Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Review
SUPER SMASH BROS. ULTIMATE: APOTHEOSISHere it is, the last warhead of this year 2018. Or how, from a very simple concept - ejecting your opponent after inflicting damage - Nintendo has made Super Smash Bros. an event game, capable of embellishing a place of destruction like Châtelet with a gigantic fresco. However, on paper, this Ultimate version has everything of the umpteenth Wii U port which does not say its name, like the countless games which have followed one another during this year placed under the sign of intensive cloning. Not wrong, but still very far from reality. We explain to you why.
A Smash and it starts again
All those who have followed the case since the last E3 can testify: between the official announcement of the game until release, all the communication of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has striven to detail the differences between the Wii U version and the one that brings us together today. Cynics will say that we have rarely seen a more celebrated patch note, and we will not necessarily prove them wrong. The vast majority of the cast as arenas are directly imported from the 2014 game, DLC included, and even if the additions are counted by the tens, we prefer to summarize the case in one sentence: it's the return of Smash, but on Switch. A bit like Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, but more content level, as if the game was about to explode after a couscous - raclette combo, and practicable everywhere, all the time, over the market. As we cannot be satisfied with a list of bullet points as long as the arm to get everyone to agree, here we summarize the main part of the adjustments which, put end to end, clearly make it the result of the formula developed almost twenty years ago.There are those who practice Smash in ascetics, without objects, in stock lives and on flat courses without the slightest roughness. Those who invite all the smala provided there is still a poor Joy-Con free, within the limits of the available connectors; yes, citizens or connoisseurs can connect up to two connectors for GameCube controllers on the front USB ports. And then there are all the curious who may have gone through the Wii U version, and who want to take the bandwagon. For all these audiences, from the purist who misses nothing of the slightest balancing patch to the one who cannot conceive of the fight without his dose of assistance trophies, Nintendo has refined the ergonomics of the original version, from the game mechanics to its covering, via the interface and the countless configuration options, to make it the new reference version (in addition to the indestructible Melee). Anyway, since the follow-up will take place on Switch, with already five characters in season pass (and the Piranha Plant offered for the first buyers), the sentence is already heard.
Obviously, the game is visually thinner, richer, more vibrant, and what we play docked or nomadic. Phew, the 60 fps are held without blinking once the Switch out of its base. After, by dint of chaining the parties to seven or eight without limits of objects on arenas stuffed with effects, we still witnessed regular falls by pushing the game to its limits - a concern that obviously depends on the number of participants in the running. More basic nervous, since most of the characters have gained speed of movement and recovery, Smash Ultimate is also more impactful, with even more violent effects when a Smash ejects the plebs, and even a little close-up / slowed down for accentuate the fatal blow. It seems that the difference is made in the small details, and the perfectionism of the creators hits hard. Here a plan of the arena in filigree to better evaluate the ejection distance, there percentages of damage always more detailed, without forgetting game mechanics redesigned to make it always more demanding once scalped the foam of the party game. Between the aerial dodge which gains in amplitude as soon as one prints a direction, the normal combos which "block" you when they touch and the perfect guard of the shield revised and corrected, the game requires to readjust its timings and its placements by anticipating the opponent's initiatives. Fortunately, a hyper-complete training grid allows you to work on your true combos with a quantity of visual information that finally takes into account the whole eSports dimension of the thing.
K. Rool bouquet
We could dilute on countless details, such as the fact that the choice of the arena comes before that of the character (to avoid unpleasant surprises), or the possibility of switching each of these stages to "battlefield" mode or "Final Destination" mode to preserve the atmosphere without the inconvenience (which is however part of the game). We could insist on the options of Photo mode or the incredible quality of musical remixes using the finest of Japanese composers (see box). We still hallucinate in front of the number of possible adjustments which allow to save individual configurations, between the presence or not of a gauge of final Smash which is filled according to the combat, the elimination of certain stages in the random selection, or all simply the cancellation of hazards or even the predefined setting of the topography of the arenas. We can even decide to cancel the break for future tournaments, which are also the subject of dedicated modes (classic format, or relay, Japanese), the game is always as rich and precise to distinguish the individual statistics related to each profile and each other's configurations. It is even possible, as long as you do, to adjust the sensitivity of the sticks between three settings (low, normal, high) and take advantage of a combination of keys to achieve a jump attack without any delay in taking momentum. And for the frantic, being able to place the "tilts" on the right stick, replacing smash attacks, will quickly become the most precious of shortcuts. Yes, these are only small details, sometimes extremely meticulous, which put end to end still make all the difference.
But this hard-line perfectionism finds its most beautiful expression in the four-star cast, which remains today the main argument of the franchise. As the "Ultimate" version, Smash Ultimate sends all the cavalry, between the elders who were missing from the Wii U version (Snake, Wolf, the Ice Climbers), those who had fired since the GameCube version ( Pichu), the DLCs that have already made our pockets (Bayonetta, Cloud, Roy), the Echos characters slightly different from their clones (Daisy, Ken), and of course the guests who were no longer expected and who pointed anyway. We think of you, King K. Rool, who is no longer a wet dream of old Smashers but a big character modeled, like Ridley, who regularly pointed at the top of the list of fantasies. Once is not custom, we will not comment on the potential of each other, but let's say that with his old blunderbuss and his big belly which against everything and anything, the crocodile is already a character who fout the seum, which makes it immediately essential. As for the space pirate and his doormat attack, he force-fed us so much in XXL version, in the adventure mode, that it is hard not to consider him as a potential threat.
"Where the hell am I?"
The highlight of the show remains a stake affair, with the joint presence of Simon and Richter Belmont, and more generally a highlight of the Castlevania series which gives chills. Undoubtedly too slow and not powerful enough to beat the pawn of a Snake still as solid, the followers of the whip will still sweat well with a triplet dive kick / holy water / elliptical ax, a weapon archi slow but endowed with an ejection potential worthy of a bonus object. With 74 characters available, it would obviously be false to say that we were able to screen them all despite our almost 50 hours of cumulative play. In this regard, at least ten will have been necessary to obtain almost the entire cast (minus Mii fighters), due to a new arrival every ten minutes or so, in a somewhat strange order. Because as much to say it, contrary to the majority of the current fighting games, it will be necessary to whip to gradually flesh out the basic roster. But, another good idea, it is always possible to find the missed fighters in the "Pretenders" tab, to replay the lost duels. It is well seen the taf also carried out on most of the former, who have seen for some aspects of their gameplay retouched. Link's bombshell, inspired by the fires of Breath of the Wild, allows him, for example, unexpected returns, while most of the slightly gag Final Smashs have been corrected to be viable in combat; it is often on this point that attention has been drawn.
All these preliminaries to say that the potential of Smash Bros. Ultimate promises to be orgasmic. You just had to see the colleagues from other poles piling up in the test room to measure how much Smash is a special moment in the life of a machine, and even of an editorial staff. Especially when you see with a warned eye all these small adjustments overlap each other to make it an even more memorable, clearer, more fun experience, the kind of vampirizing devs half an hour more on the break noon and spill over to the end of the job. It's always as much a mess with many in the dirtiest rules, each for his mouth or in more or less balanced teams, and always just as serious when the victory is more than a last stock. Moreover, with the new sudden death that ignites the edges of the screen until the trap closes, the devs push the limits of stress even further. OK, the walls shook.
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