Back from a long day of work, and I watched the Smash Ultimate Direct. This was amazing Direct. Breaking down my thoughts:
Simon Belmont's reveal was pretty cool. I figured it was him from the moment they showed what was inside, but man, shocking to see that Luigi straight up died in that trailer! Simon Belmont's arrival was badass. He has a nice moveset too, and while I would've preferred his red-hair design, I think his classic NES look here looks great! Nice to see he has an Echo in the form of Richter too. Dracula's Castle looks like a nice stage, and Dracula as a stage boss looks cool too. The fact it's getting 34 music tracks is awesome as well, especially with Castlevania's great soundtrack.
*Sakurai mentions the reveal of two more Echo Fighters, and there is an immediate transition to the Castle Siege stage.* And then, the shocking reveal that made me scream from excitement:
CHROM IS FINALLY IN SMASH AS A PLAYABLE FIGHTER!
My reaction:
Yes, I was THAT excited when Chrom was revealed! Not only is he my first and favorite Fire Emblem lord in the series, my second most wanted in the Smash 4 days was FINALLY added to Smash as a playable fighter. I remember feeling so hurt seeing how brutally deconfirmed he was back then, so to see him playable in this game made me EXTREMELY happy! I remember my interest in Chrom returning with the reveal of Echo Fighters, and voila, Chrom was added as an Echo. What's even more surprising is that Chrom wasn't an Echo of Ike like myself and many others thought, but an Echo of Roy! Upon closer inspection, his moveset actually references some of the other FE fighters in Smash, so it's nice how Chrom's moveset is almost like a celebration of Fire Emblem in Smash!
And congrats to
Opossum
for finally getting your most wanted! As a fellow Chrom fan, you can imagine that I was just as happy as you were when Chrom was revealed! No doubt Chrom will be one of my mains for Smash Ultimate! I'm really looking forward to playing as him!
Dark Samus as an Echo of Samus is cool too. I didn't care for Dark Samus all that much, but it's still quite nice to see Dark Samus was added as a playable fighter, especially because of popular she was!
Can't say much about the returning stages, but Brinstar Depths looks fantastic in HD! I'm also really happy that Fountain of Dreams is back! As for the new stages, New Donk City looks cool. It's basically Prism Tower in terms of how it plays out (a.k.a, you're traveling up the main tower) but with different visuals and intractable stage elements. We already knew about Battlefield forms and the stage hazard toggle, but I'm still very happy to see both of these features were added. We can finally pick far more stages for competitive play than in the past!
Stage morph is a surprising addition. Not sure if I'll use it myself though, but it's a neat concept.
I really like how all stages from a given video game franchise now share the same, selectable music! That's great! I can now have something like Dialga and Palkia's Battle theme playing in N's Castle!
Rather neat how Smash Ultimate can turn your Switch into a portable music player, but I'm not sure if I'll use it myself (I mean, when I saw "Workout tunes" and then they showed this new portability feature, I almost laughed just at the thought of carrying your Switch with you while working out at a gym).
We've got some neat new items too. Nice to see the Fire Emblem series finally has its own Smash item in the form of the Killing Edge (which has a pretty cool effect here too), the Ramblin' Evil Mushroom looks like it'll be a pain to go up against with the way it reverses your controls, and the Rage Blaster is interesting with the way its the Smash blaster but with a built in rage-mechanic (basically Lucario but in item form).
Can't say much about the PokeBall portion, but RIP Mimikyu, even if I didn't care for it very much prior to its deconfirmation. Alolan Exeggutor looks fun though.
As for Assist Trophies, Zero looks cool, and the Evil Moon along with Rathalos look rather OP. Kinda cool that Rathalos is both a stage boss and an Assist Trophy at the same time too. I wonder if other Stage bosses will have this treatment. Sad to see that Ashley is an Assist Trophy yet again though. RIP Shovel Knight as well.
As for some the other things revealed, I'm glad they're bringing back the good ol' Classic Mode and not the one from Smash WiiU. The Final Smash meter is a neat idea for parties, but I don't see myself using that much. Squad Strike and Smashdown look decent, and it's cool how the Training Mode now has a grid for measuring knockback and special move trajectory.
The menu looks nice too. That new mode they are hiding is definitely Adventure Mode though. Will it be Melee's Adventure mode or Brawl's Adventure mode? Only time will tell.
And the reveal at the end: at first, when they showed all the hero characters fighting their rivals/villains in the Smash roster, I thought this was revealing the new Adventure mode, but when they showed Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong, I had a feeling K. Rool would be the reveal (I mean, the only other plausible DK newcomer was Dixie, and no way would she be attacking DK's hut), and I was right. His reveal was trailer hilarious! First you had King Dedede who completely trolled Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong with his K. Role costume, and the way Dedede laughs like crazy afterward almost felt like Sakurai was trolling with the K. Rool fans for a second. That'd be quite a brutal deconfirmation, so I was hoping to see the real K. Rool show up and knock Dedede away. Turns out it happened, and I laughed even more seeing that scene as well as Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong's reaction. His moveset looks fun, though I don't see myself using him. K. Rool wasn't a character I was interested in seeing in Smash, but I am
very happy for his fans. He's been requested since the Brawl days, so it's great to see the fans finally got what they wanted after so long. Congrats, K. Rool fans! You deserved it.
10/10 Direct overall. All the character reveals were great, the new modes and other stuff are looking quite good, and Chrom will definitely be one of my mains alongside Greninja for this game!
