yeah that was a really poor decision for online. They should have kept 1v1 with no items as a separate mode.

It's a very minor feature, but I'm super glad shoot-em-up credit minigames are back. I loved playing those in Melee, Smash 4's always felt really lacklustre in comparison (can't remember what brawl's was).

Apologies, I realized my edited post implies you get Piranha Plant as soon as you register for Gold Coins on the physical version. This needs to be done by Jan 31, and a code will be sent to you. (Course you know all this because it's the first message you get when you start the game, but hello, late-coming lurkers!)

I've been hooked on the Spirit Board. Especially great at work when you have little breaks for someone to get back to you. Well, usually great, unless you're not paying attention and end up going into battle with a weak spirit and get rushed by 4 enemies spamming cheesy attacks. Also not great when a new challenger approaches and time elapses on that other spirit you want to fight.

For this weekend only, the Nintendo Holiday Experience is giving as gifts either a lanyard or a poster. Honestly pretty lame, but still had fun.

I hadn't realized it's been since Melee when the shoot-em-up credits were around. The implementation is so great here, everything feels lightning fast. ^_^

I haven't read up on the fine details on how the characters fight differently/new character attacks/etc, but the first thing that jumped out at me was how Pokemon Trainer's Pokemon switches so quickly. Is that new, or was it already that fast on Wii U? (I never got around to buying a Wii U.)

Spirit Board is probably my most fav solo thing at the moment because yeah, it is so good to just pop in and see what is happening. I've frequently started a match and then paused it so I could go back to what I was doing (IRL stuff).

Pokemon trainer was cut in WiiU I believe due to the 3DS version not being able to handle transformations (which is also why zelda and sheik became entirely separate characters in the wiiU one). Charizard became his own fighter while squirtle and ivysaur were gone completely. I wish the pokemon swap was relegated to shield+b, since charizard had to lose his rock smash and it would have been cool to see new moves for the other two.

I'm starting to think that when people are talking about melee, they still can't get over that game. They need to start getting a move on with other SSB games, and forget melee. If they can't do that and stick with melee, well good luck to them in finding people that wants to play melee cuz most people have already moved on with the other SSB games including SSBU.

"I'm starting to think that when people are talking about melee, they still can't get over that game. They need to start getting a move on with other SSB games, and forget melee. If they can't do that and stick with melee, well good luck to them in finding people that wants to play melee cuz most people have already moved on with the other SSB games including SSBU."

Melee will remain relevant in the competitive scene for years to come. Keep in mind that Melee came out in 2002, and was the first in the genre for many people. 6 years later, in 2008, Brawl could've done everything Melee did, but better, and could've taken over Melee's spot.

However, Sakurai stated he did not want to cater to competitive players, and wanted Smash to be a "fun party game". Therefore, with Brawl, the physics were a lot worse, the characters were more "floaty" which slowed things down, and the characters would randomly trip over nothing, and be wide open to attack -- and there's no way to turn off tripping, either. So anyone who wanted to play Brawl competitively had to accept the fact that they might lose, despite being better, because their character randomly tripped and let their opponent win.

Smash for Wii U was better for competitive play than Brawl, sure, but that game came out in 2014. This meant that Melee was already "sole competitive Smash game" for 12 years straight. How many people who've played the same game for over a decade would want to "start over" with learning new physics, new ways to manipulate the game to your advantage, new character combinations? Not to mention the fact that Smash Wii U received updates until July 2017, which meant anyone who felt they could "master" a character would be at risk of having their character nerfed, or someone else buffed, which would upset the entire meta of the game. Imagine if you were the best Fox player in the world, and then suddenly Nintendo updated the game and made him worse? You'd no longer be able to win tournaments, which means less fame for you (and less sponsorships/tournament money/etc.) and a ton of wasted hours.

Smash Ultimate will suffer the same problems that Smash for Wii U had. Melee has proven that it can still turn out viewers for tournaments, despite a newer, prettier Smash Bros. title being out and viable for competitive play. I sooner expect to see Smash for Wii U die out of the competitive scene, than I expect to see Melee die out of the competitive scene.

"If they can't do that and stick with melee, well good luck to them in finding people that wants to play melee cuz most people have already moved on with the other SSB games including SSBU"

Except for the fact Melee tourney streams have consistently higher viewership counts than any other Smash game lol. At this point the only thing that can kill the Melee scene is the physical death of CRTs and original Gamecube controllers. Though I also think a Melee HD would ironically kill Melee when it inevitably doesn't play exactly like the original and cause a fracture in the fanbase.

Also who are you to tell people to get over Melee, its an incredible game that's stood the test of time much better than Brawl and even Smash 4.

If melee HD were to happen, then the only changes are gonna be improved graphics, a possible use of battlefield and omega form stages like in ultimate, control configurations on player's names, and a random character on the character screen. well that's just my guess of course.

Was bored in work and came up with Spirit Battles for each of the Phantom Thieves:

Ryuji: vs. black Captain Falcon, starts with Home Run Bat. Phosphora appears as a hostile assist trophy

Morgana: vs. small black Incineroar, equipped with Killing Edge. Stage floor has sleep status.

Ann: vs. pink ZSS, permanently equipped with Tanooki leaf, and starts with a Vulpix Pokeball.

Yusuke: vs. white Marth, starts with Super Scope. Stage floor is frozen.

Makoto: vs. black and white Sheik, increased power in punches and kicks. Items spawned have bomb themes (nuclear is kinda close to bomb idk).

Futaba: vs. default Inkling, timed stamina battle where the enemy avoids conflict. Receives random buffs in defence & speed.

Haru: vs. purple Daisy, starts with with Death's Scythe. Dr. Kawashima appears as a hostile assist trophy.

huge P5 spoilers for last member:

Akechi: vs. blond Pit and Dark pit. Dark pit spawns after knocking Blond Pit out. Blond Pit comes equipped with beam saber, Dark Pit equipped with Rage Blaster. High spawn rate of pancake food.

Just to let you guys know that there's a version update that's coming up so whatever replays you guys have, please export them and yes, this will apply the same as 3DS and wii-u's replays at each version update

here's why

"I just wish Online would honor my Preferences more; I prefer 1-on-1, and it keeps throwing me into 4 player free-for-all."

This happens to me more often than not, and it's quite frustrating.

I'll also chime in and say that I love the credits shooter game too. I was a big fan of the Melee credits, and Ultimate's credits come in as a close second. I'm also finding Classic mode particularly fun this time around. I like how it's unique to each character, and it's fun discovering the little idiosyncrasies in each "story".

All of the spirits stuff is cool, but I don't find myself using spirits at all outside of those modes. I like the spirit matches because they're reminiscent of the old event matches that I always loved.

Overall, I'm still trying to get used to the new feel of the game. Still need to work on better incorporating the new air dodges, perfect shields, and the new short hop attacks into my play style.

Wasn't this the same problem for 3DS and wii-u when you try to find 1v1 matches? because if this problem start persisting with your 1v1 matches and other preferences, well my guess it could be a bug. this normally happens, but Nintendo tends to fix the problem.

"Wasn't this the same problem for 3DS and wii-u when you try to find 1v1 matches?"

Nah, the 3DS/Wii U had dedicated modes:

"For Fun" was 4 player, free-for-all, any level type, with items.
"For Fun: Team Battle" was 4 player, 2-on-2, any level type, with items.
"For Glory" was 1-on-1, omega stage only, no items.
"For Glory: Team Battle" was 4 player, 2-on-2, omega stage only, no items.

You picked one of the two, and always got your way.

Smash Ultimate changed this, so you could configure things more individually. Which, on paper, sounds great; maybe someone wants 4-player free-for-alls, with omega stages. Or they want 1-on-1 with items. But the problem is that your preferences can be outright ignored; I have mine "1-on-1, 3 stock, 7 minutes, no items". I might end up in a 3 minute team battle, timed, with items. My little brother has his on "4 player free-for-all, any level type, with items" since he plays more casually, but he's thrown into a 1-on-1 match from time to time. It's by design, and hopefully they'll improve it via updates, but we'll just have to wait & see.

Well it may be best to play with friends till the problem is fixed rather than playing in public or globally in terms of lag and bad connection, but mostly it's the bad connection part depending on the person's internet connection. it's not easy to stay in online matches that way. Of course when playing with friends, you'll have to setup your rules and preferences and make sure there are agreements to the rules you have set.

The other catch about playing online with friends is that you'll have to come up with alternative communications other than the app for iOS and androids which is not in service just yet (specifically discord would be a better option) so that way you guys can get in touch with each other in terms of how active you guys are.

I know how hard it is to play with or against people that have bad connection so that's the tough part to avoid and i'm 100% sure this would happen again like brawl, 3DS, and wii-u's.

What is that one eerie Spirit/Assist Trophy that is freezing up the fighting with dark aura looking picture framing. There’s a woman in the background during the spirits assisting that appears to be holding a camera. ...Don’t tell me that’s from that game “Spirit Camera” or something... It really freaks me out...

The Assist Trophy is from "Fatal Frame". Definitely a creepier one.

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Update 1.2.0 released which promises to fix preferences. So far I've always gotten 1v1 matches, so I'm a very happy camper right now. happy 1 week anniversary, Smashers!

Oh Fatal Frame huh? Just as scary to me, to the max. Why can’t they let you turn off some of the assist trophies that you know you’re not in the mood to see...? As if the LoZ Moon wasn’t scary enough...

Also how does one even charge up their Smash Ball meter? I know it charges anyway, but is there something someone does that charges it more/faster?

Pretty sure it charges faster when you take damage. There's been quite a few spirit battles I've cheesed by """"purposely"""" taking around 100% damage then using my final smash to kill the CPU.  

I'm glad the online matchmaking has been addressed so soon. I haven't gotten stuck with anything outside of 1v1 matches since the update either.

I don't like using Final Smashes to win, but I'll admit I've had to resort to it a few times in some of the more ridiculous spirit matches.

Finally finished Adventure Mode. It took me over 17 hours to 100% complete, mostly on Easy (some of those battles were insane). There's way too much back-tracking, and pathing is weird at points. Go around a sharp bend and you can suddenly do a U-turn. Or you want to go a certain way, but the fork is so close you accidentally go the wrong way, right on to a forced travel point.

They're doing a Spectacle Event on the Spirit Board, but why isn't Dr. Kawashima included?!

Btw, has everyone got their Piranha Plant download code? I haven't. Nintendo has said there's so much volume it can take as long as 10 days to get it.

I completed Adventure Mode Thursday and now gotta go back and 100% it which shouldn’t take me that long to do but I did miss multiple spirits.

Piranha Plant is out? I thought Nintendo wouldn’t release it till a later date. So far, I never got a code yet.

supersonic55: Nah, Piranha Plant's not out, but they're distributing the codes already. I was surprised too, because I expected them to do that closer to release.

I pre-ordered the game digitally on November 1st, and got my code November 5th, so hopefully others get theirs soon. He's not releasing until February 2019, though.

Oh yeah I forgot I got my code on December 10th and entered it in the Eshop. Make sure you got your Gold Points when you log into My Nintendo and have the Smash Bros Ultimate game registered and you should get the code soon.