[NS] Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Since Melee, it’s been clear that the backward-looking “museum” element is only a part of Sakurai’s ambition, however. The Nintendo Direct made a few high-level tweaks very clear - perfect shields, a formalised ‘short hop’ ability (achieved by just pressing jump and attack together) and the return of directional air dodges - but, on a wider scale, Ultimate is undoubtedly aiming to be a more robust competitive experience.

“There is a very, very strong and healthy competitive scene,” says Nintendo’s Bill Trinen. “[The developers are] definitely looking at the way that those [professional] players play and, just like the way they look at the way casual players play, they take an amalgam of information and blend that together to make the uniqueness that is Smash Bros.”

Even after 20 minutes with the game, it’s obviously a faster, more technical game than before. Characters buzz around stages, both moving and reacting faster, and a four-player match becomes a hive of activity - it will take some getting used to for less skilled players (and, to be totally clear, I mean me here). In a neat touch, 1v1 matches will now see fighters do more damage to each other, to keep up a more frantic pace of K.O.s, even across larger stages. Nintendo won’t say it outwardly, but it feels extremely clear that the dominance of Melee on the competitive scene is something it wants to end after December.

Incidentally, Nintendo also won’t say a word about a single player mode right now - we only got to play a cut-down version of local multiplayer (and, guess what, Nintendo won’t talk about online yet, besides saying it’ll be included).

Un peu déçu que link n'ait pas eu un lifting plus approfondi.

On voit une épée dans un smash de Ganondorf