Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

• 1. A Last Request

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  Super Smash Bros. Ultimate began with a dying wish. Nintendo president Satoru Iwata died in 2015. His final request to series director Masahiro Sakurai was to bring Super Smash Bros. to the Nintendo Switch. Sakurai honored that request by setting a single goal for the project: reunite every fighter the series had ever featured. Every character from every previous game would return. No entry in the series had attempted this. On the 7th of December 2018, the game shipped for the Nintendo Switch and delivered on that ambition. It brought together characters from Nintendo's history alongside fighters from dozens of third-party franchises, competing in arena combat to knock each other out of play. The result earned near-universal critical acclaim and sold in record numbers for the genre. It built a competitive community that filled arenas and attracted prize pools reaching hundreds of thousands of dollars. Sakurai himself believed that assembling this complete roster might never be feasible for any future entry in the series.

• 2. Everyone Is Here

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  Ridley had been the subject of fan requests for years. As far back as 2008, Sakurai acknowledged that Ridley was a high-demand character but believed adding him was "impossible" without sacrificing his size for balancing. For Ultimate, Sakurai studied the character's artwork and redesigned him from the ground up, adjusting his proportions so he could stand upright. That careful process was how the team approached the full roster.

  Planning for the project had begun by December 2015, while downloadable content for the previous game was still in development. The same studios, Bandai Namco Studios and Sora Ltd., returned for Ultimate. Sakurai said their involvement sped up the preparation process significantly. His goal was to bring back all 63 fighters from past games alongside 11 newcomers in the base game, a challenge with significant licensing and development cost implications. Sakurai later called the combined effort to gather every character, music track, stage setting, and element "unprecedented."

  Incineroar, from Pokemon Sun and Moon, had not been created yet when development decisions were being made. The team left a space open for a Sun and Moon Pokemon and came back to fill it later. The Inklings from the Splatoon series, among the 11 newcomers, brought a technical problem of their own. Their ink mechanic proved difficult to implement because of how it interacted with the game's environments.

  For Snake's audio, the team re-used voice lines that David Hayter had previously recorded for the character. Xander Mobus, who had voiced Master Hand, Crazy Hand, and the announcer in the previous game, returned with new voice clips. Localization manager Nate Bihldorff noted that the team built Ultimate from scratch with new assets. The lighting effects and texture rendering were significantly upgraded from the Wii U version. Sakurai also intended to add more fighters through downloadable content after launch, beyond the 74 characters in the base game.

• 3. The Arena

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  103 stages shipped with Super Smash Bros. Ultimate at launch, with one more added later through a free update. Most carry dynamic hazards that players can switch off in the match rules. Every stage also offers an alternative Battlefield or Omega layout for standardized play. Stage Morph, a feature new to Ultimate, lets players choose two stages that the game alternates between at set intervals during a single match.

  Each character carries a percentage meter that rises with every hit received. The higher that number climbs, the farther opponents can launch them. A fighter sent past the stage boundary and unable to return is eliminated. Three victory conditions shape how matches play out: Stock mode gives each player a set number of lives, Timed mode awards points for knockouts within a time limit, and Stamina mode replaces the percentage meter with a hit point total. Players can save their preferred rule configurations as presets.

  Poke Balls and Assist Trophies are among the items that spawn at random during battles. Poke Balls release Pokemon to fight for whoever throws them. Assist Trophies summon non-playable characters to aid the user, and in Timed matches they can be defeated by opponents to earn points. Each character has a unique Final Smash attack, triggered by collecting a Smash Ball or filling a special meter; both options can be toggled off entirely in the match settings.

  Smashdown, Squad Strike, and Tourney are modes new to Ultimate. Smashdown prevents any character from being chosen twice within a set. Squad Strike has players compete as teams of three or five. Tourney mode supports elimination brackets of up to 32 players. Version 3.0, released in April 2019, added a Stage Builder for creating and sharing custom arenas through Nintendo's online service. An update in May 2019 added limited support for the Nintendo Labo VR Kit, allowing players to view computer-only matches or play a one-on-one session against the computer in virtual reality.

• 4. A Thousand Tracks

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  Hideki Sakamoto composed "Lifelight," the main theme of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and the piece forms the basis for most of the game's original music. Its creation grew from an unusually collaborative process. Sakurai began contacting composers and arrangers more than a year before the game's release. He provided them with a database of over a thousand suggested track ideas. Composers were also invited to submit their own personal favorites, and those choices were given priority for inclusion. Sakurai preferred that arrangements retain the spirit of the original games, but he generally left the creative direction to each composer.

  The resulting soundtrack runs to over 1,000 tracks in total, drawn from franchises represented throughout the game. A feature new to Ultimate tied music to specific franchises rather than to individual stages. Players could hear a franchise's music on any related stage, not just one assigned arena. Custom playlists could also be built from those tracks for use outside of matches. With the Switch in handheld standby mode, more than 900 of those tracks could be played as audio, effectively turning the console into a portable game music library. The Verge specifically praised the game's massive soundtrack and this portable listening capability in its coverage. Each DLC fighter added after launch brought a new stage and additional music tracks into the library, extending the catalog until October 2021.

• 5. Spirits and World of Light

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  The Spirit battle for Rayquaza, a flying dragon Pokemon, requires players to defeat a large version of Ridley recolored to match the creature. Wind effects blow across the stage throughout the encounter. Players are encouraged to equip a Spirit offering wind resistance or extra damage against giant opponents. That blend of visual reference, stage condition, and strategic choice characterizes the Spirits mechanic throughout the game. Spirits replaced the collectible trophies of earlier Super Smash Bros. games, with each Spirit tied to a character or creature from a represented franchise.

  Players earn Spirits by completing pre-made challenges called Spirit Battles. In these, one or more of the game's fighters embody the Spirit in question, alongside specific stage effects and level conditions. Spirits can be leveled up over time; certain ones reach an "enhanced" form at maximum level but return to level 1 upon getting there. Players can also convert Spirits into Cores to summon new ones. Nintendo hosts limited-time Spirit events with specific Spirits available only during the event window before entering the rotating Spirit Board. The development team chose this system partly out of necessity. Building character models for every franchise in the game was beyond the team's resources. Spirits let them incorporate far more characters and assets without that overhead.

  World of Light, the game's Adventure mode, uses the Spirits mechanic as its core structure. The mode opens with an entity called Galeem destroying the Smash Bros. world, vaporizing nearly all of the fighters. Only Kirby evades the attack, using his Warp Star to escape. Players explore the world Galeem constructs in the original's place, rescuing captured fighters and collecting Spirits to progress. After Galeem falls, a second entity, Dharkon, emerges and wages war against the victor. The ending varies by player choice: defeat only Galeem and Dharkon plunges the world into darkness; defeat only Dharkon and Galeem floods the universe with light. By defeating equal numbers of light and dark Spirits on the final map, a player can challenge and defeat both simultaneously, freeing all Spirits. Sakurai said the mode was inspired by the Subspace Emissary from Brawl, released in 2008. He chose to open it with a cataclysmic event because he believed it would leave a greater impact on players.

• 6. The Fighter Passes

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  Sora, the hero of the Kingdom Hearts series, had topped the fan-requested character vote for the previous Super Smash Bros. game in 2015. For years, Sakurai and his team assumed that including him would be impossible. The legal situation surrounding Kingdom Hearts involved both Disney and Square Enix, and the complexity seemed insurmountable. That changed when Sakurai met a Disney representative at an awards venue, which opened negotiations that none of the parties had expected to hold. Nintendo, Disney, and Square Enix all participated in overseeing Sora's inclusion, following specific limitations and guidelines throughout.

  The downloadable content for Ultimate was organized into two Fighters Passes. Nintendo had chosen which characters to add internally by November 2018. Piranha Plant from the Mario series was the first addition, available in January 2019 at no charge to players who registered the game with a My Nintendo account before that month ended. Sakurai chose Piranha Plant specifically to add diversity to the roster. The first Fighters Pass featured five characters. Joker from Persona 5 came first, followed by the Hero from Dragon Quest, Banjo and Kazooie, Terry Bogard from Fatal Fury, and Byleth from Fire Emblem: Three Houses. Sakurai said Joker and characters like him were chosen because they were "emblematic" of what Ultimate wanted to add. He believed they would "bring just a whole different level of fun and enjoyment for players."

  Banjo and Kazooie carried their own negotiating story. They were the second most requested characters in a Nintendo-sanctioned fan vote from 2015. The property was owned by Microsoft through its acquisition of Rare. Nintendo met Rare studio head Craig Duncan at E3 2018. Duncan saw it as "a great opportunity" and agreed, connecting the two development teams. Phil Spencer, head of Xbox, called negotiating the inclusion "an easy deal to make" given Microsoft's partnership with Nintendo.

  Fighters Pass Volume 2 brought six additional fighters. Min Min from ARMS and Steve from Minecraft arrived first, followed by Sephiroth from Final Fantasy VII, then Pyra and Mythra from Xenoblade Chronicles 2, Kazuya Mishima from Tekken, and finally Sora. Steve's mechanics required the development team to rework every stage in the game to accommodate his gameplay. Daniel Kaplan of Mojang Studios said discussions about Minecraft content in Super Smash Bros. had started roughly five years before Steve's October 2020 release. Players could unlock Sephiroth a few days early by defeating him in a limited-time boss event called the "Sephiroth Challenge." COVID-19 disrupted development of the second pass. Stay-at-home orders in Japan during 2020 forced Sakurai and his team to work remotely. The Sora Challenger Pack, the final addition, included a promotional tie-in with the 2020 rhythm game Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory. Players with Melody of Memory save data on their Switch could unlock the music track "Dearly Beloved (Swing Version)."

• 7. Universal Acclaim

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  Jeuxvideo.com, a French video game website, called Super Smash Bros. Ultimate the best game in its series. The site praised features that "brilliantly mix gargantuan content with nostalgia." That assessment aligned with the broader critical consensus. The review aggregator Metacritic recorded "universal acclaim" for the game. OpenCritic found that 97% of critics recommended it. IGN praised the decision to bring back every character as "ambitious and excellent." Bleacher Report highlighted the colorful art style, faster gameplay, and distinctive stages. The game's online mode drew a sharply different response. Players reported significant lag even over wired connections, and the matchmaking system frequently ignored players' stated rule preferences. Friends found it difficult to join each other's sessions over those with random opponents. Complaints on the game's subreddit grew numerous enough that administrators forwarded all of them to a single dedicated thread.

  Shortly after launch, Nintendo of America issued an apology over Mr. Game and Watch. In one of his attacks, the character assumed the appearance of a Native American wearing a feather and loincloth. The animation was a reference to Fire Attack, a 1982 game, and some users on social media described the depiction as racist. Nintendo removed it in an update. Two weeks before the game's release, a leaked copy had already spread across the internet. Nintendo issued copyright strikes against YouTube videos using data mined from the leak. Fans coordinated to contain spoilers, particularly for the World of Light story mode.

  Sales followed the critical enthusiasm at a scale the series had not seen before. In Japan, the game sold 1.2 million copies in its first three days, outselling both Pokemon: Let's Go and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild in the region. The Association for UK Interactive Entertainment reported physical launch sales 302% higher than those for Super Smash Bros. for Wii U. They were 233% higher than the 3DS version and 62.5% higher than Brawl. Within 11 days in the United States, the game had sold more than three million copies, making it the fastest-selling Nintendo Switch game in the country. Worldwide shipments reached an estimated five million copies within the first three days. In January 2019, Nintendo announced that global shipments had exceeded 12.08 million copies. By September 2020, the game had shipped over 21.10 million copies. That figure surpassed the long-standing record previously held by Street Fighter II. As of December 2025, total sales have reached over 37 million copies. At The Game Awards 2019, Ultimate received nominations for Game of the Year, Best Fighting Game, and Best Family Game.

• 8. Esports

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  EVO 2019, held August 2-4, featured Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as one of its main events. With 3,534 entrants, it became the largest offline Smash Bros. tournament ever held. Over 279,000 viewers watched the Top 8 finals online at the same time, setting a new concurrent viewership record for EVO.

  In February 2020, organizers announced that the Smash World Tour would feature both Smash Bros. Melee and Ultimate competitors for a grand prize pool of $250,000. International qualifiers would feed into a grand finals held in the United States. COVID-19 disrupted those plans, postponing or canceling several qualifiers before they could be completed. That May, top Smash Bros. Melee player Hungrybox partnered with NFL running back Le'Veon Bell and esports organization Team Liquid. Together they hosted an online tournament called The Box, with a $10,000 prize pool. The Smash World Tour relaunched in 2021 with a combination of online and offline qualifiers, concluding with an offline championship.

  In 2022, an officially licensed circuit called the Panda Cup was introduced, covering both Melee and Ultimate. On the 24th of November 2022, Nintendo announced that the Smash World Tour 2022 could not continue because it did not hold a license from Nintendo. Accusations against Panda CEO Alan Bunney prompted many players who had qualified for the Panda Cup to withdraw. Both the Panda Cup and the Smash World Tour 2022 Championships were cancelled as a result. The Smash World Tour 2023 was cancelled as well, leaving the question of a formally licensed competitive circuit for the game unresolved.