Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is a 2018 fighting game created by Bandai Namco Studios and Sora Ltd. and released by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch. It is the fifth version in the Super Smash Bros. series, following Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U (2014). The game uses the same style of play as earlier games, where players control characters and use attacks to defeat opponents by knocking them out of an arena. It includes many game modes, such as a single-player story and multiplayer battles. Ultimate has 89 playable characters, including all previous characters from earlier Super Smash Bros. games and new additions. These characters come from Nintendo games and other game companies.
Plans for the game started in December 2015, with full development beginning after the 3DS/Wii U version’s downloadable content was completed. Masahiro Sakurai, the game’s creator and director, returned with Bandai Namco Studios and Sora, the teams that made the 3DS/Wii U version, which helped speed up the development process. Sakurai aimed to include every character from previous games, even though it was difficult due to challenges with licensing and development. Many famous video game musicians helped create the soundtrack, including Hideki Sakamoto, who wrote the main theme "Lifelight." The game was first shown in a Nintendo Direct in March 2018, and more details were shared during Nintendo’s E3 2018 Direct in June. Additional content, such as new fighters and stages, was added through downloadable content until October 2021.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate was released on December 7, 2018. Critics praised the game for its improved gameplay and variety of content and characters, but they criticized its online mode for technical issues and matchmaking problems. The game is often considered one of the best titles on the Nintendo Switch and one of the greatest video games ever made. It became a popular competitive game in esports, similar to earlier games in the series. It is also the best-selling fighting game in history and one of the best-selling games on the Switch, with over 37 million copies sold by December 2025.
Gameplay
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is a fighting game where up to eight players can compete. Characters from Nintendo games and other companies fight to knock each other out of an arena. Each player has a percentage meter that increases as they take damage. A higher percentage makes it easier to launch a character into the air and out of the arena. Standard battles use one of three victory conditions: Timed, where players earn the most KOs within a time limit; Stock, where players or teams have a set number of lives and must be the last standing; and Stamina, where players reduce an opponent’s hit points to zero instead of using a percentage meter. Players can adjust rules and save them for future matches.
Players can enable random items during battles, which can be used to gain advantages. For example, Poké Balls summon Pokémon, and Assist Trophies bring in other characters to help. In Timed matches, some Assist Trophies can be attacked to earn points. Each character has a powerful Final Smash attack, which can be triggered by obtaining a Smash Ball or filling a special meter. The game includes 103 stages, with additional stages available through downloadable content. Most stages have hazards that can be turned on or off, and each stage has alternate forms with standard layouts. A new feature called Stage Morph lets players alternate between two stages during a match. Other changes include new icons and gauges for character abilities, such as Cloud’s Limit gauge.
The game includes returning modes like Classic, Special Smash, and Home-Run Contest. New modes added in Ultimate are Smashdown, where each character can only be used once; Squad Strike, where players battle in teams of three or five; and Tourney, a tournament mode for up to 32 players.
Ultimate introduces the Spirits system, replacing collectible trophies from earlier games. Spirits, based on characters from various franchises, give fighters unique abilities. Players earn Spirits by completing challenges called "Spirit Battles," which are based on specific characters or effects. For example, a battle featuring Rayquaza requires defeating a large version of Ridley with similar colors and wind effects. Players must choose Spirits that match the battle’s effects, such as wind resistance or damage boosts. A mode called the Spirit Board offers rotating Spirit Battles. Spirits can be leveled up, evolved, or converted into Cores to summon new Spirits. Some Spirits become stronger when fully leveled but reset to level 1. Limited-time Spirit events allow players to collect special Spirits, which later appear on the Spirit Board. Spirits can also be used in local multiplayer.
Ultimate returns Adventure Mode, which was missing in earlier versions. It is now part of the Spirits mode with a new story called World of Light. The story begins with an evil entity named Galeem destroying the Smash Bros. world and capturing most fighters. Only Kirby escapes. Players rescue captured fighters and Spirits by completing Spirit Battles in World of Light. After defeating Galeem, a new enemy named Dharkon appears. Players must defeat equal numbers of light and dark Spirits on the final map to defeat both enemies and free the Spirits.
The game supports local multiplayer, wireless play, and online matches via Wi-Fi or LAN. Players earn tags by winning online matches, which can be traded for in-game currency to buy Spirits, music, or Mii Fighter costumes. The game works with Joy-Con controllers, the Nintendo Switch Pro Controller, and GameCube controllers using a USB adapter. Amiibo figurines can create AI-controlled players that can be trained. A mobile app called "Smash World" lets players track stats and share game clips. The game has over 900 music tracks playable in standby mode. A 2019 update added a Stage Builder for custom stages and a replay editor for editing and sharing matches. Another update in 2019 added limited VR support for viewing matches or playing 1-on-1. A 2019 update also reintroduced the Home-Run Contest mode.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate includes fighters from Nintendo and third-party games. The base game has 74 playable fighters, including 63 from previous games and 11 new ones: Inklings from Splatoon, Princess Daisy from Mario, Ridley and Dark Samus from Metroid, Simon and Richter Belmont from Castlevania, Chrom from Fire Emblem, King K. Rool from Donkey Kong, Isabelle from Animal Crossing, Ken Masters from Street Fighter, and Incineroar from Pokémon. Players start with the original eight characters and unlock others by completing Classic mode, playing World of Light, or fighting a set number of battles.
Some characters with moves based on others are called "Echo Fighters." They share similar moves and sizes but have unique animations and gameplay differences. On the character selection screen, these fighters are listed separately.
Development
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate was developed by Bandai Namco Studios and Sora Ltd., the same companies that created Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U. The game was made for the Nintendo Switch, and Masahiro Sakurai, the series creator, returned as the game director. Unlike earlier Super Smash Bros. games, the team did not start from scratch, which helped speed up the development process. The plan for the game was created by December 2015, when the DLC for 3DS and Wii U was being made. After that, the team gathered staff and began working on the game. The development time was shorter than for previous games in the series. Hatena helped with some parts of the game, and tri-Crescendo worked on programming and design.
Sakurai said creating a Super Smash Bros. game for the Switch was the last request from former Nintendo president Satoru Iwata before his death in 2015. He wanted to make the game as good as possible to honor Iwata. Sakurai aimed to include every character from past games to please fans. However, this was a difficult challenge for both development and licensing, and it would increase the cost of making the game. The return of Bandai and Sora helped make this possible. Sakurai also wanted to change character abilities to make the game faster, but not so much that new players would feel confused. He believed Ultimate was an important game for Nintendo and wanted to satisfy its loyal fans. He had to choose between creating a new game system or building on older ones. He chose to build on older systems because only about a third of the characters he wanted could be included in the final game. The abilities of returning characters had to be re-balanced to work in Ultimate. Originally, gameplay would differ between the Switch’s docked and handheld modes, but Sakurai changed his mind because the handheld screen was better than expected. He said Ultimate would be the only Smash game with the full list of returning characters, calling the effort to include them “unprecedented.” He warned that future games in the series might be smaller in scope. However, he still wanted to add as many fighters as possible through DLC.
Voice lines recorded by David Hayter for Snake were reused in Ultimate. Xander Mobus, who voiced Crazy Hand, Master Hand, and the announcer in the 3DS and Wii U versions, returned with new voice clips. He also played Joker from Persona 5 when that character was added as DLC. The addition of Ridley from Metroid as a playable character was a long-standing request from the Super Smash Bros. community. In 2008, Sakurai said Ridley was a popular character but thought it was impossible to add unless he was made smaller for balance. To include Ridley, Sakurai studied the character’s design and redesigned him to stand upright. All characters were chosen at the start of development, except Incineroar, who had not been created yet. The team left space for a Sun and Moon Pokémon instead. The Inklings’ ink mechanic was hard to implement because of how it interacted with environments.
The team built Ultimate from scratch with new assets and content. Nate Bihldorff, the localization manager, said the game improved lighting effects and texture rendering compared to the Wii U version. The World of Light mode was inspired by Brawl’s (2008) Subspace Emissary. Sakurai chose to start the mode with a big event because he thought it would have a stronger effect on players. The team created the Spirits mechanic to make a fun single-player mode, but they did not have enough resources to make new character models. While the mode did not allow them to tell stories about individual fighters or create new locations and rules, it let them use many characters and assets. Some team members researched Spirits thoroughly, and Sakurai said the mode was essential for including characters from different franchises.
Like previous games, Ultimate includes music from well-known video game composers and arrangers. The game has over 1,000 tracks, combining original music and rearrangements from various franchises. A new feature is linking tracks to franchises instead of individual stages, and players can create custom playlists to listen to outside the game when the Switch is in handheld mode. Sakurai began contacting composers over a year before the game’s release, giving them a list of over 1,000 suggested track ideas. He also let them submit their own favorite tracks, which were prioritized for inclusion. While Sakurai oversaw the process and wanted the music to stay true to the original games, the composers had control over the direction of the music. The main theme, “Lifelight,” composed by Hideki Sakamoto, forms the basis of most of the game’s original music.
Nintendo planned to add new fighters through DLC, but unlike the 3DS and Wii U versions, where players could request characters, Nintendo chose which characters to add by November 2018. Additional Mii costumes were released as paid DLC, with some costumes also adding new music tracks. Sakurai said characters like Joker, the first DLC fighter, were added because they were “emblematic” of the types of characters he wanted in Ultimate. He said they “bring just a whole different level of fun and enjoyment for players.” The Piranha Plant was chosen as a DLC character to add diversity to the roster. Nintendo met with Rare studio head Craig Duncan at E3 2018 to discuss adding Banjo and Kazooie as DLC. Duncan agreed, and the two teams discussed further details. Sakurai noted that Banjo and Kazooie were the second most requested characters in a 2015 fan vote, and their addition happened “quite easily,” despite being owned by Microsoft through its acquisition of Rare. Phil Spencer, head of Xbox, said negotiating their inclusion was “an easy deal to make” because of Nintendo and Microsoft’s strong partnership.
The development of Fighters Pass Volume 2 was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 because of stay-at-home orders in Japan, which forced Sakurai and his team to work remotely. Discussions between Nintendo and Microsoft about including Minecraft content in Super Smash
Release
On March 8, 2018, Nintendo announced that the next Super Smash Bros. game would be released on the Nintendo Switch sometime in 2018. A teaser shown during an online Nintendo Direct presentation did not include the game’s name. However, it displayed several characters, such as Mario, Link, and the Inklings from Splatoon, with the Inklings being new to the Super Smash Bros. series. At E3 2018 in June, Nintendo revealed the game’s title as Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and set the release date for December 7, 2018. The E3 presentation described changes to the gameplay of Ultimate compared to earlier versions and noted that all playable characters from previous games would return, along with new characters like the Inklings and Ridley from the Metroid series, who was introduced at the end of the presentation. Afterward, Nintendo held an invitational tournament for players of Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and Melee.
Demo versions of the game were available at E3 and at San Diego Comic-Con the following month. IGN nominated Ultimate for its Best Game of E3 2018 award, and the game won Best Nintendo Switch Game from both IGN and Gamescom. Two Nintendo Direct presentations in 2018, one on August 8 and another on November 1, focused on the game, showing new characters, stages, and game modes.
Nintendo released Super Smash Bros. Ultimate worldwide on December 7, 2018. In addition to the standard retail version, a special edition included a Super Smash Bros.-themed Nintendo Switch Pro Controller and a Switch with a download code. Another special edition featured a pair of Super Smash Bros.-themed Joy-Con, a Switch console, a Super Smash Bros.-themed dock, and a download code for the game. A GameCube controller with the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate logo was released on November 2, 2018.
One of the game’s new additions involved Mr. Game & Watch appearing as a feather- and loincloth-wearing Native American during one of his attacks, a reference to the 1982 game Fire Attack. Some users on social media found this portrayal offensive, leading Nintendo of America to apologize and remove the animation in an update shortly after the game’s release. Two weeks before the release, a leaked copy of the game was shared online. Nintendo took steps to issue copyright warnings on YouTube videos using data-mined content, while fans worked to separate spoilers, especially the World of Light story mode, from videos made by those who had played the leaked version.
Reception
The game Super Smash Bros. Ultimate received very high praise from critics, according to the review site Metacritic. Another review site, OpenCritic, said the game was strongly approved by 97% of critics. Reviewers praised the large number of characters and game levels, new game modes, and the inclusion of the best parts from earlier games in the series. A French gaming website, Jeuxvideo.com, called it the best game in the series, saying its features "combine a lot of content with a sense of nostalgia." Bleacher Report highlighted the game's bright art style, faster gameplay, and unique stages. IGN praised the decision to include every character from the series, calling it "ambitious and excellent." The game's large soundtrack and portable music player were also praised by The Verge.
However, the game's online mode faced criticism for technical issues and matchmaking. Many players experienced delays in gameplay, even when using wired connections instead of wireless. The matchmaking system did not match players with the settings they wanted, and players often faced rules they did not choose. Friends also had difficulty joining matches together, and the system did not allow multiple local players to join online matches. Complaints about these issues were so common on the game's subreddit that moderators moved all complaints to a separate thread. These problems were less severe on the Nintendo Switch 2, which can play games from the original Switch. The "World of Light" mode also received mixed reviews. Some players found the single-player mode both easy to use and challenging, while others thought it was too long and boring.
In November 2018, Nintendo announced that Ultimate was the most pre-ordered game for the Switch and the series. In the United Kingdom, the Association for UK Interactive Entertainment reported that Ultimate was the fastest-selling Switch and Super Smash Bros. game, with physical sales 302% higher than Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, 233% higher than Super Smash Bros. for 3DS, and 62.5% higher than Super Smash Bros. Brawl. In its first three days on sale in Japan, the game sold 1.2 million copies, more than Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! and Eevee! and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild in the region.
Within 11 days of its release, Ultimate sold more than 3 million copies in the United States, making it the fastest-selling Switch game in the country. It also became the fastest-selling Switch game and fastest-selling game for any Nintendo console in Europe during the same period. It was estimated to have sold and shipped over 5 million copies in its first three days. Within three weeks, Ultimate became the fifth best-selling Switch game in the United Kingdom, surpassing Splatoon 2. In January 2019, Amazon reported that Ultimate was their top-selling video game of 2018, and Nintendo announced that the game had shipped over 12.08 million copies worldwide. Ultimate was Nintendo's fastest-selling game
Esports
EVO 2019 took place from August 2–4, 2019, and included Ultimate as one of its main events. It was the biggest offline Smash Bros. tournament ever, with 3,534 players registered. During the Top 8 matches, it had the highest number of viewers at the same time in EVO history, with more than 279,000 people watching. In May 2020, top Super Smash Bros. Melee player Hungrybox worked with NFL running back Le'Veon Bell and esports team Team Liquid to host The Box, an online tournament offering a $10,000 prize.
In February 2020, it was announced that the Smash World Tour would include players from both Super Smash Bros. Melee and Ultimate, with a total prize pool of $250,000. The event would have international qualifying rounds, and the final competition would be held in the United States. However, the COVID-19 pandemic caused many of the qualifiers to be delayed or canceled. In 2021, the Smash World Tour was restarted, combining online and offline qualifying events, and ended with a final in-person championship. In 2022, a new officially licensed event called the Panda Cup was introduced, featuring players from Super Smash Bros. Melee and Ultimate. However, on November 24, 2022, Nintendo said the Smash World Tour 2022 could not continue because they did not have a license from Nintendo. Accusations against Panda Cup CEO Alan Bunney led many qualified players to withdraw. This caused the Panda Cup, the Smash World Tour 2022 Championships, and the Smash World Tour 2023 to be canceled.