Why Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Should be the Last Game in the Series

Disclaimer: This piece is purely the opinion of its author, and does not reflect the position of Smashboards or its affiliates.

With the semi-recent announcement of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate for the Switch, many thoughts about the game itself and what’s in store for the series as a whole, have been running through my head. I’m excited for it, but I’ve also had some controversial thoughts.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate should be the last game in the series(at least for a long while). I’m talking at least ten years, if not twenty.

I know, it’s a wild take, but hear me out on this.

1. Where will the series even go after Ultimate?

You know how many Melee fans choose to stick to Melee? If Ultimate is done well enough, why even bother with a totally new Super Smash Bros. game unless it’s going to reuse assets? It already features over 70 characters, with the final roster expected to be somewhere between 75-80. Ultimate contains over 100 stages from various Smash Bros. games, both new and old. The new game will have practically everything, which will have many players asking, “why bother migrating to a new game when we have this one?” There’s simply so much content in it that it would be difficult to replicate.

To my previous question, I tried coming up with a few answers, and well...

2. To put it lightly, asking Nintendo to cater to esports is a stretch.

I know Nintendo Versus now exists (which is fantastic) but there’s still a long way for Super Smash Bros. with its relation to esports as a whole. In the grand scheme of things Smash is a very small speck of dust. Meanwhile, there are other competitors in the Platform Fighting genre, Rivals of Aether, Icons: Combat Arena, Slap City, and more can help garner more esports popularity. If Nintendo decided to fully commit to esports for another Smash Bros. game, it would take a long time.

3. Super Smash Bros Ultimate is, as a whole, a game with a 7-year-long development cycle

Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U began formal development in early 2012 (informal development and business chats could have been sooner, starting from 2010-2011) Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is coming out at the end of 2018, assuming there are no delays.

As an indie game developer, I do know that development tools get better, but there’s nowhere for the series to go unless its creators export a significant amount of content.

4. New content doesn’t need to be in a new game.

I can understand the concern about Smash Ultimate not having enough new content, but that won’t be as big of a deal on launch day. Back in the old days of gaming, expansions needed their own separate disc. Now, we see all forms of expansions, such as DLC, and season passes. New content is nice, but with a ton of content already, why even bother making a whole separate game when it could easily merge into this one?

5. Nobody has the answer, or will for a long time

If it’s going to have a reboot, a big break is necessary. Sure, a lot of people will be sad over character and stage cuts. People will try preemptively ask “How do you top Smash Bros. Ultimate?” or “How do you go in a direction different enough to avoid complaint and still gain traction?” but frankly, that’s a tough question for anyone to answer. It’s a question that deserves a lot of thought, and nobody has the answers. No, a roster cutting almost every character won’t fix the main problem. Yes, people won't have the answer for a along time, if ever.

However, not all is gloom. I believe there is an answer to this: I’ll be covering this answer in the Part Two of this article.

Author's Notes: What are your thoughts? Do you agree? What direction would you like to see a Super Smash Bros. Reboot in? Let us know in the comments below!

 

I was thinking this should be the last game as well. I'm so happy they didn't have any cuts, that was really my biggest wish, and they did me one better and brought everyone back, i don't know if they could do that for another game down the road while keeping up with new content.

I'm hoping they keep this game going for awhile, with balance patches and DLC characters and other stuff here and there, but stretch it out more than they did for 4, I know after awhile they stopped the balance patches and said they weren't doing it anymore, hopefully they don't do that with Ultimate.

I guess I'm hoping they do what games like League of Legends does, constant updates to the game, both balance changes and DLC, that's what would make this game really Ultimate and keep it huge for years to come.

 

Honestly, I wish ALL of Nintendo restarted and rebooted.

 

yeah not happening, theres plenty of places the series can still go

how would you even reboot a series like smash? youd just end up with much of the same characters

 

This question can be asked for any game that has out-performed prior games. A good example of this is The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. This game introduced an open world free from the restrictions of having to follow a pre-ordained path. It offered new sets of clothing and armor, introduced a variety of weapons, bows, and shields to choose from, a new flurry rush mechanic, &c. How could any other Zelda game after BotW top it? It is a masterpiece, or so it could be argued. I personally think it is and is currently the best Zelda game to date.

One of the reasons why certain fans might be excited for SSBU is because of the return of the Ice Climbers, Wolf, and Snake. They went MIA and now they've returned. But, why does the large number of characters and stages even matter? More often than not, characters who aren't viable are often neglected except by certain people. You'll still have fans of certain characters, but even they'll drop them for someone else who is viable. I don't want to name-drop, but I want to illustrate my point. When SSBB was released, HugS wasn't pleased with Samus, so he dropped her for R.O.B.

Even recently, I saw another Samus main say that if Samus isn't good in SSBU, he would drop her. There are loyalists like myself, but for many, winning is more important than your favorite character. (I try to win, but even I know I need back-up with other characters who can perform better.) Then there's the stages. While it's great for a casual setting to have a huge variety of characters and stages to play on, the competitive scene doesn't respond the same. 103 stages will be reduced probably to 20 stages or less. So, even with SSBM being 17 years old, those fans couldn't care less about the amount of content, much less the new content.

Another thing I want to bring up before wrapping this up is the percentage of time spent on other aspects of the game. How often do competitive players play on Stamina Mode, or Adventure Mode, or any other mode outside of your typical 1v1 or 2v2? Who will play with hazards on, or with Final Smash meters on? Will most of the time spent on these be less than 1%? From my own experience, I'd say it's less than 1%. When I play SSB4, I often go on For Glory or I play against friends, or even my own brother. The only time I ever goofed off was during the SSB and early SSBM era. It all changed when I became aware of Smash World Forums.

 

No more Smash games? Why, that sounds absolutely divine!

 

Disappointed how?

The focus seems to be on filling up the roster a lot more than it is making good choices. For the game releasing in December, I would've expected a lot more actually new characters to be confirmed by now.

 

I honestly just skipped the OP to writing my post because I realized already agree with it. Yes, Smash Ultimate should be the last smash. At least for a long time. I want Sakurai to rest since Smash is sure to peak again with Ultimate.

Anything else is unnecessary.

 

I think one direction they can go in the future would be to port the game, use Ultimate as the base (With any and all of the DLC it might get included) and then focus almost entirely on adding new content to a new rendition of Ultimate every time we get a new console, but then again that isn't really much of a new game, is it? I imagine it would also be more difficult to market than previous Smash games as well for that reason, because it's not really a "new" game, it's really just Ultimate +, so I'm not sure if it's even that good of a solution, but hey, if they just port the game and add new stuff, maybe we can get all the stages back that time and get the dream, EVERYWHERE IS HERE.

But yeah, outside of straight-up porting the game, I'm pretty clueless as to how they could ever top this one (without spending like a quadrillion years developing the game lol), it's kinda living up to it's English namesake of Ultimate, and if there has to be a last game, this one would be a pretty great place to end it at imo. Anyway, I'm interested in seeing what your answer is going to be in part two!

 

The focus seems to be on filling up the roster a lot more than it is making good choices. For the game releasing in December, I would've expected a lot more actually new characters to be confirmed by now.

Every choice made so far has been really good, Ridley, K.Rool, Inkling, Simon are all top tier picks for the roster, and in all honesty, even with the Echoes, every new addition so far has been superior to the nonDLC additions of Smash 4 which had a lot of disappointing choices. He seems to be going for fan demand over anything else this time around. He also blatantly told people not to expect many characters. So I don't see any issues.

Also,

>the focus seems to be on filling up the roster
>I would have expected a lot more new characters to be confirmed by now
These seem to be contradictory statements. We've already gotten 8 new characters so far, with another direct looming in the horizon that will certainly add more. Unless you mean you expcted more NEW characters in, as in, characters from recent IP, in which case, seems more to me like a matter of taste than anything else really.

 

Probably one of the most absurd and s****d post I've ever seen on this website. I can't understand why someone wouldn't want sequels to Ultimate. The original title is "SSB Special" and not "SSB Ultimate". Yes there is a lot of contents but there's no reason for Nintendo to discontinue one of the best franchise they have. While we might not have a game for years, they might do a "deluxe edition" or something like that on the next-gen console by adding more contents to the game. A game can always be improved by adding contents and there are a lot of possibility in Smash. It shouldn't be the last game.

I have a feeling you're gonna like part 2. Stick around.

 

Smash 6 is going to happen at some point, whether you like it or not.
Smash 6 is going to take a massive blow-torch to the roster, just like how Tekken 7 torched the Tag 2 roster, whether we like it or not.
Some of the characters who are going to be cut after ultimate are never going to come back in any smash game in any capacity, whether I like it or not.

My only hope is that Smash 6 (as well as future smash games) are at least good enough to justify Smash's existence beyond Ultimate.

 

This question can be asked for any game that has out-performed prior games. A good example of this is The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. This game introduced an open world free from the restrictions of having to follow a pre-ordained path. It offered new sets of clothing and armor, introduced a variety of weapons, bows, and shields to choose from, a new flurry rush mechanic, &c. How could any other Zelda game after BotW top it? It is a masterpiece, or so it could be argued. I personally think it is and is currently the best Zelda game to date.

One of the reasons why certain fans might be excited for SSBU is because of the return of the Ice Climbers, Wolf, and Snake. They went MIA and now they've returned. But, why does the large number of characters and stages even matter? More often than not, characters who aren't viable are often neglected except by certain people. You'll still have fans of certain characters, but even they'll drop them for someone else who is viable. I don't want to name-drop, but I want to illustrate my point. When SSBB was released, HugS wasn't pleased with Samus, so he dropped her for R.O.B.

Even recently, I saw another Samus main say that if Samus isn't good in SSBU, he would drop her. There are loyalists like myself, but for many, winning is more important than your favorite character. (I try to win, but even I know I need back-up with other characters who can perform better.) Then there's the stages. While it's great for a casual setting to have a huge variety of characters and stages to play on, the competitive scene doesn't respond the same. 103 stages will be reduced probably to 20 stages or less. So, even with SSBM being 17 years old, those fans couldn't care less about the amount of content, much less the new content.

Another thing I want to bring up before wrapping this up is the percentage of time spent on other aspects of the game. How often do competitive players play on Stamina Mode, or Adventure Mode, or any other mode outside of your typical 1v1 or 2v2? Who will play with hazards on, or with Final Smash meters on? Will most of the time spent on these be less than 1%? From my own experience, I'd say it's less than 1%. When I play SSB4, I often go on For Glory or I play against friends, or even my own brother. The only time I ever goofed off was during the SSB and early SSBM era. It all changed when I became aware of Smash World Forums.

I will disagree with BotW being the best Zelda, because it personally doesn't bring to the table what I want in a Zelda game, I think its a fantastic game mind you but it's not the direction I want to see Zelda sticking in. The lack of good dungeons hurt it a lot to me. Then again I also have an innate dislike of open world in games for the most part .

My actual point is more to the rest of your post, the vast majority of people who play Smash do not do so compeitively and do not care about their characters tier placement. There is also likely tons of people who love those bonus modes and play them or else Sakurai wouldn't keep bringing them back or improving them such as Stamina matches now having stock, I remember goofing around tons with Stamina mode in the past and with friends still even in 4.

 

My actual point is more to the rest of your post, the vast majority of people who play Smash do not do so compeitively and do not care about their characters tier placement. There is also likely tons of people who love those bonus modes and play them or else Sakurai wouldn't keep bringing them back or improving them such as Stamina matches now having stock, I remember goofing around tons with Stamina mode in the past and with friends still even in 4.

Of course, but I'm speaking from a competitive perspective, not a casual one.

 

Well, we know it won't be the last game. Sakurai did state something along the lines of how it took a lot of work and time to make every fighter return and it's going to be a long time before we see it happen again.

Which could mean this may be the last Smash for a long time, or the next entry won't include every veteran.(Likely the latter)

Personally, I think it SHOULD be the former as long as we get lasting DLC. We got around a year's worth for Sm4sh, I'd like to see Sakurai actually be able to take a good break and perhaps release a few years worth of DLC before even starting a new game.

Hell, they could even just make a port of Ultimate with a handful of new characters, stages, music, trophies, etc... and I'd pay for it in a heartbeat.

 

It’s not about whether or not there will be another Smash game, it’s about if there should be. Gutting the roster will be highly divisive and we’ll probably have yet another case where people stick to an older entry in the franchise due to perceiving it as being better. Ultimate is almost assuredly the peak, it’s not that I don’t want more Smash forever, it’s just that Ultimate can never be topped, especially if they’re going to make major cuts.

 

I have a feeling you're gonna like part 2. Stick around.

Gonna wait and see then haha

 

Every choice made so far has been really good, Ridley, K.Rool, Inkling, Simon are all top tier picks for the roster, and in all honesty, even with the Echoes, every new addition so far has been superior to the nonDLC additions of Smash 4 which had a lot of disappointing choices.

I agree with being good choices, but the echoes? Seriously? And ignoring the numbers, base Sm4sh's newcomers were just as good as .

He seems to be going for fan demand over anything else this time around.

There's still a bunch of popular requests we've yet to see.

He also blatantly told people not to expect many characters. So I don't see any issues.

That's the problem. Bringing everyone back was nice considering some of the characters, but unpleasant considering the others, and the fact that they spent so much development time on it instead of new content turns me away.

Also,

>the focus seems to be on filling up the roster
>I would have expected a lot more new characters to be confirmed by now
These seem to be contradictory statements. We've already gotten 8 new characters so far, with another direct looming in the horizon that will certainly add more. Unless you mean you expcted more NEW characters in, as in, characters from recent IP, in which case, seems more to me like a matter of taste than anything else really.

I said "actually new". The echoes, while you couldn't play as them before, are just copies of old characters.

 

The new game will have practically everything

Except Waluigi... Waaaaaah...

 

Except Waluigi... Waaaaaah...

Waluigi is already in the game though, he's not playable but he's there. Ultimate has Waluigi, it's just not in the way a lot of us (including myself) wanted but hey, being an assist isn't that bad, it's much better than if he ended up getting nothing like some popular characters did last time (For example Bandana Dee and Isaac fans got literally nothing in Smash 4, neither character got a Mii Costume, a assist, a stage role, or even just a trophy).

 

Just put more things. More stages, more characters, more everything. Then change the mechanics a little, add some new features and modes, and bang a new game. This is what Brawl was for Melee and what Smash 4 was for Brawl. Simple.

 

I completly agree. No future game in the series, not even a reboot could top this.