SUPER SMASH BROS. ULTIMATE - RISING GAUNTLET
This story mode has an extremely simple plot - You’re a rookie, and want to rise to the top. All characters can be played as from the start and be switched at any point, with separate “face” and “heel” qualifiers for each character - faces get cheered for victory, while heels get booed, the crowd is completely absent in training battles, but way more engaged than it was in even 64 for rival and boss battles
TRAINING AND ALLIES:
These are essentially just Spirits, as the gameplay of the mode is borderline identical to WOL. Instead of being brainwashed evil souls, these are just the characters - albeit represented as PNGs - setting up challenges for you to overcome. They all have non-voiced win, loss, and start quotes for their battles (sans silent characters). Spirit summons, shops, and food don’t exist, but enhancement does
EXPERIENCE AND RIVALS BATTLES:
Each individual character has an experience level that increases the more they’re played as, weaker spirits gives more experience when used - this powers them up and gives them more slots for allies
Walking through the map, you’ll walk into boxing rings - here you HAVE TO fight 4 characters in a row, and will be trapped in there until you face them. You can choose the order, but don’t get any second chances. Winning gives the opponent a lot of experience, losing only gives a little - generally, the opponents here will be ones you haven’t let get much experience, so boxing rings allow you to be able to swap out a character without them being too underleveled for your part of the story.
BOSSES:
Traditional Smash boss fights do appear, along with solo battles against buffed stage bosses and allies for both - however, the final boss isn’t big, isn’t bad, and isn’t even really a boss, it’s just a random fighter from the roster! Kind of… the character choice for final boss is the single character you’ve played as least (or a random one of them if you’ve got multiple 0-played) with a random alt costume - not just in the story mode, but the entire game. They don’t have allies, but they’re so fast (both in movement and attacks) and strong you may need to return and grind for allies - take them on, Battlefield-Form FD with no items (unless an ally gives you one), to win the title of THE Super Smash Brother!