#oneaday Day 8: Smashing!

Yesterday was a little bit bleak, and for that I make no apologies; these posts are all about "the uncut Pete", as it were, and thus there will be an element of taking the rough with the smooth.

However, I'm also conscious that nobody wants to read doom and gloom all the time, so I'll make an effort to talk about something positive today. And the first thing that comes to mind when I try and think happy thoughts right now is Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

I wrote on MoeGamer the other day about how I've always had slightly mixed feelings about the Super Smash Bros. games, and attributed those mixed feelings to the fact that I've never really "stuck with them" for very long. In the case of the Wii U version, this was primarily down to the relative lack of good single-player modes — this isn't to say that they were completely absent or anything, but it lacked a sense of real "structure" to what you were doing.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (Smash Ultimate hereafter) addresses this common complaint very well indeed, with a wide selection of excellent single-player modes alongside its flexible multiplayer options. I've been having a lot of fun with it since release day, and in the process it's also helping me to understand and appreciate the game as a whole a bit better.

The main feature for many people is the Adventure mode, also known as World of Light. Here, you begin with just Kirby and have to walk around a map, clearing various fights and unlocking equippable Spirits or playable fighters in the process. Each fight has its own distinct characteristics that relates to the Spirit in question, adjusting the game rules and overall "handling" of the match in various ways, forcing you to adapt to different situations and, where possible, to make good use of Spirits you already own to counter various situations.

Much like Mario Tennis Aces' similar Adventure mode, World of Light is designed to train you how to deal with various situations in the game. Sometimes you'll be up against a foe that spams a particular move, so you need to figure out a way to get around that. On one occasion, you face a giant enemy in a stamina-based battle; they don't attack, but you have a very tight time limit, meaning you need to figure out what are the best ways to inflict a lot of damage quickly. And sometimes there will be environmental hazards to deal with alongside your opponents.

I've so far found this to be a remarkably effective means of encouraging me to experiment with different tactics, strategies and usage of moves. There's a really satisfying sense of achievement when you clear a tough battle, and there's always a wide choice of things to do if you find yourself particularly stuck on one specific challenge.

Outside of World of Light, I've been playing a lot of Classic mode to unlock characters. This is a conventional "arcade-style" format in which you play through a linear sequence of stages; the twist is that each character on the roster has their own "route" through the game that is broadly themed around them in terms of both opponents and rules. Ryu, for example, has a series of stamina matches against foes whose colour schemes have been chosen to make them resemble various Street Fighter II characters — Donkey Kong with green fur to represent Blanka, that sort of thing. At the conclusion of each character's Classic mode, there's a boss fight in which you take on an enemy with an actual health bar; these foes aren't just Master Hand and Crazy Hand from previous Smash games, either. Instead, there are several different bosses to take on, with the one you confront being broadly thematically appropriate to the character you've picked. Simon Belmont fights Dracula, for example, while Young Link fights Ganon. Rathalos from Monster Hunter even puts in an appearance, though I forget offhand who gets that particular pleasure as their final confrontation.

Besides being mechanically solid, full of content and overall well-designed, the thing I'm enjoying most about Smash Ultimate is that it's just an unashamed celebration of gaming. It's ridiculous and doesn't make any sense; it's just designed to make you happy. It's one of many games where Nintendo is embracing its background as a toy manufacturer — and indeed, the very concept of Super Smash Bros. since the beginning has supposedly been a kid playing with action figures than any of this actually happening.

As nonsensical and joyfully ridiculous as it may be, Smash Ultimate is most definitely Nintendo at play… and inviting you in for the fun, too. It's hard to recall the last game I played that was so antithetical to modern cynicism and apathy as Smash Ultimate is; whether you love or loathe actually playing it, it's hard to deny the fact that, more than anything, it wants to make everyone around it smile.