My Top 10 Classic Mode campaigns in no particular order:
- Mario actually has one of the best Classic Mode campaigns in my opinion: Traveling around Nintendo's franchises like he travels around the world in Odyssey, he fights against the main characters from each franchise he visits. His penultimate battle takes him back to his own series for a climactic battle against the Koopalings and Bowser Jr. as they are recurring boss characters in his own series. His final battle is the classic final boss battle against Bowser, who transforms into Giga Bowser upon defeat.
- Luigi is my favorite character, and I think he has one of the best routes as well, fighting all the creepy/scary characters as a reference to his status as Nintendo's premiere (unwilling) ghostbuster. His penultimate battle is a climactic fight as well, but in a different way from other penultimate climax battles in that it's purely in a challenging manner; you fight a normal character first, then a giant character after you KO the first one. The final boss is a standard boss, but it is against Dracula who fits with the theme of the route and gives Luigi an extremely cool final boss.
- Jigglypuff, despite not being one of my favorites, also has one of my favorite routes, and one of the best routes as well: She fights every fighter who debuted in the original Super Smash Bros. for 64, and the stage selection and music takes from the original SSB as well. They go mostly in order starting with Link who was the first fighter fought in the original 1P Game mode, and the fighters who don't have a stage from 64 (Samus and Fox) are fought in the third and fourth battles. Like Luigi, she gets a climactic penultimate match which involves a Free-For-All against every single fighter from the original SSB that had to be unlocked, set to the original final boss theme on Battlefield. Her final boss is against Giant Donkey Kong as a throwback to one of the original SSB midbosses, and the very first SSB midboss to be fought.
- I really, really like the theme of his campaign: Referencing his eternal rivalry with the most iconic videogame character of all time, Bowser fights characters whose default colors associate with the color red. His penultimate and final boss fights reverse the usual trend of Ultimate's climactic fights: the penultimate battle is the standard boss fight, which is the predominantly red Rathalos in this case, and the final boss is against Mario himself, who takes a book out of Bowser's book this time; you first fight him as normal, but when he is KOed, he transforms into Metal Mario who is one of the original SSB midbosses, with his iconic battle theme.
- Dr. Mario's Classic Route references the three viruses from his own series, where he must fight characters with colors corresponding to them (Red, Yellow, and Blue). The music for each of them also comes from his own series as well, with the battles alternating between the Chill and Fever tracks. His penultimate battle, while conforming to the theme, still manages to be what I consider to be a climactic battle as it is against three Warios, a reference to his 64 outing where the two were rivals of each other (and possibly becoming each other's true final boss if requirements were met) and the music track does not play any of Dr. Mario's themes this time around (it plays Battle A from Tetris which is a different puzzle game from Dr. Mario's, if similiar in controls). I also like that his final boss is against Master Hand since it means I can still take a Mario to fight against Master Hand in Classic Mode without needing Co-Op.
- My second favorite character after Luigi, I also really like his campaign and find it to be one of the best ones: Robin will always fight a pair of characters, where one uses mainly electric moves, and the other uses mainly fire moves, which is a reference to Robin's most often used magic (thunder spells being his magic of choice, and fire spells being the second-most used after that). Music is mostly taken from the Fire Emblem series, mainly Fire Emblem Awakening which is a neat touch. His penultimate battle is also a climactic battle; it differs from the other battles in that it is against only one character, and it is against the opposite-gender Robin on Arena Ferox (a Fire Emblem stage), conforming with the route's theme and a neat reference to the fact that you end up fighting against a possessed version of yourself in Awakening proper. The final boss is against Master Hand, who is the only boss character who possess both electric and fire attacks at base (Bowser must transform into Giga Bowser to gain the electric element, Dracula's lightning wave is actually an aura attack, Ganon's attacks which aren't electricity-based are dark-based, as is the case for Crazy Hand's, and finally; Marx, Galleom, and Rathalos lack electric element attacks).
- Much like Bowser, I really, really dig the theme of this route: Inkling faces off against fighters with alternate color palettes that match the color schemes of the stage they're faced on while music from the Splatoon series plays, which is both a reference to the Turf Wars and that Splatoon's ink is really, really colorful. Her penultimate battle, much like Robin, is a climactic battle against Inkling on Moray Towers (Splatoon's stage rep), though unlike Robin, it is a Free-For-All battle against a female and male Inkling wearing gear from Splatoon's single-player mode (unless you're using that costume, in which case it's the default costume for that particular gender). Her final boss is also against Marx, whose wings are multi-colored, set to the final phase music track of Splatoon's Final Boss for a satisfying (and thematic) end to her campaign.
- I find Piranha Plant's Classic Route extremely satisfying for the same reason as Jigglypuff's: Piranha Plant's opponents are all fighters who reference a particular Smash game, but unlike Jigglypuff who references the original Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 64, Piranha Plant's campaign references the very game you're playing, and the newest game in the series: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. So every fighter is against all the newcomers appearing in Ultimate's base roster in order of appearance based around the newcomers with unique movesets, starting with a horde battle against Inklings who was the very first confirmed newcomer and ending with the penultimate battle against Incineroar who was the last confirmed base roster newcomer. The stage picks and music selections are based around the newcomers who aren't echo fighters, with one of the echo fighters being fought alongside one of the unique newcomers after the horde battle against the Inklings (with Echo fighters who come from the same series as one of the newcomers being paired up with that newcomer respectively). The final boss is Rathalos who comes from a newly represented franchise AND is a relative newcomer to the world of videogames, unlike Dracula (who also hails from a newly repped franchise in Smash; but Castlevania's Dracula is one of the oldest videogame bosses in existence compared to Rathalos).
- Hero's campaign is very interesting and also really cool: His campaign is set up partly like a standard Dragon Quest game and partly to pay homage to Dragon Quest in general. Unlike most Classic Routes, it features a defined beginning, a defined middle, and a defined end, and most of the Hero's fights will be Stamina battles to reference the typical Dragon Quest HP stat (which is also a typical stat in JRPGs in general), and every fight will have Dragon Quest music play for them. In-between the beginning, the middle, and the end, you fight one stamina battle against one of the more recent DQ Heros and a Tiny smash fighter referencing one of their companions, then one battle against one of the older heroes (Eleven > Four, as well as Eight > Three). The beginning battle is a stamina battle against many blue Kirbies and a red Kirby who each have low HP compared to you, which reference your typical first DQ battle against the iconic DQ enemy Slime. The middle battle is a stamina battle against Rathalos, which could be a reference to a certain battle against a dragon in the original Dragon Quest as well as being similiar to a standard RPG boss battle due to the use of Stamina for the Hero. The final battle is a standard battle against Male Robin, who transforms into an enormous Charizard when KOed which reference the Dragonlord and his two phases; the very first Final Boss of the entire Dragon Quest series. As this battle is the only battle in the entire campaign where you must defeat and can be defeated by being knocked out after an entire series of Stamina battles, it turns what is essentially your standard Smash fight with a slightly unique bend into one of the most memorable battles in this campaign, and that's also why Hero's Classic Route is one of my favorite campaigns in the entire game, as well as one of the best.
- Banjo & Kazooie is one of my favorite characters in Smash to date (& my third favorite videogame character in general) and their Classic Route is one of my favorite Classic Routes, as well as one of the best IMO: His theme is against iconic duos with a lifelong relationship with each other, and the majority of it's stage + music selection also pulls double-duty in referencing B&K's very first adventure together. It starts with Duck Hunt Duo palette swapped to reference Banjo & Kazooie themselves on Spiral Mountain set to their Main Theme, before following up with two battles against other fighters who come in a two-in-one deal on stages that reference Treasure Trove Cove and Freezeezy Peak. From there, the duo fights team battles on stages meant to represent Gobi's Valley and Mad Monster Mansion. Finally, it culminates in a climactic penultimate battle against Diddy Kong and Donkey Kong on Kongo Jungle with Donkey Kong Country music playing, referencing that Banjo debuted in Diddy Kong Racing and that their creator turned the DK series into the heavy hitter that it is today. The Final Battle is against both Master Hand and Crazy Hand which conforms to their theme (as the Hands have become an iconic duo themselves; they even have attacks that require them both to cooperate and attack in tandem, like Banjo & Kazooie does), and reference Super Smash Bros. itself due to the stage being the usual Final Destination, and the music being the one which plays when you fight both Hands in this game, and this is actually very appropriate for Banjo & Kazooie because both series debuted on the same console (the release of their first games are even within a year of each other).
There's also a couple other Classic Routes that I really like for their themes, but didn't make it to the Top 10, being
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