blurred shape suddenly swoops by and destroys Mega Man by skewering him through his chest; and then immediately returns to crush Mario's skull to pieces, with a Sickening "Crunch!" to go with it. Samus senses this and turns around only to find that nobody is there and only Mario's hat is left on the ground. Then, suddenly, Ridley bursts out from underneath the bridge and taunts Samus with Mario's hat before he attacks. Sakurai outright states that the point of Ridley's trailer was to show first-hand just how monstrous he really is. And to top it off, that sadistic smirk he gives while looking her in the eye and twirling Mario’s hat on his finger to mock her allies' sudden and violent deaths shows just why he's Samus' arch enemy.
- Simon's reveal trailer brought us some truly terrifying moments by using the dark setting of the Castlevania series, and involving Luigi in them. We see his growing sense of terror as he's unable to use his Poltergust to defend himself against the various monsters of the series. It starts with Luigi backing away from a group of mummies, before he fully runs away. Luigi starts to catch his breath, only to be startled by Medusa and then chased away by her snakes. As he runs down a dark hallway, he trips and starts to get up... before slowly realizing that Death is floating right in front of him! Luigi then suffers the ultimate moment of humiliation: Having his soul separated from his body! Not even Simon's arrival was enough to save Luigi, as we see his ghost looking over his body. He tries to rejoin with his body, and then Carmilla shows up. Luigi catches a glimpse through the window, and the camera zooms out as Luigi is heard screaming. Granted, Simon was able to stop Death from stealing Luigi's soul and according to Nintendo UK, Luigi was able to escape
, but it does little to negate the horror of the trailer. - The reveal trailer for the Dragon Quest Hero is quite dark, considering we're getting footage of our heroes fighting AND getting beaten up by Dharkon's forces; we even get an amusing glance of Dharkon at the beginning of the trailer, similar to the bad ending when he wins against Galeem and envelopes the world in darkness. Afterwards, we get to see Link fighting a Marth puppet alone in a dark forest — who seems to already have an upper hand against Hyrule's champion — and then a puppet of Meta Knight comes out of left field and boots Link into a severe disadvantage. The Meta Knight clone does almost nothing but employ a basic Attack! Attack! Attack! tactic after blindsiding Link (something the real one he'd never do in his right state of mind). The Marth duplicate doesn't even take a second for a breather — no more than a second after he ambushes Link and knocks him down, he takes off in a sprint. We then get a terrifying shot of Link's eyes with the reflection of the two swordsmen moving in for the kill, and had it not been for the Luminary coming in with a Big Damn Heroes moment, they most certainly would have killed him.
- Even then, it shows that the Luminary himself isn't enough for Dharkon's army when female Robin, Snake, and Ganondorf gang up on him, and we get to see a shot of the nightmarish forms of puppets of Little Mac, Zelda, Captain Falcon, Mewtwo, Ridley, Zero Suit Samus, Shulk, and Bowser in a loose, swaying gait — completely unlike the vicious behavior exhibited by the Marth and Meta Knight puppets, but no less scary. From how slowly and lifelessly they shamble toward him, they look less like they're going to finish the Luminary and more like they're going to slowly pick him apart like a zombie horde (given who controls them, this may very well be what's about to happen), and they would have if it wasn't for not just Solo and Eight, but also the legendary Erdrick arriving in time to back him up.
- If you look closely, you'll notice that not once does "Marth" emote in any way when attacking or being attacked by Link, instead having a completely blank expression (Glowing Eyes of Doom notwithstanding) throughout the entire fight up to when the Luminary comes to Link's rescue, and the other puppet fighters similarly walk in with dead expressions on their faces. This all gives the viewers a good look at just how much of emotionless killing machine slaves the fighters and spirits are to Dharkon's (and Galeem's) wills.
- While most of the reveal trailer for Terry Bogard from Fatal Fury (and The King of Fighters) was innocent, lighthearted fun, there's Geese Howard's scene where he makes a leap for the Smash invitation... and he falls off his building to his death. While in the context of Terry's game, it makes a lot of sense, the fact that something like that was shown for an E10+ rated game is quite surprising in its own right... especially since Terry's final trailer has the rating go from E10+ to E10+-T on the Switch, though it was more likely for that scene in particular more than anything else in Smash.
- The trailer also shows Iori Yagami attempting to grab the invitation. When he fails, he just stands there, laughing hysterically to himself.
- The trailer for Steve is rather creepy when Mario crashes into the cave and it's surrounded by eyes shining in the darkness.
In-game
- Ridley, who was hotly anticipated by many fans for years, also brings quite a bit of nightmare fuel:
- His moveset is one of the most brutal, animalistic, and outright violent in the series and reflects just how much of a monster Ridley is, which includes a ground variation of his famous Wall Grind, skewering foes with his tail, and his Final Smash has him launch the other fighters into the hull of Samus' Gunship before blowing all them up to high heaven with a devastating Wave-Motion Gun of a Breath Weapon. A good reminder why the High Commander of the Space Pirates is one of Nintendo's darkest villains.
- Then there's his overall contrasting presence compared to everyone else. While Smash Bros. does have its fair share of realistic character designs, they're still given cartoony elements that help make them look like they're not too out of place. Not Ridley. He's far more detailed than even Snake and Ryu, giving him an otherworldly appearance that really shows the Xenomorph inspiration. Compared to the rest of the roster, Ridley looks like he originates from a horror series.
- Dark Samus' general appearance. The Switch's HD graphics really complement her grotesque design, with more emphasis being put on the pulsating veins and carapace-like ridges on her "armor", highlighting how unsettling she looks. Her animations are also more ethereal than Samus', making her seem more wraith-like in comparison. One of her victory animations even shows off a very brief glimpse of her dead, milk-white glowing eyes behind the visor, which is very similar to the SA-X's introduction scene.
- The Moon gets added to the Assist Trophy roster. It flies down at the fighters with its infamous Nightmare Face at a much faster speed than someone familiar with the game is used to... and since it's one of the Assist Trophies you can't attack, there's no stopping it.
- The challenger approaching sequence, much like the Wii U installment, is toned down to be much less sudden and scary (unlike Melee and Brawl). Now it has ample warning (as the screen darkens) and the background for it is less crude and more stylish. However, it still uses Brawl's loud, panicky, and rumbling siren, which is more than enough to make someone shit their pants.
- Giga Bowser is significantly more imposing in this game compared to Brawl and Wii U/3DS. To start, you can no longer hit himnote . He teleports to the background, immune to any damage, forgoing a full moveset for a single, super powerful punch. While it can be avoided, the real wonders happen if you get hit by it and you've taken enough damage. On the rare occasion that this punch hits someone who's taken enough hits, well, instead of simply just blasting them off like Team Rocket, Bowser actually goes out of his way to bypass the blast lines and Screen KO that poor sap! Coupled with the nostalgic Nightmare Fuel from Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island with how Giga Bowser is positioned, it easily paints the Koopa King in an even more threatening light than ever before.
- Mimikyu gets added to the Pokéball roster in this game. And if you haven't seen that game's own Nightmare Fuel page, know that simply looking under its disguise once killed someone (which also constantly happens to Meowth as a darkly comedic Running Gag). So what does it do in this game? A long, shadowy hand reaches out and pulls you under. And yes, if your damage is high enough, it will kill you outright.
- Being from a horror game, the Yuri Kozukata Assist Trophy injects a dose of creepiness by placing a darkened photo-filter when out. She herself attacks by taking pictures with Camera Obscura, which is accompanied with a variety of ghostly moans. Made worse that her reveal in the November 1st Smash Direct is only accompanied with atmospheric background noises.
- Marx from the Kirby series appears as a boss. Not only is his appearance played up for far more horror than usual with his disturbingly child-like giggles and the wall-eyed, corpse-like stare that goes with his usual Slasher Smile, this time around, he's somehow even more Eldritch Abomination-y than before:
- One of his three new attacks: his eyes turn black and drop out of their sockets to the ground — with the new ones slowly regrowing in their place — becoming bouncing shadowy orbs that cause darkness damage on impact.
- For another, he makes his eyes grow huge and sprout more pupils. And then he shoots lasers from them.
- And for his third new attack, he moves to the center of the arena as his wings disappear: before they then promptly regrow outward as glowing red blood vessels that snake across the whole screen.
- Marx's defeat animation is surprisingly dark as well. With the final hit, he loudly screeches in pain (in a similar manner to his Soul form's death scream) without changing his expression, and rapidly bounces around the arena: his wings shattering to pieces with each hit. Eventually, he lands face-down on the ground, and a purple flame splutters out of his lifeless body for a moment: giving the impression that, instead of the usual Non-Lethal K.O., you've legitimately killed him.
- According to Sakurai, Marx was somehow even more terrifying and gruesome in early development to the point that it would have kicked up the age rating, and Sakurai was asked to tone him down so as not to terrify younger gamers. Not that toning it down helped much, apparently.
- A somewhat minor one that tends to be overlooked by many players. Anytime Donkey Kong's Giant Punch is ready to be used in the previous games, his head starts to smoke. However, in this game, not only is said smoke formed at the top of his head, but his default expression changes from chilled out to absolutely pissed off. In fact, he's so pissed that if you pause the game and zoom in on his face, veins are bulging in his eyebrows. It can be rather omninous to look at, especially since DK is typically an oaf but with a heart that's as big as his appetite for bananas. It certainly gives him some Killer Gorilla tendencies. What makes this even more terrifying is how scary gorillas are if they're extremely provoked and proceed to go into a rage in Real Life.
- Steve's movements are creepy due to the way they contrast with the other fighters, who can at least bend their limbs. The Minecraft characters can't. His lack of a facial expression change also just looks... off.
- All 3 of Sephiroth's victory animations don't take place in the standard victory stage, like the other fighters - they instead take place against the backdrop of an inferno much like his razing of Nibelheim. The stand-out of the three is the one in which Sephiroth slowly walks into said fire, after giving the camera one last triumphant chuckle. The usual upbeat victory music is also completely gone, replaced with nothing more than the sound of the ongoing fires. It's The Bad Guy Wins incarnate - especially if you're not the one playing as him.
- His victory quotes further add to the atmosphere: From his trademark evil chuckle when winning against regular opponents, to his last line from Advent Children (that was also featured at the end of his trailer) when he wins against Cloud.
World of Light/Spirit Board
- The opening cutscene has drawn parallels to Avengers: Infinity War, and for very good reasons. The cast is shown looking onward as a strange being made of light appears and seems to be unleashing many clones of Master Hand into the world. Everyone is shown gearing up to fight when they are all blindsided by the Master Hand clones dissolving and turning into a singularity that unleashes many rays of light. Shulk foresees them all suffering horrifying fates each, and goes into full Oh, Crap! mode as he motions everyone to run, but it's too late. The beams fly forward and disintegrate everyone they plow into, including innocent non-combatant Animal Crossing villagers. Not even powerful characters like Bayonetta, a Triforce bearer like Zelda, a godlike Pokémon like Mewtwo, or actual deities like Palutena or Rosalina are any match for them, and everyone falls to them. When all is said and done, the entire universe seems to have been destroyed and the lone survivor is Kirby, who managed to avoid annihilation by warping. The story mode already opens in its Darkest Hour, and Kirby alone has to pick up the pieces.
- This new foe, Galeem, proves to be an even more powerful threat than Tabuu. The latter managed to take control of Master Hand, plunge several parts of the world into Subspace, and convert most of the cast into trophies (with the exception of King Dedede, Luigi, and Ness). Galeem, on the other hand, commands an entire army of Master Hands, takes control of the entire universe, and completely wipes out everybody, with Kirby being the last one standing. And to see beloved characters flee as they're helplessly blasted away, it's like witnessing the Infinity War of Super Smash Bros.
- What's worse is that Tabuu and his Subspace Army were (at least) only targeting Brawl's playable cast. But Galeem? He doesn't just stop at vaporizing Ultimate's entire roster (bar Kirby)... his beams of light go after characters that aren't even part of said roster and were minding their own business during the attack. That's right... even the non-playable characters aren't safe from this monster.
- Speaking of Tabuu, it turns out Galeem got HIM too. Mind you, this is the leader of the Subspace Army (and ruler of Subspace as a whole) who was established to be extremely powerful when you consider how he overpowered Master Hand without breaking a sweat and trophy-fied the fighters in the blink of an eye. If the power of Galeem wasn't already scary enough to comprehend, consider this a testament to just how powerful this... THING truly is.
- Galeem simply has no restrictions on whatever or whoever he goes after. He kills off Mario, Link, Palutena, Rosalina, Bowser, the Inklings, Diddy Kong, the Villager, Rosalina's Luma, the Pokémon Trainer, Sonic, Falco, every Pokémon in the roster, the Duck Hunt dog and duck, Ridley, and many, many, many more. He doesn't care who or what's in front of him, be it man or woman, adult or child, mortal or god, human(oid) or animal, mechanical (or cybernetic) or organic. It doesn't matter what status one may hold in the universe, be it of righteous good that has always prevailed or a being of pure evil strong enough to destroy a planet. He doesn't care who he faces, he has no biases or moral restrictions, he just wants everyone dead. And he gets exactly that.
- And then there's Galeem's appearance: whereas Tabuu at least looked (albeit superficially) like a person, Galeem does not. In fact, he looks less like a Smash Bros. boss and more like a fantasy horror game boss: a luminous sphere surrounded by four membranous, multicolored ribbon-like wings, making him seem almost angelic, and all the more nightmarish for it. His fighting style, ironically for a being of light, is also a twisted mix of brutality and elegance; for instance, twirling his wings into drills to impale fighters from above, splitting his core into three before rhythmically firing off rounds of burning light, sending in his own puppet fighters who will eventually explode, and spawning a ball of light that almost looks like a slitted eyeball before firing off his own variant of Tabuu's infamous Off Waves (which also briefly stops the music before it lets out a loud ringing sound like a bell of some sort). When Galeem's health gets to a low point, his core promptly bursts into a wild blaze of light as if he's about to go supernova while the sky brightens up even more.
- And when you finally beat him? Unlike Tabuu's calmer death throes with subtle explosions and slow writhing, Galeem's wings immediately go haywire after being struck the fatal blow, the light itself screaming in agony while he spasms out and then explodes in a bright flash of light before falling into the deep below.
- And what does Galeem do with those he disintegrates? Well, he imprisons the fighters in some kind of stasis and uses them as casts (complete with what looks like molten metal being poured over them) for evil clones, easily distinguished by horrifying glowing red eyes. These are called Puppet Fighters, and with good reason, as they're being controlled by the hostile souls of non-playable characters. That shot of the clone Mario's face is one thing, but then there's the shot in the image above of the dozens of evil clones staring out towards the camera from the darkness... Hehe, good luck sleeping tonight!
- Not only that, but it is implied that the spirit fighters working for Galeem aren't exactly doing it out of their own free will. After all, why would they fight the fighters who they have considered allies in the past otherwise?
- The Spirit that inhabited the Mario Puppet? It's a Smoky Progg, one of the most dangerous creatures from the first Pikmin game, whose mere sludge trail can instantly kill Pikmin.
- Speaking of which, amongst the spirits shown are the likes of Elise, Shantae, Pigma Dengar, Blood Falcon, and various Animal Crossing villagers. This means that various characters, whether they're pacifistic, combative, kind-hearted, cold-hearted, heroic, villainous, downright innocent, or outright evil, were not only vaporized... but unlike Ultimate's playable cast, they don't even get to keep their bodies following their disintegration. In fact, their souls are what's being used as fuel for the Puppets of the fighters, and they have no choice in the matter.
- Apparently, not even death in one's respective canon can save them from becoming a Spirit, as the Spirits of the Champions, Hinawa, Hades (whose soul was outright confirmed by Sakurai himself to have been obliterated by Galeem's assault), and some Ghost-type Pokémon can attest to.
- Some Spirits are alternate versions of the playable (and non-playable) characters themselves (The infant incarnations of the Mario characters, Kaptain K. Rool and Baron K. Roolenstein, the original incarnation of Pit from the NES Kid Icarus, and the various Legend of Zelda characters who hail from entirely different universes and timelines, just to name a few examples). Thus giving off the unsettling implication that Galeem's attack didn't just span across the universe... it may have very well affected the entire multiverse, additionally vaporizing entire timelines in its wake.
- Sure, Kirby survived the whole ordeal, but somehow he isn't safe from becoming an evil clone either, as several spirit battles show Puppet Fighters of him featured in or assisting other enemy spirits. An interview with Sakurai finally cleared up the reason why Galeem was able to create copies of Kirby: He managed to analyze him at some point. This means Galeem never really needed to clone the fighters directly from them, but that he simply needed to have information about them to complete the process. It's even seen when battling him and Dharkon that they can create puppets of their imprisoned fighters by their own in short time, even if those fighters had been freed by the player; meaning that the dark entity must be in the same boat, and that Galeem can keep copying fighters without the original. This means that him reviving, imprisoning, and mind controlling the fighters to create more puppets was essentially for nothing, like if he was simply mocking them for thinking that they could stand up to him by torturing and turning them into his slaves.
- And the fighters aren't just being held imprisoned and used to mass-produce puppet fighters; they are just as mind-controlled as the spirits inside the puppet fighters. Featuring the same glowing red eyes and being just as hostile as any other enemy found, and the player has to defeat them in order to awake their consciousness. Galeem effectively erased any traces of who they are and made them into his complete slaves until they're found and get sense smacked into them.
- Galeem was even able to make a spirit out of Mother 3's Absolutely Safe Capsule, which, in its home series, was immune to any and every attack thrown its way. Shigesato Itoi even stated that Porky Minch (who is inside the capsule) would still be alive billions of years later. And Galeem got him too, it seems... Until you later realize the distinct lack of a spirit that is explicitly that of Porky Minch. As such, Porky could still be in there.
- Depending on how much control Porky has within the Capsule, things could be made even worse. Either Porky is trapped within a machine that is, in fact, not safe from absolutely everything, and is forced to rampage without him controlling it (a nightmare to a narcissist like Porky, though certainly well-deserved), or he is in control, which all but guarantees him to be one of the few to actively help the villains. Wouldn't be the first time, after all.
- During his fight, Galeem can create more puppet fighters that chase the player and explode seconds after. While every other puppet in the game at least uses one of the characters' existing alternate costumes, these copies are all fully made of a cyan light, combined with the aforementioned red eyes, giving them a very ominous appearance. Just look at these Dedede◊, Jigglypuff◊ and Inkling◊ copies for example, and try to say they don't look off.
- After a long and grueling adventure, Galeem has finally been beaten. While savvy players may notice that a good chunk of the roster is still unaccounted for, that just means it'll be easier to find the rest of them, because it's not like they'll off Galeem so soon… Wait a second, is that a freaking crack in the sky? Guess who; Galeem's dark counterpart who was never hinted at prior — "Dharkon" — suddenly rears his horrific mug by smashing the sky into pieces like an enormous glass pane, commanding his own equivalent army of Crazy Hands that proceed to decimate Galeem's weakened army. Galeem himself swiftly gets the hell out of dodge, knowing he'll lose this fight, and this new threat hijacks the remaining puppets and fighters that Galeem once controlled. Congratulations; you now have to go through the Dark Realm to beat him, complete with even more dangerous spirits. Fun, right?
- While Galeem's angelic-looking design isn't inherently creepy, Dharkon proudly waves a red flag right out of the gate; being a swirling mass of black and blood-red tentacles surrounding a single slitted eye makes Dharkon fit right in with any other Lovecraftian Eldritch Abomination.
- His battle theme deserves mention; in that it is a very terrifying Dark Reprise of the game's main theme, showcasing just how threatening his design looks as well as how lethal his sheer power is.
- The ominous "thwoom" sound that always accompanies him, particularly with his glowing eye, can send many a chill down the player's spine.
- When you actually fight Dharkon and knock him down to half health, he Turns Red in more ways than one — his normally yellowish-bluish eye turns bright red and the sky itself darkens even more. Then comes his own death throes where he trips out even more than Galeem with the sky turning a deep blood-red, his tentacles writhing in pain accompanied by a low screaming sound before reaching out to the heroes one last time, finally exploding in a mass of dark energy as he slowly falls to his doom.
- Heck, Dharkon's domain — the Dark Realm — deserves a mention. When you first see this place, it's an immediate "what the crap"; with its chaotic, mangled landscape full of disturbing imagery, this hellish hub world makes the likes of the Distortion World of Pokémon infamy look downright hospitable by comparison, despite the Dark Realm having vividly colored locations and actual buildings on top of that (some of which look like regular old houses). Its music certainly helps in painting a picture of just what kind of world you've stepped into.
- One area, rather than some of the more fantastic locations of the series, is a normal looking city that seems to have been through some sort of apocalypse, being a cluster of damaged skyscrapers next to a gigantic, mangled, root-like formation. This implies that rather than just controlling their inhabitants like Galeem, Dharkon DESTROYS WORLDS AND DRAGS THEIR REMAINS INTO THE DARK REALM. Eviler than Thou, much?
- In it is the Sacred Land, which is the least frightening out of the three sub-dimensions, but even then its very geography is just plain messed up (being the literal shape of the Triforce for one). It's got the good ol' Lost Woods full of ghastly spirits like Mimikyu and the Skull Kid ready to make fighters' days hell (and Young Link can only be freed when his unwilling barrier maiden friend, Saria, is found through navigating the maze of a forest), Kakariko Village and/or Clock Town which while isn't scary on the surface is absolutely deserted which goes against the ordinarily lively feel of their original counterparts—not to mention outright trapping both the Mii Brawler and Impa's spirit in time distortions who can only be freed by solving different time-based puzzles for each one (and only with Impa's freedom can Zelda be saved), and finally the Gerudo Desert that plays out Hyrule Castle's outdoors music the moment you step in it and gradually shifts into a nightmarishly purple wasteland that leads into the Pyramid of Power—with Ganondorf awaiting at the top past the sheer gauntlet of powerful spirits you have to go through. The worst part about it all is the fact that it has its own Ganon completely separate from the one you have to rescue and who you'll inevitably fight — and that's before you find out that this Ganon is some amalgamation of his many powerful incarnations (one of which includes the infamous Dark Beast Ganon from Breath of the Wild).
- Next up is Dracula's Castle, which is the most physically consistent and coherent place, but what would Dracula's Castle be without the vampire himself or the many monsters and ghosts roaming about? Touching the ghosts themselves forces you back to a specific point in the area unharmed, but unless you're good at figuring out how to get rid of them, you'll never progress forward. There are hourglasses that reset the area should you mess up, but how it does this is best not thought about too much. And guess what else is wrong about these ghosts? You have to kill them all if you want any hope of saving Richter, who will literally be standing between you and the host of (horrific) honor — those who have played Symphony of the Night will have horrible flashbacks of their spirited hero from the previous game suddenly turning on them.
- Last but most certainly not least is the Mysterious Dimension, where reality is very clearly on a bad acid trip. The place is full of confusing and lengthy travel routes strewn all over the place, and that's not getting into everything being sucked into some sort of black hole. This is where the aforementioned Marx makes himself right at home, right in the center of the black hole sucking everything in, almost as if this is all somehow his doing. And before you can even get to Marx? You have to go through one last fight with a legendary spirit to get to him: Tabuu — possessing the body of a giant and metal Bayonetta, and the Subspace Army's leader, possessed against his will he may be, will not go down without a fight.
- Even more so than the Realm of Light, the Dark Realm has a tendency to either hide fighters and spirits alike really well or guard many of them with legendary spirits, to the point of being rather difficult to rescue a few — Chrom, for example, is hidden in an alcove within the Lost Woods that can only be accessed by jumping into a random treasure chest of all thingsnote , while the aforementioned Richter only appears if you've vanquished all the ghosts in Dracula's Castle (it's possible to reach Dracula without having to do this). This means that if one is not observant enough, some of these fighters and spirits may remain tragically trapped within the nightmare dimension for all eternity…
- Dharkon's Puppet Fighters aren't any better than Galeem's. Their eyes switch over from Galeem's glowing red irises to violet, and the pink whites-of-their-eyes are replaced with an even darker shade of purple, creating a Black Eyes of Crazy effect. And we're never shown how Dharkon took control of these fighters and brought them into the Dark Realm.
- And just like Galeem, Dharkon has an attack where he creates puppets that chase and explode in short, those being made of a deep crimson darkness along the signature violet eyes that give them an odd appearance. Just take a look at the Bowser Jr.◊, Sonic◊, and Ridley◊ he can create.
- And just like Galeem, Dharkon has an attack where he creates puppets that chase and explode in short, those being made of a deep crimson darkness along the signature violet eyes that give them an odd appearance. Just take a look at the Bowser Jr.
- After that mess is over, Galeem and Dharkon continue to wage war on each other... and then decide to take on the fighters as well, all while keeping up the fight against one another. Stop the adventure mode, we wanna get off!
- The catch? You must keep the balance of power between light and darkness in check to access the True Ending. In other words, for every light spirit you defeat, you'll need to take out a dark one to even it out — and the trapped fighters and the Hands count as well (Roy, Palutena, and Master Hand are light spirits while Dark Samus, Bayonetta, and Crazy Hand are dark spirits). Fail to keep the balance intact, and you'll only get to fight one of these monsters before the other completely wrecks them and ends the world on the spot.note Talk about a Downer Ending.
- The dark ending deserves more elaboration. Whereas Galeem's ending is more abrupt and cuts off before his attack reaches the fighters, as darkness bathes the universe, we're treated to a shot of Mario slumping over, as if the darkness snuffed out the very life of light. After we see the darkness blot out every bit of light in the universe, we're finally treated to a shot of Dharkon staring directly at the player from the shadows. Remember how Mario started choking just from being around the Dark Star? This time, there's no stopping it...
- Mario's death has to be elaborated on. Mario's deaths are almost always Played for Laughs; even if he's falling into a black hole or falling into lava, the game still manages to add some slapstick humor to it. Here, there's no trademark comical Mario death jingle — no "Too bad!" message — not even so much as an "Oh-oh no!" or "Waaaaah..." from Mario — he simply slumps over and dies in utter silence. If seeing your eternally animated and energetic childhood hero die in such a disturbingly realistic way isn't jarring, nothing is.
- There's also the way that Dharkon destroys Galeem: He effectively crucifies Galeem by holding his wings open for a moment before impaling Galeem's core on several spikes and holding him up high like a prize he just won, while Galeem's wings limply hang from the chains and spikes. And if you look closely, you can actually see Galeem's wings curl around his core in attempt to protect himself before being impaled. The only way it could be more disturbing is if Galeem had a form that was more like a living creature and less like a ball of light. Even worse is how an aura of light seeps out of Galeem once he's been impaled, giving off the sense that he's bleeding.
- The light ending is no slouch in how the Final Boss is disposed of, either. Dharkon almost seems as though he suffers just a bit more before his demise, getting shot several times by Galeem's light beams compared to how Dharkon only gets in one fatal hit on Galeem; you actually see Dharkon's eye shift in what has to be absolute fear right before they hit. In a testament to Galeem's no-nonsense nature, he belts out nigh-invisible flashes of light that slowly but completely obliterate Dharkon, starting with his eye first, whereas Dharkon was content with stringing Galeem's corpse on high display. And then the fighters are next, as Galeem finishes what he started.
- Consider the implications of the light ending. The fighters have come all this way, awakening their friends and freeing spirits, only for Galeem to launch his assault once again and take everything back. Not even Kirby managed to escape this time. Everything you did was all for nothing.
- Eventually, it's revealed that Master Hand and Crazy Hand were nothing more than unwitting pawns after it's revealed that the player freed them from Galeem and Dharkon's control. Mind you, this means that Galeem and Dharkon actually managed to suppress the powers of the two highest authorities of the world of Smash Bros. AND later go on to actually clone them, as they would later do to the playable characters. As explained above in regards to Tabuu, this can easily be considered yet another testament to the terrifying power that both Galeem and Dharkon hold...
- In the intro for the final battle with both Galeem and Dharkon, the two of them will perform a Brawler Lock with their wings and tentacles respectively, bring their cores together, and promptly roar in each other's "faces". While this isn't too unfitting for Dharkon, who performs a similar action to the player in the intro to his battle, it's rather unsettling for Galeem, who typically has more gentle, graceful angelic movements. It gets worse when you realize this is the peak demonstration of their bitter resentment towards each other. No beam locks with large spaces between them, no battles using their clone armies or attempting to have light take over darkness or vice versa, just the two of them screaming at each other at the very top of their lungs. This makes it seem more like a Villainous Breakdown on Galeem's part, with him showing the player just how much anger and hatred a faceless glowing orb can display.
- During the actual fight with them, Dharkon will temporarily be reduced to just his core when you've dealt enough damage to him, at which point Galeem will turn his wings into a spear and ram it straight into his archenemy's eye. Even when the violence is heavily abstracted, a sharp object like that to the eye isn't a very pretty picture. Also, Dharkon's tentacles forming a hammer to smash Galeem's core is like a hammer being swung at full force at someone's head, and only Galeem's "alien" physiology keeps it from being just as disgusting.
- The catch? You must keep the balance of power between light and darkness in check to access the True Ending. In other words, for every light spirit you defeat, you'll need to take out a dark one to even it out — and the trapped fighters and the Hands count as well (Roy, Palutena, and Master Hand are light spirits while Dark Samus, Bayonetta, and Crazy Hand are dark spirits). Fail to keep the balance intact, and you'll only get to fight one of these monsters before the other completely wrecks them and ends the world on the spot.note Talk about a Downer Ending.
- Let's all assume that, for story reasons, the spirit battles being conducted they way they are during the World of Light is because of Galeem and/or Dharkon setting the battles up to be that way. This would mean that these cosmic horrors not only have a horrifically vast amount of knowledge on all of these characters, they also have a very sick sense of humor for cramming the disembodied spirits into disturbingly-fitting replica bodies of the playable cast and having them fight the way they do, tormenting both the characters encountering the fakes and the spirits inhabiting the fakes. Stuffing spirits into heartless copies of their loved ones is already messed up, but shoving infants into these clones and having them fight against their general understanding or will is outright beyond screwed up. Coupled with what we've already seen of them, Galeem and Dharkon have some serious, honest-to-God issues.
- After obtaining the true ending, Galeem and Dharkon ultimately become spirits themselves. Get this, though; they're the single strongest primary spirits in the game through their high stats alone (which may not be the highest of their respective categories but is very close to the strongest), they are neutral spirits which have no advantages or disadvantages to exploit, and come built in with a constant Glass Cannon effect against spirits of opposing elemental alignment; Bane of Darkness and Bane of Light respectively. Their mutual animosity of each other is so strong that even as spirits they extend their hatred to even those forcibly associated with their mortal enemies. As for it being a Glass Cannon, it could be that the hate is so strong that it makes the wielder of these malign spirits a crusading berserker of some sort, able to tear through every spirit and fighter not on their side. Alternatively, since you also take increased damage (which is not good in certain situations), it's also likely that even as spirits, they're still trying to get you killed…
- Galeem's takedown of the entire universe has another creepy detail in it: from the spirits he's already responsible for, which include several gods of differing origins, more and more keep getting added through DLC and Spirit Board events. One such event is based on Cuphead, and one of the spirits is the game's version of the Devil. Let that sink in: Galeem took out SATAN!
- Even worse with the release of Lotus implying Galeem's takedown also got the inhabitants of the Origin system which while threats such as the Grineer, Corpus, Orokin, Infestation and Sentients were nabbed, that also means civilian inhabitants were caught as well like the Ostrons, Solaris and anyone in the relays at the time, subsequently leading to the Relays' implied destruction, which is possible due to the beams destroying Falco's Arwing too.
- Oh yeah, and Igor, the master of the Velvet Room that only the Wild Card of each game can access, also got Galeem'd! It's bad enough that even the safe haven of the franchise isn't so safe anymore, but consider that the whole DLC pack is primarily based on Persona 5. As the Phantom Thieves are still in their uniforms, the horrible implication starts to arise: Galeem managed to turn YALDABAOTH into a Spirit!
