(this took a bit of a while to even get started given how much I know about the series and that it has been over a week since the news but screw it I'm putting this up).
A new installment in the Super Smash Bros. series (of which is one of my faves) has been announced and to my surprise, is not a port of Smash 4 but rather a new game with all the fighters and I mean ALL the fighters, including Snake from the Metal Gear series. That alone makes me happy considering that I loved playing as him in Brawl and as a fan of the Metal Gear series, and of course David Hayter is reprising him which makes me even more pleased. Though I do have my own thoughts on that but I'll save that for later in this post. Anyway, besides ALL the fighters, there will be new fighters and new stages, though I kind of wonder if all the stages that appeared in the games will be featured or that some might be omitted for whatever reason (especially the Miiverse one since the eponymous service has been discontinued), but who knows? maybe they all might, with some tweaks to some sets granted given the advanced hardware of the Switch.
Speaking of tweaks, some have noticed that Samus and Snake have their assets reduced for some reason, yes I'm putting Snake in the same league since well does it matter if the guy or gal is getting an aspect of his/her bod changed for the worse? I find that pretty stupid considering that their assets showing off wasn't a problem, but lo and behold they're changed up. I get the argument that Samus needs to have some fat reduced since typically muscular people need to have that for obvious reasons and that it needs to be more realistic for her to have a toned figure but then again Mario, Wario, and other characters have obviously non-realistic figures so what's the point? It's as if Nintendo doesn't want the game to express the message that busty women can be bad asses (or possibly catering to SJWs but I'll hold off on that argument); that and can't guys have nice rears. Granted I'm sexually attracted to women (and there is NOTHING wrong with that) and I don't care if I don't find Snake's rear to be nice to look at (if anything I find Raiden's to be slightly more amusing to comment on), but still pointless changes to the bodies of characters are pointless changes. Honestly I hope Nintendo notices and puts them back to their original proportions but who knows? Though at least they'll be awesome to play as in the long run. (oh and some places like the Verge are rightly calling out the changing of Snake's rear but is fine with Samus's reduced bust, f--k them; though unfortunately I wasn't able to archive them but I'll link them indirectly via the KiA subreddit).
And as for Snake himself, again I am really glad he made the cut though I was honestly worried about his inclusion and the representation of the MG franchise since I feared that Konami would compromise that considering how bad the company has gotten these days (for one they subjected the franchise into the recent sodomy that is Survive). Thankfully, we are getting him (plus good ol' Hayter along) and the Shadow Moses stage in the game; though I have a good feeling that it would have some stuff from Peace Walker and the Phantom Pain added in to update it, so it might be possible for the AI Weapons and Sahelanthropus to make an appearance from those two game respectively (though I wonder if more elements of the MG universe get represented as well?). That and maybe Raiden might become either a playable character or an assist trophy, either in his MG4/Solid 2, MG6/Solid 4, or Reveangance look but I have a feeling he might not but who knows? Speaking of which, I'm not even sure if Col. Campbell, Otacon, and Mei would make an appearance as codec contacts for Snake to talk to when doing battles on that stage, though my good theory is that they'd be replaced with Kaz Miller for the Colonel and Paz for Mei respectively, Otacon would either be himself or replaced by his dad, Huey; it largely depends on if Christopher Randall is up for being in Smash Ultimate. Come to think of it, it'd be amusing if Revolver Ocelot in his MG7/Solid 5 getup either makes an appearance as a fourth codec contact or replaces Otacon. As for the codec, I think the stage would go with the post-MG4/Solid 2 ones or have a different one that mimics the imagery from the menu of Phantom Pain (something I wish that game had but I digress). Though I hope the voice actors would reprise the abovementioned characters to get the authentic Metal Gear experience, it'd be a disservice not to and I take issue with that as an MG fan (that and Konami but that's another story). Oh and I notice that the franchise logo for MG is changed from the Fox logo used in Snake Eater to basically the "!" one that shows up when enemies spot you (or notice something), which is usually a bad sign in the world of MG. Other than that I await to see how the Ultimate will represent the games in the MG series that came out after both Brawl and MG6/Solid 4.
Of course, let's focus on other aspects of this game, there are like a few new characters, like the Inklings and Ridley, and of course Daisy...frickin' Daisy (and yet Waluigi gets regulated to being an assist trophy once again...) and plenty of the main cast would have some changes especially with Ryu always facing his opponent in this one which would end up confusing me considering my distaste for fighting games, save for Smash Bros., and that now Marth's English voice actor sounds like a teenage boy trying to act tough in some brawl with high school bullies (frankly it's another case where I prefer the Japanese VA over the English one, same with Fox); though I'm hoping that the game might have an option to change the language of the VA's similar to how Melee had a language option which is frickin' interesting. With the larger roster than the previous games, I have a good feeling that me and my older sister and my friends would have plenty to play with, though some of them would have to be unlockable and that's fine, it's a Smash tradition I'm down with, as long as it doesn't involve being solely through difficult means (not that they should be ridiculously easy either); same for stages. And speaking of which, I'm quite surprised to learn that ALL of them will not only be altered to their Alpha or Omega forms but also their hazards turned off, meaning that I don't have to worry about them when I want to emulate the tournament experience. In addition, plenty of them will be returning ones including the DK Jungle stage with the area being situated on a waterfall like in Melee that has the catchy and awesome intro rap remixed from DK64 (and mind you I loved that part in that I can have my favorite fighter Kirby dance to the tune). And of course given that there will be MOAR stages to play in compared to the others, there's a lot for me and others to play around in and that some will be unlockable (same applies to not being difficult nor easy to do so). Though I'm willing to bet that ALL of them will make an appearance in the game, it'd be stupid not to do that. Same for the items, including the paper fan, of which is one of my faves to use for sheer schnaps and giggles. Trophies are trophies and I'm sure there's some way to get them like through Shops or that gacha thing (of which I'll tolerate if it's not the mobage/lootbox kind). And speaking of systems, I hope the menu gets improved in that it's closer to the Melee and Brawl ones rather than the jumbled up 4th one. As for what kind of modes there'll be, we are not sure, but I do hope it'd be more akin to the first three games in that there was an adventure mode of sorts along with a classic and all-stars, though it's doubtful there'd be anything on par with Subspace Emissary that Brawl had; still for all I know there might be a bunch more modes for both singleplayer and multiplayer (and that online would have many options and not divided up into this either "for glory/fun" nonsense).
Hell, make the game more akin to Melee physics wise, since to me and others, it is the best game in the franchise, and perhaps Ultimate, from what I've seen so far, is looking to match that and perhaps top that, which is good, that should the aim for the game for as far as I'm concerned. Not that the other games that came after Melee were bad, they're quite good in fact, all of them even the original one for the 64. I'm not one of those types that think Melee is the only good one and nothing matters, nope, that's the mark of an ignorant fanboy and fanboys can f--k off. Though if the Melee elitists and I can agree with it's that the Smash franchise is best played on the GameCube controller and thankfully Ultimate is allowing us that option, though can Nintendo at least make sure that SSBU isn't the ONLY one to use it? It was stupid of them to do that with SSB4WiiU and look where that got them; though they could rerelease the Wavebird since it'd fit in well with the Switch's portability). And if there's one sure fire thing about SSBU, it's that it will sell like hotcakes and that it would greatly help the Switch, which itself is a good one (and one I look forward to getting, perhaps for this Christmas) and that it would be a boon to not only Nintendo but to us since we like games that are good to play when it comes to something like Smash Bros and we should reward a company like Nintendo if they give us good quality games to play on good quality systems.
As for what other newbies would make an appearance besides the abovementioned 3, we do not know. There could be like a couple more of them for all I know, and that maybe there might be a few more that are guests from third party companies, not counting SEGA, Konami..., Bandai-Namco, and Square-Enix. Now here I'd like to take the time to advocate for SNK to put in their own guest fighter and it sure as hell isn't Terry nor any of the schmucks from their fighter franchises, no siree (not even that Kyo c--t), nope it's Marco from the Metal Slug franchise. Why? Because Metal Slug is SNK's best known IP (aside from KOF) as I have said before and it'd be stupid for the company to have KOF instead of MS; I mean SNK's collaboration/cross-over crazy right now and they're ripe for a good opportunity to get more visibility from something so popular and beloved as Smash Bros. It'd be insanely stupid for them not to do so along with having KOF take the place. Anyway, I chose Marco to be the candidate guest for Ultimate considering the franchise is known for being a platform-run-n-gun one and if Smash Bros. can have someone from a dark and violent one (Metal Gear) and one where she flaunts her sexuality (Bayonetta) and both have guns, then I think the MS franchise can fit in. Of course I spend the rest of this paragraph about how Marco moves and such and that the other leads, Tarma, Eri, and Fio, can stand in for him similar to how the Koopa kids did with Bowser Jr. and that other guy with Olimar but that's another post for another time. Still SNK better take the opportunity to get a crossover in Ultimate nor that's going to be another load of ammo for me to blast at when criticizing their incompetency but let us move on.
The fact that this Ultimate isn't a port of 4 but rather a new game that is like the kitchen sink of the entire franchise (and some) is quite suprising, though it quite makes sense. I mean we are getting that's like much more content packed than all the previous 5 games combined. Again I'm hopeful that ALL of it comes together but we do not know, it'd be damn shame not to. Still, this is a good move for Nintendo, especially since their E3 prescense is kind of meh right now but then again we have Direct and Tokyo Game Show to surprise us; though it is odd that once again Bandai-Namco is partly making this besides the Sora team, but whatever the last two games were good and that I'm already looking forward to this. That and Sakurai Masahiro is once again leading the development so that's another good sign. Though I do have a feeling that their release date is quite too soon considering that we have half a year to get by and I smell a bit of a Christmas rush, but hopefully they might delay it to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the SSB series. Now that's an anniversary special in my book.
