Nearly five hundred hours, and I still suck. But I think I'm finally ready to retire this one once and for all (excepting when I want to play with friends of course).
A crowning achievement so incredible and nigh-impossible it became a societal phenomenon. 89 playable fighters from around the gaming world all come together to duke it out in a love letter to the medium and artform of video games. I have vivid and fond memories of many of the character reveals. I remember that fateful day in March 2018, seeing the burning Smash Ball glow in the Inkling's eye. I remember E3 of that same year, how everyone collectively lost it the moment Solid Snake appeared on screen with the words "EVERYONE IS HERE". I remember watching the reveal in Vinesauce Joel's stream, and being so hyped I typed gibberish in the chat and got timed out. I remember waking up super early in the mornings leading up to the release to watch Nintendo and Smash directs. I remember my brother in the bedroom next to mine texting me to quiet down because I was super hyped at the Simon Belmont reveal. I remember when Joker was revealed at the Game Awards mere minutes before the game's launch. I remember 9:00 PM on December 6, 2018, and trying over and over again to launch the stupid game on my stupid Switch.
Getting a little more personal, I remember the state of my life during this time. Because of separate reasons, I was in a deep depression that pervaded all aspects of my life so deeply that I barely did anything with my life aside from Smash Bros. Seriously, it was bad. It's a weird thing because I'm not gonna say that it gave me "solace" or whatever, because it didn't. It was a negative coping mechanism. But you don't spend hundreds of hours of your life within the timespan of a few months on one thing and not have fond memories of it.
Lucina is my main. Some people would say that she's too boring or basic of a swordfighter, but I think with her more restrained moveset comes a lot of creativity and flow. Because of this, I gained an interest in Fire Emblem: Awakening, her source game, a game which I absolutely love and is one of my all-time favorites (and which I will be replaying in the near future).
Eventually I was admitted into an inpatient therapy/school program. There I became the undisputed king of Smash Bros. I missed out on some of the character reveals because of the nature of the inpatient facility, but my brother still sent me emails about them. I remember reading that Sans was added as a Mii costume, and dying of laughter in the locker room where I read it. I similarly remember dying of laughter when he told me that another Fire Emblem character was added.
To continue to stroke my ego, I had predicted the additions of Minecraft Steve (who is apparently so broken and good that he's banned competitively which is hilarious) and Pyra/Mythra as a dual character in a time when most people thought it would be Rex instead.
There's just so many memories I have in relation to this game. A lot of them include the controversial story mode, World of Light.
Now I can understand why people dislike it, but let me plead my case. Subspace Emissary goes hard, there's no denying that, but let's be real here. The gameplay in Subspace is not the best. Smash Bros is a fighting game, not a platformer. Everyone hates the Great Maze. And another thing. I love the cutscenes as much as the next guy, but let's stop pretending they're Scorsese or something.
World of Light understands what a Smash Bros adventure mode should be a lot better. A series of fights that reference series across the gaming spectrum. It's certainly not without its flaws, but it's still a solid 30 hours of fun. I'm not saying that Subspace is better or worse than WoL though, cuz in all honesty I think their pros and cons equalize each other out. Expect a Subspace review at some point.
I've gone on far too long here. The biggest stain on this game's magnificence is the absolutely inexcusably bad netcode and online ranking system. Seriously, it's terrible and at times unplayable. Nintendo is literally the richest company in Japan. They should be able to figure out how to make a functional and consistent netcode for a super precise fighting game. But even that is not enough to lower the score of this masterpiece of culture.
Makes me wonder what Smash 6 is gonna look like. If it was up to me, I would just port Smash Ultimate to the next console with a few new characters or something (Waluigi?). Or they could go the complete opposite direction, and reduce the roster to like 30 or 40 and transform it into a 3D fighter or something. Who knows. Well I guess Sakurai knows.
A crowning achievement so incredible and nigh-impossible it became a societal phenomenon. 89 playable fighters from around the gaming world all come together to duke it out in a love letter to the medium and artform of video games. I have vivid and fond memories of many of the character reveals. I remember that fateful day in March 2018, seeing the burning Smash Ball glow in the Inkling's eye. I remember E3 of that same year, how everyone collectively lost it the moment Solid Snake appeared on screen with the words "EVERYONE IS HERE". I remember watching the reveal in Vinesauce Joel's stream, and being so hyped I typed gibberish in the chat and got timed out. I remember waking up super early in the mornings leading up to the release to watch Nintendo and Smash directs. I remember my brother in the bedroom next to mine texting me to quiet down because I was super hyped at the Simon Belmont reveal. I remember when Joker was revealed at the Game Awards mere minutes before the game's launch. I remember 9:00 PM on December 6, 2018, and trying over and over again to launch the stupid game on my stupid Switch.
Getting a little more personal, I remember the state of my life during this time. Because of separate reasons, I was in a deep depression that pervaded all aspects of my life so deeply that I barely did anything with my life aside from Smash Bros. Seriously, it was bad. It's a weird thing because I'm not gonna say that it gave me "solace" or whatever, because it didn't. It was a negative coping mechanism. But you don't spend hundreds of hours of your life within the timespan of a few months on one thing and not have fond memories of it.
Lucina is my main. Some people would say that she's too boring or basic of a swordfighter, but I think with her more restrained moveset comes a lot of creativity and flow. Because of this, I gained an interest in Fire Emblem: Awakening, her source game, a game which I absolutely love and is one of my all-time favorites (and which I will be replaying in the near future).
Eventually I was admitted into an inpatient therapy/school program. There I became the undisputed king of Smash Bros. I missed out on some of the character reveals because of the nature of the inpatient facility, but my brother still sent me emails about them. I remember reading that Sans was added as a Mii costume, and dying of laughter in the locker room where I read it. I similarly remember dying of laughter when he told me that another Fire Emblem character was added.
To continue to stroke my ego, I had predicted the additions of Minecraft Steve (who is apparently so broken and good that he's banned competitively which is hilarious) and Pyra/Mythra as a dual character in a time when most people thought it would be Rex instead.
There's just so many memories I have in relation to this game. A lot of them include the controversial story mode, World of Light.
Now I can understand why people dislike it, but let me plead my case. Subspace Emissary goes hard, there's no denying that, but let's be real here. The gameplay in Subspace is not the best. Smash Bros is a fighting game, not a platformer. Everyone hates the Great Maze. And another thing. I love the cutscenes as much as the next guy, but let's stop pretending they're Scorsese or something.
World of Light understands what a Smash Bros adventure mode should be a lot better. A series of fights that reference series across the gaming spectrum. It's certainly not without its flaws, but it's still a solid 30 hours of fun. I'm not saying that Subspace is better or worse than WoL though, cuz in all honesty I think their pros and cons equalize each other out. Expect a Subspace review at some point.
I've gone on far too long here. The biggest stain on this game's magnificence is the absolutely inexcusably bad netcode and online ranking system. Seriously, it's terrible and at times unplayable. Nintendo is literally the richest company in Japan. They should be able to figure out how to make a functional and consistent netcode for a super precise fighting game. But even that is not enough to lower the score of this masterpiece of culture.
Makes me wonder what Smash 6 is gonna look like. If it was up to me, I would just port Smash Ultimate to the next console with a few new characters or something (Waluigi?). Or they could go the complete opposite direction, and reduce the roster to like 30 or 40 and transform it into a 3D fighter or something. Who knows. Well I guess Sakurai knows.