Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has turned 5 years old as of December 7th this year, which is shocking! Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (shortened to SSBU) is the latest platform fighter in the Super Smash Bros. franchise and the best-selling fighting game ever. SSBU was arguably the most influential video game for some time, and certainly when it came out, so it’s nice to see the game being updated long after the final DLC was released.

For those who don’t know much about why it’s so popular, it is mainly for only three words, “Everyone is Here.” In 2018, the year’s gaming event E3 revealed many things, including a first look at the roster. Since Smash Bros. Brawl on the Wii, characters have been removed or replaced for various reasons, and this was what SSBU would seemingly do in line with previous releases. However, as the characters all showed up on the screen, the words “Everyone is Here” appeared alongside Snake, who was removed in Smash Bros. for 3DS and Wii U. This held to be true, including all past characters and fan-favorites who’ve been requested for decades such as Ridley, Sephiroth, Sora, and even Steve from Minecraft!

The game had two downloadable volumes “Fighter Pass,” including 6 characters each that were revealed around every 3 or 4 months. Sora from the Kingdom Hearts franchise ended up being the final character added, released on October 18th, 2021. While there were some final updates such as balancing and patching in unreleased Amiibos, nothing more was expected until Sakurai announced Smash’s plans for its 5th anniversary.

Masahiro Sakurai, the creator of the Smash Bros. and the original Kirby games, tweeted (or posted on 𝕏) that SSBU will have an event for the occasion. It’s not going to be huge like a new DLC or a reveal for the next Smash Bros. game, but it will include 4 new Spirits to collect and an Amiibo Tag Team tournament. Spirits are a way to shake up gameplay by placing them in teams to buff aspects of your fighter. Amiibos on the other hand are little figures with NFC (Near Field Communication) technology similar to Skylanders or Disney Infinity. They’re used in tons of games for small rewards or costumes, but Smash Bros. uses them as machine learning! The player will train the AIs, and eventually, they’ll become smarter to the point they can rival professional players.

If you’re looking into playing Smash, it’s a pretty good time to do so! New events can be fun to play in, and there is still a large and active player base, so you won’t have trouble finding a match online on US servers. Our school has also joined the fun, with Full Sail’s tournament bringing our ESports team to Orlando a couple of weeks ago! As a member of the club, I’ve seen a lot of potential for the team to do well in the future. If you’re interested in playing Smash (or other games like Rocket League) competitively in the future, talk to Ms. Begley in room 4114!