Kinda funny to be posting this right after the Nickelodeon All-Stars Brawl review… I want to be clear, Smash Ultimate is very much the better game, but Nick Brawl is a cool new alternative that has a lot of potential if Nickelodeon decide to keep it going past the first game.

Well anyways, Smash Ultimate is done. We finally got the last DLC in the second and last Fighter Pass. No more speculation, no more big updates for the game (just some possible balance patches), this is the final Smash Ultimate.

I’ve done a couple Smash-related posts on the old website, mostly speculation/wishlist stuff for the DLC, alongside my review of the game. I figure, why not talk about all the DLC characters now that they’re all released.

In my mind there’s 2 important things about DLC characters in Smash specifically: what they represent (historical importance in gaming, and to Nintendo specifically), and how they play. If they’re fun to play, that’s good. If they’re also an interesting choice as far as representing something important or interesting in gaming, that’s even better. I think most of the DLC here does at least one of those, which is good.

So I will talk about those aspects of each of the 12 DLC characters.

This is all just for fun, I do think the DLC is worth getting if you’re a Smash fan either way, though it is a bit on the expensive side (I think DLC characters should be a bit cheaper than they are, I will expand on that idea later).

Let’s go!

Well it happened. After recently predicting that Directs were a thing of the past because Nintendo replaced them with something I figured was better, Directs are making a comeback after not having any full-length ones since September 2019. I really liked the style Nintendo went with in 2020, with them doing shadow drops of game announcements 2 months before releasing the game, and having mini Directs for third-parties and indies. There’s many advantages to that, like keeping expectations in check (unlike, say, Cyberpunk, which had a fake “gameplay” trailer YEARS before release with a ton of features that weren’t even in the final game) and compressing the entire hype cycle to almost no time at all. It was just great seeing a game and knowing it would be in my Switch in just 2 months… even if Origami King sucked. I’d argue it’s objectively superior to announce games that way than having Directs and similar types of events. I mean, E3 is always just a pile of “here’s all these games you won’t be able to play for another 3 years and they’ll suck anyways”.

But I can’t deny the appeal of a Direct-style presentation. A bunch of announcements and such in one spot is fun. So even though I don’t usually post reactions to Directs… why not this time? The last proper non-mini Direct was literally in 2019, and this is a long boy with 50 minutes of content. Not gonna even attempt predictions, we just know about a Smash character (I mean, what else would they announce for Smash that’s worth even having the game in a direct for?) and… games for the next 4 months. Not much to go by and there’s not any rumors of note. My expectations are not very high, but it’s mostly because the Switch already has a lot of stuff announced for 2020, so who knows how much more it might get.

Note that I am writing this intro before seeing the Direct, and that I’m writing my reactions as I’m watching. I’ll include a more thought-out overall thoughts section at the end once the Direct is over (and I’ll edit my reactions to make sure this is readable).

Well it’s starting in a minute now, so let’s go!