Super Smash Bros Ultimate / Tropes A to B

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Tropes A-B HERE!

Tropes C-F HERE!

Tropes G-O HERE!

Tropes P-Z HERE!

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#-A

• 100% Completion: Getting 100% in Adventure Mode encompasses clearing all 615 nodes, including obtaining all 73 fighters, fighting Galeem and Dharkon for both bad endings, and defeating the True Final Boss.
• Ability Required to Proceed:
  • Getting around the map in World of Light requires specific spirits to bypass some roadblocks, such as rocks that need to be blown up or bridges that need repairing. This can get a bit strange when you have five different spirits clearly identifiable as magicians, but not the specific one that can enlarge some mushrooms for you. Fortunately, the game automatically informs you an obstacle can be disabled once you obtain the appropriate spirit.
  • Downplayed with the challenge battles themselves. Certain stage hazards and conditions can be neutralized by the right support spirits to make the fight much easier, which the party screen draws your attention to. For example, a battle in fierce winds with water you drown in almost instantly is much easier if you first get the nearby supports that grant wind resistance and immunity to drowning, but the fight is winnable without them.
• Absurdly Ineffective Barricade: During the opening cutscene of the "World of Light" adventure mode, as the entire roster (sans Kirby) attempts and utterly fails at escaping being obliterated by Galeem, Solid Snake attempts to avoid its wrath by... quietly hiding in a cardboard box. Considering Galeem had just chased down lightspeed-travelling spaceships and actual deities, it's not surprising that it doesn't work, but one could hardly blame the attempt.
• Absurdly Short Level: Some Spirit battles are designed in this fashion. One example is the Buzz Buzz spirit fought in "World of Light": You fight a tiny Mr. Game & Watch (a light character made even lighter) who begins the fight with 300% damage, making it easy to end the battle in less than 5 seconds (the difficulty being actually finding him, since G&W is so ridiculously tiny, he's almost invisible). Similarly, the Sandbag spirit match, where you're given 10 seconds to knock a white, motionless Samus, off the map (like how you have 10 seconds in the Home-Run Contest mode to rack up damage before sending Sandbag flying). There's also the trope-naming (Liquid) Metal Slime spirit from Dragon Quest, roleplayed as by a Metal Kirby who has very low HP but is extremely elusive and hard to hit; and the time limit is short as well.
• Acid-Trip Dimension: The Dark Realm in the story mode. When Dracula's castle is the most normal point of interest in said location, then you know you've walked into a freaking weird and terrifying place. Special mention goes to the Mysterious Dimension, which can only be described as a psychedelic tornado of what appears to be bits and pieces of the fighters' respective worlds all converging on a black hole.
• Action Bomb:
  • The game introduces the Bomber as an item. Additionally, one of Galeem's attacks has him create a copy of a playable character made of pure light that chase and attack the player to explode after a few seconds. Dharkon uses a version of this attack, only his copies are made of darkness.
  • Hero brings with him an assortment of magic spells from his game series, one of which happens to be Kamikazee. Casting it ensures you'll immediately lose a stock, but with an explosion wide enough and powerful enough to hopefully take your opponents with you.
• Actor Allusion:
  • In the Spirit Boards for the Persona 5 characters, Morgana is represented by Pikachu, while Yusuke is represented by Chrom in both ways.
  • The fact Joker gets to face Master Hand at the end of his route is inevitable.
  • During the Hero's showcase video, Sakurai mentioned that since Nobuyuki Hiyama was voicing the Dragon Quest III skin, it could be said the King of Braves is playing the Hero. In addition, this isn't the first time that Nobuyuki has voiced a franchise's most recognizable hero in Smash, voicing Link prior in both 64 and Melee.
  • When Sakurai discusses calling in Ryō Horikawa to provide Captain Falcon's eating noises for Min Min's trailer, he namedrops another famous role of his: Vegeta from the Dragon Ball series.
• Adaptational Attractiveness: In Persona 5, Mementos was overall a bleak and gory corruption of the Shibuya subway. Here as a stage, it's incredibly stylised, with the majority taking cues from the game's flashy UI. Especially with the Tartarus and Midnight Channel themes.
• Adaptational Badass:
  • Concerning World of Light, some characters' spirits are way more powerful here than in their home games. For instance, Pauline, who has been a total noncombatant since her debut and is famous for being the first Damsel in Distress Mario saved, is a Legend spirit, the highest rank available (and one of the hardest fights in the game). Another example is Hinawa, who is just Lucas' mother and isn't known for any fighting skills in her original game, and is notably killed in the game's first chapter due to that fact, yet is also ranked as a Legend and puts up a very difficult fight.
  • The I-Tetromino is an Ace attack spirit that happens to sport the fourth highest attack stats among spirits in the game, higher than Fierce Deity Link and Fury Bowser and only beaten by Evil Ryu, Akuma and Malos in terms of raw attack power (and all of the spirits listed are Legend class). Impressive for cyan-colored blocks arranged in a line.
• Adaptational Wimp: Conversely, there are also Novice and Advanced spirits (the two lesser ranks) of characters that are way more powerful in their home games. To put it into perspective, the very first spirit you encounter in World of Light, the Smoky Progg from the first Pikmin, is a very hard Superboss that can kill Pikmin just by walking; here, it is just a measly Novice spirit. Dragonite and Tyranitar from Pokémon are only one rank above that, in spite of their immense stats back in their home series.
• Adapted Out: While Kingdom Hearts is a Disney and Final Fantasy crossover with original characters, Sora and the DLC associated with him do not feature any appearances from Disney characters, the only strictly Disney-related thing that stays is the Mickey Mouse insignia serving as the keychain to the Keyblade. This is consistant with how Masahiro Sakurai keeps Super Smash Bros. strictly as a video game crossover throughout the franchise's history.
• Advancing Wall of Doom: This game's Bonus Game takes the form of a linear obstacle course similar to "Race to the Finish!" from previous games. In this Bonus Game, the player is constantly being chased by a void that swallows everything it touches, and must reach the goal before the void gets them first.
• After the End: The game's story takes place after all life in the Smash universe has been wiped out sans Kirby, leaving a barren world populated only by the disembodied Spirits of the slain populace and an army of lifeless Puppet duplicates of the Fighters that some of those Spirits have possessed.
• all lowercase letters: Initially, the European announcement for the Sans costume was written by the skeleton himself, complete with his penchant for lowercase letters; the only capitals are the Bold Inflation for Undertale and the Megalovania song, along with the proper noun "Mii". Eventually this was changed to a more traditional writing style.
• All Your Powers Combined: Not only does the game bring back Pokémon Trainer and Mega Man, whose Final Smashes combine the attacks of the former's Pokemon and the latter's series incarnations and successors respectively, but the latter in turn also adds Proto Man and Bass to the mix.
• Alternate World Map: The first half of World of Light is spent in the titular world, while the second half is spent in the dark world that Dharkon creates when he takes over.
• Always a Bigger Fish: One DLC trailer pulls this with someone slashing World of Light boss Galeem down the middle before he has the chance to kill everyone. The bad part about it is that the incoming character is Sephiroth, and now the cast has to deal with him.
• Amazing Technicolor Battlefield:
  • In a new feature, some Final Smashes and Assist Trophies temporarily change the background, which can range from simple blocks of color to dark, swirling thunderstorms, or even an entire cosmos.
  • The Boss Galaga item also does this, replacing the background with the star field from its game of origin.
  • As usual, the new Final Destination has this going on even when the above aren't in effect.
• Ambiguous Situation: In the True Ending, it is not shown what happens to the fighters after Galeem and Dharkon are killed. However, since the Spirits are seen returning to the real world, it can be assumed that the fighters did the same.
• Anachronic Order: In All-Star Smash, the fighters' placements tend to be based off of certain release dates such as Little Mac's placement (as the 6th to appear) being based off the nameless boxer's debut in the arcade version of Punch-Out!! and Banjo and Kazooie and Dark Samus's placements being based off of their Japanese game releases instead of their earlier U.S. releases.
• And Your Reward Is Clothes: Like in the previous game, some Mii costumes and headgear can be obtained by beating certain challenges, and others as random rewards in various different modes.
• Angelic Abomination: The Big Bad of the game is Galeem, an angelic entity made of wings with a glowing orb in the center. It introduces itself by destroying the entire universe (bar Kirby) to recreate it and impose its perfect order. Its rival, Dharkon, isn't any better.
• Anti-Frustration Features:
  • All Final Smashes have been streamlined to keep matches fast-paced. To name a few examples: Sonic and Pac-Man have the characters attacking automatically instead of being player-controlled(though Sonic's can be made to change its height by moving up or down); some lost transformation like Fox and Falco initiating an Arwing strike similar to Captain Falcon. Some are changed to auto-combos that require the initial hit to land, like Donkey Kong doing a flurry of fists and Pikachu's Volt Tackle requiring his head bash to connect.
  • To mitigate stalling and keep up the pace of combat, ground and air dodging now decay with repeated use in the same way that moves do. The more times you dodge in a row, the longer the dodge animation takes, and the less invulnerability the dodge gives you. The Spirit effect "Easier Dodging" undoes the decay.
  • If any character is offscreen, a minimap now appears at the corner of the screen that displays the current location of all fighters on the field, including how close they are to the blast zones.
  • Characters with specific gauges and unique mechanics, like Cloud's Limit Break, Villager's Pocket, or Robin's weapon durability, will now always have a character-specific icon next to their damage that displays the relevant information. Banjo and Kazooie's Gold Feathers are an exception, only being shown when they spawn and when they perform the Wonderwing.
  • Pokémon Trainer no longer has a stamina-reducing penalty for playing as one of their Pokémon for too long, allowing players to freely select and play as the one they prefer. Switching between the three of them is also much faster than Brawl, allowing for more combo potential, and they can switch while in the air as well. The "type damage" mechanic was also removed, something which infamously left Ivysaur at a severe disadvantage due to the abundance of fire attacks.
  • Using certain moves with controllable trajectories causes a small arrow to appear around your character to show where they'll send them. Moves that use this include PK Thunder, Quick Attack, Agility, and Hydro Pump.
  • There are now specific special effects to easier translate to the player what happens visually. For instance, a mini-reflector will appear when an impact caused a projectile to get reflected. If a person is being healed, a circulating light will fly up a character.
  • There is an option to group Echo Fighters in the same slots as the characters on which they are based. Considering how many total fighters are in this game, this is done to make the character select screen more easily navigable to players who prefer it this way.
  • Training Mode now has a special stage that's designed to make it much easier to determine how each character's attacks work. The background has a grid that can be used to measure distance, and attacks have their launch distance displayed along with their possible trajectories at 0% and 100% damage, as well as factoring in the fighter's weight. It even lists the relative sizes of Battlefield and Final Destination to help give a sense of scale, and to help with the two most "neutral" stages in the game.
  • Unlocking the Mii Fighters in World of Light gives you the Mii depicted in the artwork with a default 1111 moveset, which makes them usable without having to be set up.
  • Unlocking characters has been greatly simplified:
    • Rather than milestone numbers of total Smashes played (which would get incredibly grindy given the sheer number involved), a new challenger fight appears every ten minutes or so, working its way down a predetermined list. If you lose, you just have to wait until the chance comes around again — and even then, the timer can be skipped by resetting the game or changing the language.
    • The "Challenger Approaching" method is now limited entirely to completing Classic Mode with a specific character ^note Characters are divided in eight ordered pools, one for each starting character. Completing Classic Mode with a specific character will trigger the fight against the first non-unlocked character in the same pool. If you flub the fight, you don't have to re-do the required conditions to get it to trigger again. A new mode called "Challenger's Approach" appears in the Games & More menu to retry it at will.
    • Fighters recruited in World of Light are also unlocked for the rest of the game (although the reverse is not true). Due to how World of Light works, once you find a fighter, you can keep trying the fight as much as you need to beat it. Once at least 10 fighters have been unlocked in a single save file, all purchased DLC characters immediately become available for said file.
  • Losing in Classic Mode in Smash 3DS/Wii U would lower the difficulty permanently if you chose to continue, frustrating players that wanted to keep the difficulty high and/or were going for a high score. This still applies in Ultimate, but you can preserve the difficulty after a defeat as long as you have a ticket to use. However, regardless of using or not a ticket, continuing before reaching 9.9 (the highest difficulty rating) will lock you out of it.
  • The game makes a good faith effort to avoid giving you duplicate spirits. It's not foolproof, but copies will rarely appear as bounties unless you go out of your way to make it happen, so just plugging away at the Spirit Board for long enough will ultimately give you a shot at every spirit that doesn't have a special summoning requirement.
  • If you fail to obtain a spirit during the shield phase, the damage done to the shield will still be there the next time you fight that spirit. Spending Spirit Points gives you one more shot for the time being if you choose to. If you still can't get the spirit (or don't have the SP), you can use a Rematch item to make it reappear immediately, rather than having to wait for it.
  • Spirits that are related to Events typically appear at scheduled times that are listed on the event's website, and typically stick around for 15 minutes (one hour for Legend-class spirits) as opposed to the usual 5 minutes. Some Legend-class spirits are pinned, meaning they will not go away even if the player fails at them until the time limit expires.
  • The game will give you a warning if you attempt to enter a battle in World of Light or the Spirit Board while using a type-disadvantaged Spirit, or no Spirit at all. If you pass up these warnings multiple times in a row, the game will conclude that you're intentionally doing this, and stop giving you the warnings.
  • Prior to Version 2.0.0, if you lost a fight on the Spirit Board once, the spirit would disappear, forcing you to spend a Rematch item to get another chance. Now, the game gives you three tries to win against a spirit before having to do so.
  • If you're about to fight a Spirit that sets the battlefield with a terrain hazard (i.e. lava-covered floors, strong winds, poisonous fog, etc.) and peruse your own Spirits, the ones that can weaken or outright nullify the effects of the hazard listed are conspicuously check-marked. The game also has a reliable recommended Spirit feature, which always equips a Spirit that grants immunity to a given hazard if the player has one and enough room in their Primary Spirit, avoiding having to scroll through a potentially long list of Supports. The player can further narrow searching through certain filters by effect type or even the number of slots the Support takes up.
  • In Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, the power of your equipment was determined by the intensity level that you obtained it on and any support abilities were randomized, and most equipment types were limited to a handful of characters. Here, equipment is replaced by spirits, which have predetermined stats (which can be increased by levelling up), you can equip almost any support abilities you want to any primary spirit, and the entire spirit system is fighter-agnostic.^note That said, primary spirits gain a substantial power boost if paired with a fighter from the same franchise, and some also provide benefits (such as increased sword attack power) that only certain characters can use, but these don't stop them from being equipped to any fighter and using their power boosts.
  • All Online challenges require a Nintendo Switch Online account to access Online Mode to clear them, locking out those who can't or opt not to pay for the service. Fortunately, no Online challenges award Spirits, Mii costumes, or music, allowing everyone to obtain all of those regardless. The game also provides enough Golden Hammers to break most of these challenges and get their prizes.
  • Excluding the Sticky Bomb, all bomb items (Smart Bomb, Bob-omb, etc.) do not harm its user anymore. You can throw a Bob-omb right in front of an enemy and not be blown off. However, if the bomb gets attacked, it will still damage indiscriminately.
  • DLC spirits get their own boards, so that you don't have to keep grinding for items to reset the regular Spirit Board to obtain them. Those special Spirit Boards also allow infinite retries, as the spirits in them never go away whether you win or lose against them, and they don't need to be freed the usual way, as winning against a spirit automatically gives it to you.
  • In Spirit Board, if you're struggling and take enough damage in a spirit battle, the shield guarding the spirit afterwards will be widened more, to the point of disappearing.
  • Miis posted on Shared Content can be downloaded even if you don't have the costume pieces yourself, as long as the costume is in the base game and not DLC. This can save the trouble of unlocking them from the Shop or Challenge Board.
  • Music can be freely chosen before picking a stage, unlike past games where My Music was used to determine what song would play during a match. So now if there's a particular song you want to fight to, you don't have to hope that it will get picked by the RNG.
• Anti-Rage Quitting: The game kicks players automatically for repeatedly self-destructing (falling off the stage on purpose) during matches.
• Apocalypse How: Galeem, the light entity from the World of Light, is outright able to cause Universal Physical Annihilation, leaving it all as a barren wasteland/mixed dimensional soup. Only Kirby survives because he managed to warp himself out of existence temporarily. In the end, depending on how you played, the entire universe either ends up as Galeem's plaything or Dharkon just destroys it — unless you can challenge and defeat both at once.
• Art Evolution:
  • Ultimate goes out of its way to update the graphics of returning stages from Melee onwards, like this example◊ comparing Kongo Jungle from Melee (now named Kongo Falls). Even Wii U stages like Gaur Plains from 3DS/Wii U get updated shaders and lighting.
  • 75m now looks and sounds more loyal to the original arcade version of Donkey Kong rather than being based on the NES port like in Brawl and Wii U.
  • Character design continues in the same vein of 3DS/Wii U, with the characters retaining the look and feel of their regular series counterparts while being given more realistic textures (Donkey Kong's fur and Little Mac and Ryu's muscles being huge examples).
  • Deliberately averted for the 64 stages, which only received minor touch-ups and upscaling, which was what they did for their 3DS/Wii U iteration. Mushroom Kingdom is the exception, which has had its sprite art updated to be more faithful to the original 8-bit Super Mario Bros. game.
  • Mii Fighters featured in Final Fantasy VII spirit battles feature customized Mii faces, while earlier ones only used the default Brawler/Gunner/Swordfighter face.
• The Artifact:
  • Unlike Palutena's Guidance, Snake's codecs have not been updated, presumably due to Col. Campbell's Japanese voice actor having died since Super Smash Bros. Brawl. As a result...
    • It's impossible for Snake to get codecs for characters who didn't appear in Brawl.
    • Sheik and Zero Suit Samus are still described as if they're mid-battle transformations of Zelda and Samus (e.g. Snake exclaiming, "Mei Ling, Samus took her clothes off!" and "What's going on? What happened to Zelda?!"). Both were made into their own characters in a change that was carried over from Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U.
    • The Pokémon Trainer is still called a guy and referred to with male pronouns, despite the new option to use a female trainer in his place.
    • The codecs for Jigglypuff and Sonic still have Snake's contacts call this game Brawl, rather than Ultimate or just Smash.
    • Mei Ling will refer to Captain Olimar's tribulations, even if the Olimar player is actually Alph. (Curiously, the codec is disabled in a similar situation: it will not activate for Ike in his Radiant Dawn costume.)
  • Even Palutena's Guidance isn't immune to this, as the one for Luigi still refers to him as "second out of all these fighters" which is at odds with the fighter numbering system introduced in Ultimate which puts Luigi at number 9.
  • Mew can still be summoned from a Poké Ball, but since this game has no trophies, stickers, or CDs to collect (as music is just unlocked through the shop or through Challenges), and Bonus mode is still exclusive to Melee, Mew does absolutely nothing.
  • Toon Link still has the same crowd cheer as regular Link despite Young Link getting his own.
  • One of Doc Louis' quotes when Little Mac wins a match is "And the winner is... Little Mac! Hahaha!" This quote comes from 3DS/Wii U, where it was said in tandem with the announcer, but Ultimate changed the announcer's dialogue to "[character name] wins!", leaving Doc without a partner to sync up with.
  • Although the character stickers on Gamer have been updated with WarioWare Gold designs, 5-Volt is still shown with her Game & Wario design when spotting players.
  • The Assist Trophy remains as an item, even though the role that Trophies served in previous games is now taken by Spirits.
  • Pichu has the same fall speed as in Melee despite falling speeds in general being slowed down since then.
  • Within Ultimate itself, the novelty of having only the 64 starters to play with when you first play the game is diluted for those who bought the DLC characters, who are automatically unlocked.
  • Since many Mii outfits were carried over from Smash 4, it's still possible to wear outfits based on Chrom, Isabelle, Daisy, King K. Rool, and the Inklings, despite all of those characters having been Promoted to Playable in this game. There's also a Zero outfit, even though Zero is an Assist Trophy this time around.
  • In 3DS and Wii U, while the trio of Link, Zelda, and Ganondorf use their Twilight Princess designs, the game overall gave them vague descriptions that more represented the characters across the franchise (best seen in the trophies and Palutena's Guidance that mention nothing on the events of Twilight Princess). Ultimate puts further emphasis on the specific versions in the roster, where the Spirits come from the correct games and Palutena mentions the events of their three games. Despite this, All-Star Smash, PAC-MAN and Mr. Game & Watch's Classic Mode routes, and Event Tourneys still treat Link and Zelda as debuting in the original game like All-Star Mode did in 3DS and Wii U, as opposed to Hero being treated as debuting in Dragon Quest III/Dragon Quest XI rather than the Hero concept in general.
• Artificial Brilliance: High-level CPUs in this game collectively Took a Level in Badass this time around, with several being able to pull off the kind of tech that players in the competitive scene are able to do.
• Artificial Stupidity:
  • Despite the improvement to the A.I., they still have issues with stage navigation/awareness and overextension that can lead to self-destructing, which resulted in yet another video showcasing every level nine CPU being beaten by the player doing nothing.
  • The A.I. of certain characters are particularly infamous for certain suicidal tendencies:
    • CPU Mewtwo will frequently use its Up-B seemingly randomly, and is prone to teleporting offstage to its death with it.
    • When CPU Greninja is using its side-special Shadow Sneak, it will often go farther than it needs to hit the opponent, and will not stop it short if the shadow will go into a walkoff, making it prone to teleporting into the blastzone on a walkoff and SDing.
    • CPU Ryu will not recognize if his side-special Tatsumaki will carry him into the blast zone on a walkoff, making him heavily prone to Tatsuing off to his death on a walkoff if an opponent is near the blast zone. Additionally, since Tatsu launches people vertically, Ryu will often not even take the opponent out with him during this if he hits them with Tatsu.
    • CPU Inkling is prone to using their up special when onstage for no discernible reason, and in doing so will often fly offstage helpless, leading to them self-destructing. Several players in their first encounter with Inkling in her unlock fight experienced this and had to do nothing to unlock her.
    • CPU Ridley loves to try grabbing people with his side special, and if he grabs someone with it on a walkoff, he will frequently drag the opponent into the blastzone without cancelling the move, which results in Ridley being KO'd instead of the opponent.
    • CPU Joker will often use his Arsene-powered Wings of Rebellion, onstage. Unlike Joker's regular Grappling Hook up special, which grabs the enemy and does damage while pulling them to him, Wings of Rebellion has no use aside from getting lots of airtime, as it does no damage whatsoever.
  • Instead of ignoring stage hazards like they usually did in the prior games, the A.I. goes to the other extreme and is now ultra-cautious of them, where they will try very hard to avoid them, often using their up-specials to get away from them even if nowhere near them, and in the process leaving themselves heavily vulnerable or even outright self-destructing from their recovery moves carrying them offstage.
  • In World of Light, setting the A.I. difficulty to Hard can result in the A.I. jumping around a lot and end up killing itself by falling off a ledge and being unable to recover.
  • At least in Spirit Board, A.I.s and Super Launch Stars do not mix very well.
  • That thing where you kill a wounded ally Assist Trophy for an extra point? A.I.s will do it in Spirit Battles where the points don't matter.
  • The A.I. can adapt surprisingly well to certain Custom Stages, but a lot of things will trip them up. One obvious problem is them not knowing whether or not a shape of terrain is usable. For example, if there is a square of terrain and an identical square directly on top of it, the A.I. will plummet trying to hang on to the lower square, which is blocked by the higher one.
  • When playing against a CPU opponent (or in a match with just CPU fighters) in an Omega-form stage, even if they're Level 9 CPUs, if they're trying to recover and are close to the platform, they'll almost always air dodge towards it even if they can fall safely on the stage and regardless of if an opponent is nearby, meaning they are defenseless against an attack that might KO them.
• Ascended Extra:
  • Inklings graduated from being a DLC trophy and Mii Fighter costume to playable between 3DS/Wii U and this game.
  • Ridley appeared as a background character in the N64 original, a trophy in Melee, a recurring boss in Brawl's Subspace Emissary, and a stage hazard in Wii U's Pyrosphere before finally becoming a playable character.
  • Daisy was formerly a palette swap for Peach before becoming a playable character in her own right as Peach's Echo Fighter.
  • Chrom was previously just a part of Robin's Final Smash in 3DS/Wii U before becoming an Echo Fighter of Roy. He still takes part on Pair Up, oddly enough (he was also in Robin's Palutena Guidance conversation in Wii U, though that has been changed).
  • Dark Samus was a regular trophy in Brawl and an Assist Trophy in 3DS/Wii U before becoming Samus' Echo Fighter.
  • King K. Rool had trophies in Melee onward and a Mii Fighter costume in 3DS/Wii U before becoming a playable character.
  • Isabelle goes from being an Assist Trophy in 3DS/Wii U to a playable character here.
  • Ken was a trophy that accompanied Ryu's DLC pack in the previous game before getting the call-up here.
  • The Piranha Plant, big time. It's one of the few iconic Mario mooks that has never had a playable role, relegated to obstacle, background element, simple enemy or as an item in both main series and spinoff games, including in this series, where it's only had a couple cameos. Ultimate is the first time a common Piranha Plant has been playable.
  • Some characters who were previously Mii Fighter costumes got promoted to Assist Trophy status: Akira, Black Knight, Knuckles, and Zero (from the Mega Man series). In the opposing direction, Ray Mk III from Custom Robo and Saki Amamiya from Sin and Punishment are now Mii Gunner outfits after being Assist Trophies in previous games. And in both directions at once, Isaac of Golden Sun is both an Assist Trophy (after being one in Brawl but missing out on 3DS/Wii U) and a Mii Swordfighter outfit.
  • In regards to universe representation, ARMS went from only having minor content in the base game (Spring Man as both an Assist Trophy and a spirit, Ribbon Girl as both a Mii Brawler outfit and a spirit, and spirits of Min Min, Twintelle and Ninjara) to having a playable fighter, a stage and music via a DLC pack.
  • Pyra and Mythra became DLC after only appearing in the base game as Spirits.
• Ascended Glitch:
  • One of Simon's victory animations (the one where he grabs a Red Orb and then begins jumping up and down in place while swinging his whip) is actually a reference to a popular glitch/Player Tic from the original Castlevania where holding down both the A and B buttons after grabbing a Red Orb would result in Simon doing this as the Level Complete jingle plays.
  • The Saffron City stage had a glitch in the original Smash that if you hit the Chansey that popped out hard enough, it would go flying out the back through the wall. The Ultimate version of the stage keeps the glitch.
  • In Melee, there was a glitch that, when performed, allowed you to play as Master Hand, but it wasn't practical due to the game crashes it frequently caused. Several more crashes and Game Mods later, one of the final parts of World of Light has you play as Master Hand where you use nearly his entire moveset to slaughter hordes of puppet fighters so the heroes can stop Galeem and Dharkon.
  • Another well-known Melee glitch concerns the Super Scope, and the ability to get infinite ammo for it. This game's iteration of the "attack the credits" game arms the player with an infinite ammo Super Scope and sets them loose.
• Ascended Meme:
  • For years, it was accepted as fact that Ridley would never be a playable character in Smash because he was "too big"; i.e., he is so large compared to Samus that to make him playable would require scaling him down to the point that he doesn't feel as fearsome as he rightfully should. When he was finally announced to make his Smash debut here, what was his newcomer blurb? "Ridley Hits the Big Time!" Additionally, one of his taunts is to stand to his full height, showing that even rescaled, he's still taller than all the other fighters.
  • Ken takes out Little Mac with a Parry into a Shippu Jinrai Kyaku. That's right: Nintendo just referenced Evo Moment #37 in a trailer.
  • It may be only a coincidence, but in the opening sequence, we can see Fox being shown in Final Destination among all possible stages.
  • When playing as the Inkling on the Boxing Ring stage, the jumbotron in the background will occasionally give them the tagline of "Part-Kid, Part-Squid", a reference to the American Splatoon commercials which had the infamous lyrics of "YOU'RE A KID NOW, YOU'RE A SQUID NOW".
  • When Guile is summoned as an Assist Trophy, he simply crouches down in one spot, destroys projectiles upon impact without being damaged and uses Flash Kick when a player comes too close. Anyone well-versed in the Street Fighter Meta Game will recognise this as a viable (and infamous) tactic.
  • The Palutena's Guidance for Bayonetta has Viridi telling Pit to "just wiggle around or something" if caught in one of Bayonetta's combos, a nod to the notorious "Just SDI" Bayonetta meme.
  • Pit yells "RIDLEY CONFIRMED!" at the start of said character's Palutena's Guidance.
  • According to the Tips writer, they hear that Falco "prefers the air anyway" on the topic that his blaster fires faster while airborne.
  • Fox's penultimate fight in Classic Mode pits him against Wolf (a partial Moveset Clone) on Venom (Omega form), and no items spawn. In other words — no items, Fox only, Final Destination.
  • The message for the "Castlevania: Spirit Nocturne" Spirit Board event references the infamous "What is a man?" line from Dracula in Symphony of the Night:
    What is a Spirit Board? On this occasion, it's a far-from-miserable little pile of spirits hailing from the Castlevania series!
  • During their reveals, when Richter Belmont saves Simon from Dracula's fireball, he greets Dracula by referencing the same infamous exchange from Symphony of the Night:
    Begone! You don't belong in this world, monster!
  • Futaba Sakura's spirit battle is against an orange Inkling. From the moment of Futaba's reveal during Persona 5's prerelease period, the two characters were constantly compared due to their nearly identical hairstyles.
  • A less popular in-joke in the Persona 5 fandom was depicting Yusuke and Chrom together, on account of them both being tall, blue haired swordsmen who coincidentally both happen to have the same voice actor in both English and Japanese^note Matthew Mercer and Tomokazu Sugita, respectively. Come the 3.0 update and Yusuke's spirit fight is against Chrom.
  • Joker's classic mode has one stage against Samus and Dark Samus. The battlefield is Mementos, with the music set to "Mass Destruction", a song well known (at least to Persona fans) for repeating the word "baby" a lot.
  • The frequent comparisons of Duck Hunt to Banjo and Kazooie due to their similar style of a bird teaming up with a brown-furred animal were referenced in Banjo and Kazooie's reveal trailer which is a replay of King K. Rool's trailer except that he's taking a nap at the Kong's house and Duck Hunt take the place of King Dedede pretending to be Banjo and Kazooie only to get shoved away by the actual duo.
  • After an insane amount of jokes about his inclusion, Sans is now in the game... as a DLC Mii costume. Additionally, this game's news bulletin announcing the costume's accompanying remix of Megalovania states that it "will fill you with determination". A promotional image for the costume is taken on the Magicant stage, which may also be a reference to the infamous "Sans is Ness" meme.
  • In the introduction trailer for the Ryo Mii Fighter costume, Wario's bike rolls offscreen, with the Ryo Mii landing behind it as if it jumped off, a reference to the "I must use Haoh Sho Ko Ken" meme.
  • The final Spirit Board event of 2019, centered around spirits wearing shorts, is entitled "So Comfy! So Cool!" The reference is more overt in the European version, where the event is outright named "Comfy and Easy To Wear".
  • In Byleth's reveal trailer, Sothis asks him, "Too many swordsmen, are there?" This is a reference to the grievance some players have regarding the number of fighters who wield swords.
  • Rhea's spirit battle is against a default Palutena. There's been numerous comparisons between the two since the moment she was revealed, and thus the Three Houses fandom even nicknamed her after the goddess.
  • In the Dark World section of "World of Light", the Master Sword is guarded by Cloud, of all characters. Older gamers will recognize this as a nod to the fact that the The Legend of Zelda and Final Fantasy series, and by extension Link and Cloud, had a fandom rivalry going on during the late 1990s and early 2000s. Primarily because The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Final Fantasy VII became very iconic games during the Nintendo 64 and the PlayStation respectively, which were the main contenders of the 5th Console Generation.^note Same reason why, when Cloud was introduced in the series in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, Cloud's promotional art work showed both characters in a Blade Lock
  • One of the online tournaments Nintendo made is called "The Year is 200X", referencing the 20XX copypasta associated with Melee's competitive scene.
  • After years of poorly-made rumors and jokes that Steve would be added to Smash, Steve was officially announced for Smash in October, 2020.
  • Marth's line in the World of Light cutscene became a meme in the Japanese community known as the "Marth Theory". Sakurai referenced this meme in his showcase of Sephiroth vs. Master Hand and Crazy Hand.
  • Two of Mythra's English lines reference the infamous Ardainian Soldier, "You're done" and "Think you can take me".
  • For the Dragonborn Mii Costume:
    • Its trailer begins with them riding the Kapp'n bus before jumping off, referencing the "Ah, you finally are awake." opening that has been used in plenty of meme templates.
    • One of the daily Sakurai screenshots is a Dragonborn Mii having an arrow stuck to his knee.
  • During the final Sakurai Presents video featuring Sora, when he starts the gameplay demo with Mario as Sora's first target, Sakurai expresses disbelief that "he" is in the game, but then reaffirms that he's not referring to Mario, a reference to the "Mario Is Finally In Smash" meme.
  • In the previous Smash entry, King Dedede's couch was constantly memed about and even used as an alternate "taunt" because of how smug he looks when doing it. In this game, Dedede now does a smug grin whenever he crouches.
• Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: The primary way to dispose of spirits is to send them back into the real world. Gesture of goodwill aside as they couldn't do this themselves, they'll leave behind a core which is generally used for summoning new spirits. Clouds of spirits do this en masse in the true ending of World of Light.
• Asset Actor:
  • Justified as the concept of Spirit Battles; the characters aren't present in person, but are fought in the form of being stuffed into the fighter they're closest to.
  • Separately from the spirit battles, each character has a Classic Mode series of battles where they face off against themed opponents. Sometimes these directly involve actual fighters where appropriate, but in many cases fighters, modified with palette swaps or size increases or decreases, are used as close-enough stand-ins for other characters. For instance, Samus's path uses a giant King K. Rool to represent Kraid, Pit's uses Bayonetta to represent Medusa, and Steve's uses various fighters to represents Minecraft mobs and ends in a battle against Ridley as the Ender Dragon.
• Assist Character: Assist Trophies return, summoned from their item of the same name. In Time Battles, you can now earn points by knocking out Assist Trophy characters (you could do so before, but there was no reward other than stopping them earlier than usual), a rather unorthodox way of "assisting" you.
• Athletic Arena Level: Besides bringing back several sports-based stages from previous game, the game also has a The King of Fighters stadium which is included with Terry Bogard as DLC, which has barriers that prevent KO's from the sides of the stage unless a fighter is hit hard enough to break through. Also as DLC, Ultimate has the Spring Stadium, which is included with Min Min and has special platforms that, when active, allow a player to jump higher and do so with a strong offensive impact.
• Attack Its Weak Point:
  • Dracula in his humanoid form can only be attacked at his head. Upon transforming, he loses this trait and is able to be attacked anywhere.
  • Ganon can only be harmed if his glowing tail is attacked. However, upon being stunned, he hunches over, which allows his unarmored head to be attacked as well.
• Audience Surrogate:
  • When Joker was revealed to be coming to Smash, what immediately followed was Ann's Big "WHAT?!" and Ryuji exclaiming "Smash Bros.? Is this for real?". It's probably what people watching the reveal trailer thought at that moment as well.
  • In Banjo & Kazooie's trailer, upon noticing a Jiggy go by, Donkey Kong quickly tries to get Diddy Kong and King K. Rool to wake up, and when seeing Banjo and Kazooie for themselves, they uproariously applaud. This reaction is likely ones that fans who had waited a long time to see the characters in Smash would have.
• Awesome, but Impractical:
  • Many of the most powerful spirits have no slots, meaning that they cannot be combined with useful abilities, some of which are actually required (some spirit battles such as Pyra and Great Zapfish are simply impossible without two-slot Immunity abilities).
  • Galeem is capable of one-shotting the entire universe in one attack...but that attack requires consuming his entire present army and 20 seconds of uninterrupted charge time to actually pull off, and he's no less vulnerable to attack than anyone else. As such, he only gets a chance to actually use it in the opening and never gets a chance to use it again between the fighters managing to fight him up close and having to use that army to fight Dharkon's unless the Fighters take care of the latter for him. Dharkon's ending implies he has a comparable attack with the same issues.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: Galeem was able to create Kirby puppet fighters despite Kirby escaping by analyzing him.

B

• Back from the Brink: World of Light starts with only Kirby playable, as everyone else has been wiped out completely. It's then up to him to rescue them and take back their world.
• Background Music Override:
  • All boss themes are overriden during the Boss Rush near the end of Adventure Mode, being replaced by a Dark Reprise of the game's signature Lifelight theme.
  • Joker's victory theme - the exact same as Persona 5 - takes over the normal post-fight fanfare and endlessly loops. Joker also marks the first time a single character has more than one victory fanfare in the same game: the results themes from Persona 3 and Persona 4 play instead if he wins a match on Mementos while songs from either one of those games are playing.
  • Sephiroth gets a special post-fanfare music when he wins, replacing the usual cheery battle results track with a Drone of Dread befitting his unique fire-filled background.
• "Back to Camera" Pose: After escaping Galeem's laser beams, Kirby teleports himself to the World of Light, where he stands on a cliff looking at the titular location with the camera facing away from him.
• Badass in Distress: The entire cast except Kirby is this in World of Light after Galeem atomized everyone, with everyone turned back into trophies, cloned and kept guarded by said clones, and due to their power, both Bayonetta and Palutena are kept guarded as far away as possible by Galeem and Dharkon's forces.
• The Bad Guy Wins: Both bad endings to the World of Light mode; you defeat Galeem or Dharkon, but that simply allows their rival to claim victory and conquer the world, killing everyone all over.
• Bait-and-Switch:
  • Isabelle's trailer starts off like an Animal Crossing game until she mentions the mayor being busy in Smash. Then she expresses shock when she finds her own invite mailed to her.
    Isabelle: (!) They want me in Smash?!
  • Terry's trailer shows various other SNK characters trying and failing to catch a Smash invite before he does. And his showcase has Sakurai show off what appears to be a vintage Neo Geo console, only for him to open it up and reveal that it's a carrying case for the portable Neo Geo X.
  • Min Min's trailer has the ARMS cast fighting for the Smash invite. Spring Man pick up the invite and triumphantly holds it up in the air, until he gets decked in the face by Ribbon Girl, who ends up not getting to the invite before it gets stolen by Ninjara, getting chased by some of the other ARMS fighters. Min Min eventually gets out of her ramen shop employee disguise to leap into the fray and take the invite for herself.
  • Sephiroth's trailer features a scene that's framed to look like Mario is impaled by Sephiroth's Masamune...only to reveal it's only going through one of the straps on his overalls.
  • The final reveal trailer shows the flaming Smash logo fading to embers, leaving Mario surrounded by darkness. Mario approaches a flaming sword embedded in the ground and reaches out to it, making it seem like a Dark Souls rep would be announced... only to reveal that the sword is a a Keyblade, with the final fighter being Sora.
• Bait-and-Switch Character Intro:
  • For King K. Rool's reveal trailer, Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong are asleep in their house when they hear stomping outside. They look out a window to see a figure that looks a lot like King K. Rool, only for him to reveal that he's actually King Dedede in disguise, to the shock of Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong. Subverted when the actual K. Rool shows up and slaps Dedede away while Donkey's and Diddy's eyes pop out in shock, shattering the glass in the window
  • This gag is repeated for Banjo & Kazooie's reveal trailer, except this time, K. Rool is inside the house, and it's the Duck Hunt Dog & Duck Cosplaying as the Bear & Bird, and when the actual Banjo & Kazooie show up, Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, and K. Rool all smash the window entirely in joy.
• Bait-and-Switch Silhouette:
  • King K. Rool's trailer. It shows various heroes fighting their most personal opponents, and then cuts to Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong's cabin, where they hear loud footsteps and look outside to see a silhouette of King K. Rool, their most persistent foe... only for it to be King Dedede pulling a prank. King K. Rool himself then pops up for real while Dedede is laughing, knocking Dedede out of the way and setting the stage for the remainder of the trailer.
  • Banjo & Kazooie's trailer (at least, the CGI portion of it) is almost exactly the same as King K. Rool's. The differences are an added vignette of Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong vs. K. Rool; K. Rool is napping in their house as well; a bouncing Jiggy is what alerts them; Duck Hunt are the trolls in the costume pulling the prank; and Banjo and Kazooie are the ones who drop in and knock the pranksters out of the way.
• Balance Buff:
  • Several moves that left the user helpless despite being purely offensive and/or not offering recovery distance (Giant Punch, PK Flash, Din's Fire, etc.) no longer do so, giving them much more versatility offstage.
  • Every character has seen a variety of buffs, including a faster jump squat animation for all but Pichu (because its jump squat was already the same speed as everyone else's is now, 3 frames), in order to work better in the game's engine, although some of the top-tier characters in the previous game received fewer buffs and more nerfs for the sake of balance.
• Barrage of Bats: During Dracula's first battle phase, he occasionally turns into a swarm of bats that swoops across the stage in an attempt to hit the player.
• Battle Theme Music: Each regular boss in World of Light mode plays whichever theme it plays for them in its franchise of origin. The original boss themes incorporate elements of the game's main theme, "Lifelight". The theme of Galeem is fast-pased Orchestral Bombing reflective of the desperation the heroes contend with in fighting the Big Bad. In contrast, the theme of the Galeem's counterpart, Dharkon, is much slower and foreboding, mixing in rock guitars befitting the evil god. The True Final Boss theme against both Galeem and Dharkon at once strikes a balance between the two themes in its tempo while weaving in the chorus from "Lifelight" and a far more triumphant sound, as befitting the final battle of the game.
• Beef Gate: Given the sporadic distribution of Spirits in World of Light, it is entirely possible to have your path blocked by a Spirit that is over five or ten times stronger than everything around it. However, there is almost always a longer and more time-consuming path that a player can take to circumvent it instead.
• Beneath Notice: Min Min herself, in her reveal trailer. She was dressed in her civilian guise, so when she left to square off with the other ARMS fighters, Captain Falcon and Kirby didn't catch on to her being one at all before she returned to the noodle shop.
• Big Bad: Galeem in the "World of Light" Adventure mode. It shares the spot with its rival and counterpart, Dharkon.
• Big Boo's Haunt: Dracula's Castle, which represents Castlevania and serves as the Home Stage for Simon and Richter Belmont. A Boss-Only Level version of it serves as the battlefield for Dracula himself in Classic Mode and World of Light (the latter also having a map based on it within the Dark World).
• Big Damn Heroes:
  • In the "Vampire Killer" trailer, Simon pops in to save Luigi after the latter's soul had been reaped by Death. Later in the same trailer, Richter pops in to keep several of Dracula's fireballs from killing an incapacitated Simon.
  • In the "Heroic Encounter" trailer, the Hero of Dragon Quest XI makes a giant leap from his steed to intercept puppets of Marth and Meta Knight, saving Link in the process. Later in the same trailer, when a horde of puppet fighters overcome him, the other Heroes of Dragon Quest III, IV, and VIII come to his aid and stand beside him as well.
• Big Damn Reunion: The E3 2018 announcement trailer reveals the return of every single playable character in the Super Smash Bros. franchise returning, making this entry the biggest roster to date, if not ever. EVERYONE IS HERE, indeed.
• Big "NO!": Played for Laughs during Sakurai's demonstration of 2-player Home-Run Contest, where he uses two controllers at the same time and was able to rack up a good amount of damage on Sandbag using Corrin and King K. Rool. Then it cuts to Sakurai, who exclaims this and states that this is not how you're supposed to play.
• Black Comedy: A surprising amount of it, both in the trailers and the game itself.
  • Ridley's reveal trailer has him impale Mega Man with his tail and crush Mario's head, then gleefully twirl Mario's cap on his finger.
  • Simon Belmont's reveal trailer has Luigi getting violently killed by Death and turning into a ghost. At the end of the trailer, he's about to get back into his body before getting interrupted by Carmilla.
  • Some of the deaths in the World of Light opening cutscene are played for laughs: Snake tries hiding in a cardboard box, Villager runs around in a panic, and the Wii Fit Trainer just does exercises until the beams hit her.
  • The Spirit for Paz Ortega Andrade gives the special ability to start with a Bob-omb equipped. This is likely a reference to Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, where she dies by having a bomb implanted in her body detonate.
  • The Spirit for Ness' Dad is represented by a telephone, and requires fighting an invisible Snake. In addition, the ability for it is "Running Start".
  • One unlock picture references◊ Aerith's infamous death pose.
  • The Palutena's Guidance conversation for the Pokémon Trainer has Viridi wonder about all the weak Pokémon that get left in their balls and forgotten. Pit then suddenly worries about "PikaPit" before Palutena assures him that "I'm sure all those abandoned Pokémon are all playing in a farm upstate."
  • The Spirit for Nash gives the special ability to start with a Death's Scythe equipped, a likely reference to the fact he's Killed Off for Real in several games (two of those deaths being canon).
  • During Terry's reveal trailer, Geese is seen jumping towards the invitation letter, only to fall to his death.
  • Steve's reveal trailer has him run away at the sight of a Creeper, sealing the tunnel behind him and leaving Mario to his fate.
• Book Ends:
  • The first teaser trailer of the game has a zoom-in shot of a fiery Smash logo in the Inkling Girl's eye as she spots the other fighters. One of the commercials within the final full month before the game's release in December 7th, 2018 ends with a shot of the Inkling Girl battling the fighters before zooming in on her eye again and fading back into the same fiery Smash logo.
  • The first CGI Smash Bros. trailer made by Digital Media Lab Inc revealed Villager, the first newcomer announced for For 3DS/Wii U. The last CGI Smash Bros. trailer made by them revealed Incineroar, the last newcomer announced for Ultimate before DLC fighters, and at the end of the trailer, we see Villager trying to challenge Incineroar to a fight.
  • The reveal trailer for the final fighter of Fighter Pass 2 and the last newcomer for Ultimate calls back to the game's first teaser, though instead of the newcomer (Inkling) witnessing a burning effigy hailing the returning cast, it's the entire cast of Ultimate up to that point witnessing the effigy burning out and the remains of it hailing the final newcomer: Sora from the Kingdom Hearts series. Fittingly, the trailer ends with Mario and Sora shaking hands: the first and final character revealed for Ultimate.
  • Two of the final Mii Costumes is for the Octoling and Judd, both characters from Splatoon, where the Inkling was the first revealed newcomer for Ultimate.
• Boring, but Practical:
  • Certain Spirit Battles being troublesome? Equipping an Ore Club or Beam Sword greatly helps out. The former clears out groups of enemies and deal damage at range, the latter has long reach while doing respectable damage and only eating up one slot. Doubly so if you have a Primary Spirit that boosts battering items.
  • Some special moves of certain characters (PSI Magnet or Reflector) can change the tides of a battle, making especially hard fights easier to manage due to negating major problems.
  • Strong Wind Resist (unlike Lava Floor Resist and Zap Floor Resist) reduces the corresponding hazard to a manageable irritant 'and' only takes up one slot.
• Boss Fight:
  • In addition to series mainstays Master Hand and Crazy Hand, there are now six giant monster bosses with HP bars that serve both as final bosses for several characters' Classic Mode runs and as major obstacles in World of Light. The list includes two Smash Bros. originals (Giga Bowser and Galleom), two classic Nintendo villains (Ganon and Marx), and two Guest Fighters from third-party franchises (Dracula and Rathalos).
  • Three of the four stage bosses from the previous game — Yellow Devil, Dark Emperor, and Metal Face — return along with their stages, Wily Castle, Find Mii, and Gaur Plain.
• Boss Remix: The main theme, Lifelight, gets remixed three times in the World of Light mode. When fighting Galeem, there is a remix of the third verse of the song. In the later fight with Dharkon, there is a remix of the second verse. Finally, when the player reaches the True Final Boss, which is a Mêlée à Trois between them and both of the previously mentioned bosses, the music starts as a mix of both their themes, before partway through, a triumphant remix of the first verse cuts in, symbolising the player’s fighters as they approach their ultimate victory.
• Boss Rush:
  • During The Very Definitely Final Dungeon, there is a segment where each of the six main bosses must be defeated to progress to the True Final Boss, each represented by Spirits clashing with each other above Final Destination. Attacking a Spirit will take you to fight its respective boss. However, the Final Destination area between boss fights is not a safe zone; in fact, if you defeat a boss belonging to one side, the now-unopposed Spirit will begin shooting orbs at you in the break area.
  • Sephiroth's Classic Mode route has him take on all of the boss battles (sans Galeem and Dharkon) featured in the game.
• Both Order and Chaos are Dangerous: Galeem and Dharkon cannot stand one another, and are in the middle of an Evil vs. Evil rivalry even as they are opposed by the heroes. Just taking one out results in a Downer Ending where the other triumphs.
• Bottle Episode:
  • Isabelle's trailer is set in the mayor's office, with no one besides her and (eventually) Pete in it, and the entire scene is filmed with a single camera angle before The Reveal. Other fighters are only seen in her gameplay montage.
  • Joker's reveal trailer is done in an anime style (much like in his source game) and doesn't have any gameplay footage.
  • The CGI in Banjo & Kazooie's reveal trailer reuses a considerable amount of animation and assets from King K. Rool's trailer, in order to both save money and highlight how both characters were made by Rare.
  • "The Masked Rebel", Joker's gameplay reveal, was a very flashy video with smooth editing and narration from several of the Phantom Thieves of Hearts. After that, the budget for the DLC characters' presentations ended up pretty slim, which Sakurai himself acknowledged during the Hero presentation. The end result of this was the "Mr. Sakurai Presents" series of videos. Like some of the prior presentations and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Directs, this series features Sakurai being recorded as he talks to the viewers, but unlike those presentations, "Mr. Sakurai Presents" is a very informal series. Sakurai is much more willing to say casual and off-the-cuff remarks or tell stories, and the rest of the crew can regularly be heard laughing or reacting to what he does in the background. There's much less editing, with most of it being reserved for camera zoom-ins, pop-up summaries of Sakurai's statements, and title screens for new sections of the presentation. The video shifts to a livestream-style format during gameplay demonstrations, where Sakurai can be seen playing the game in a facecam, often having to control multiple characters at once to show off certain aspects of them. Sakurai also handles all the narration of the videos himself, compared to "The Masked Rebel", which had the Phantom Thieves of Hearts for Joker's portion and a different narrator for the rest of it. "Mr. Sakurai Presents" videos were made for every DLC fighter released after Joker.
  • Terry's announcement trailer from the September 2019 Nintendo Direct mainly involves Limited Animation with various sprites from SNK games rather than CG or more elaborate 2D animation. The later version of this trailer, shown at the end of Mr. Sakurai Presents "Terry Bogard", downplays this by adding in a new section showing gameplay of Terry, while still retaining the sprite animation opening.
  • Subverted with the addition of Steve, despite appearances. While his design and animations were easy to pull off programming-wise, as well as requiring no voice actor, his moveset was particularly difficult to implement, especially with every stage being modified to accomodate his blocks.
• Bowdlerise:
  • Pyra and Mythra from Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and the spirit of Camilla from Fire Emblem Fates had to be visually modified in order for the game to retain an appropriate rating, CERO A in particular. In Camilla's case, her Cleavage Window was removed and her hair was moved to cover her chest; for Mythra, her Cleavage Window was also removed, and she now wears black a black bodysuit under her dress; and though Pyra's spirit wasn't changed, her fighter model covers up her thighs and the lower half of her "hip windows" with a semi-transparent stocking-like material. The modified design for Mythra was even made available as an outfit in Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and its Torna - The Golden Country expansion as a bit of cross-promotion. Tharja's Spirit uses a character portrait of her in Fire Emblem: Awakening holding a book to her chest, rather than her official artwork like most other Fire Emblem Spirits.
  • EVA from Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater normally wears a jumpsuit zipped all the way down, showing off her midriff and a black bikini top. Her Spirit in this game, however, is posed in a way that her gun blocks the view of her chest, and her midriff has been blacked out, presumably covered in a latex bodysuit.
  • In a nod to his original games, Mr. Game & Watch now changes his appearance during certain attacks to resemble characters from those games; unfortunately, one of those characters was The Savage Indian from Fire Attack, which some players didn't take kindly to. Nintendo apologized and altered the animation in the day one patch.
  • Dracula's Spirit artwork is taken straight from his Castlevania: Symphony of the Night artwork, except that it lacks the puddle of blood pooled around the edge of his cape. Furthermore, the blood-filled wine glass that he famously throws aside in several Castlevania games is empty in his boss intro for Ultimate.
  • Palutena's design in all versions of the game is taken from the slightly toned-down CERO version of 3DS/Wii U, rather than her design in other regions.
  • Joker's Final Smash, the All-Out Attack, ends with the affected opponent(s) having magic sparkles explode out of them instead of the High-Pressure Blood seen in Persona 5. In one variation of it, Morgana says "Time for some brutality", instead of "Time for some bloodshed", the line in the original game. Panther also got changed as well, as her measurements for her model on Mementos are toned down in comparison to how she usually looks.
  • The music track "Mass Destruction" from Persona 3 has been slightly edited to remove the line "Damn right".
  • The start of Byleth's trailer plays out almost identically to the original scene in Chapter 10 of Fire Emblem: Three Houses, but (presumably for both trailer length and the sake of Smash's lower age ratings) leaves out Kronya from the scene, and thus the part where Solon tears out Kronya's heart in order to activate the Zahras spell.
  • On the Cloud Sea of Alrest stage, Brighid's dress has been modified to cover up her Navel-Deep Neckline by having a light-purple bodysuit under her main dress.
  • The Assassin's Creed, Fallout, No More Heroes, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Devil May Cry, and Doom franchises aren't explicitly named in the North American trailers showing off the Altaïr, Vault Boy, Travis Touchdown, Dragonborn, Dante, and Doomslayer Mii costumes.^note In Doom's case, this also extends to the European trailer. The game logos on the list of Fighters Pass characters were also removed in every trailer since Terry's and Sakurai's Min Min presentation was also edited to remove him namedropping Fallout. This is due to ESRB regulations introduced in 2020 that prohibited ESRB M-rated games from being promoted alongside lower rated games. This explains why Metal Gear, Bayonetta, and Persona 5 didn't get the same treatment, as their videos were released prior to the change in regulations.
• Brainwashed and Crazy:
  • The Spirits in World of Light are under the control of Galeem and eventually taken over by Dharkon.
  • Same for the captured fighters. The game states the player is awaking them when they join the party.
  • Similarly, Master Hand and Crazy Hand. Until you find the real ones at the tail-end of "World of Light", the hands you fight before that are puppet fighters.
• Breaking Old Trends:
  • Up until Pyra and Mythra were released, the DLC Characters' special Spirit Boards only contained one Legend-class Spirit and it was always a Support Spirit. Pyra and Mythra's board not only contains two Legend-classes (Malos and Pneuma), but the former is also a Primary as well.
  • The Spirit Board that comes with the inclusion of Kazuya has two Legend-classes (Jin Kazama when enhanced into Devil Jin and Heihachi Mishima), and does not include a Support Spirit with a unique trait, which is instead held by Heihachi's Spirit as Fist and Foot Attack+.
  • The game's rendition of "Spiral Mountain" was done by Grant Kirkhope, who was the first non-Japanese composer to provide new music for the series.
• Breather Episode:
  • Ridley's trailer features him violently killing Mario and Mega Man, and Simon's trailer features Luigi getting his soul torn out by Death (even if still with a comical slant to it). King K. Rool's trailer is, by contrast, much more comedic and lighthearted, with a lot of the humor coming from K. Rool's return and DK and Diddy's reaction to it.
  • Similarly, Isabelle's trailer deals with her secretary duties and has a comedic interlude where she considers taking over as mayor from Villager. In fact, her trailer doesn't feature any violence outside of the in-game clips from Ultimate.
  • Hero's trailer features Link struggling against an army of puppet fighters, until he gets help from Eleven, with Three, Solo, and Eight assisting him in turn, and it's played dead serious. Banjo & Kazooie's trailer is considerably lighter, like K. Rool's trailer mentioned above, with most of the humor coming from the pair's return and DK, Diddy, and K. Rool's reaction to it.
  • The first Fighters Pass ends with a trailer for Byleth caught in a spell by Solon, with a Smash invite from Sothis to help them, and she provides some mild humor. The Second Fighters Pass starts with a trailer that features Min Min triumphantly grabbing her invite after the other ARMS fighters figuratively tripped over each other to try and snatch it, and there is lots of humor throughout (much of it from Captain Falcon and Kirby's activities in the noodle shop).
  • Sephiroth's trailer involves Galeem cornering the heroes, only for him to be cleaved by the one-winged angel, who proceeds to torment the heroes in turn as the mood darkens to the point that it's reflected in the wastelands' sky. Pyra & Mythra's trailer is much breezier, dealing with a simple case of Rex looking for Pyra, who mysteriously vanished from Alrest, but only because she joined Smash, and the two blades have a happy reunion with the fellow Xenoblade-verse hero Shulk.
• Brick Joke: In Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, a conversation between Chrom and the Kid Icarus: Uprising cast has the latter group note that Chrom's fighting style is far too similar to Ike's for him to be a worthwhile addition to the game's roster, with Viridi and Palutena teasing him for his appearance being limited to Robin's Final Smash. Four years later, enter Ultimate, and Chrom would end up as a full-fledged fighter, albeit as an "echo fighter" of Roy rather than Ike. Though he does receive Ike's Aether recovery move, something that Palutena mocked him for not having in the fourth game.
• Broken Bridge: There are many instances in Adventure Mode where you will be unable to proceed down a particular path unless you have the proper Spirit in your collection that can deal with the obstacle. One in particular is a literal broken bridge that Master Hand destroys. In a subversion, if you already happen to obtain certain spirits before playing World of Light, you can immediately fix the obstacles without needing to tread most of the mode's map.
• The Bus Came Back:
  • The game's tagline is "EVERYONE IS HERE!" All fighters who have previously appeared in the series are playable. In particular, this applies to the Ice Climbers, Wolf, Young Link, Squirtle, Ivysaur (these two, in turn, are once again reunited with Charizard^note who had a consistent presence since Brawl, but was a solo character in 3DS and Wii U for the return of their Pokémon Trainer), Pichu, and Snake, who all missed out on a game or two since their debuts. This is alluded to in Wolf's Classic Mode route, titled Reunited Roster, where he is pitted against the returning characters who were missing from 3DS/Wii U.
  • After vanishing from For Wii U and 3DS, Galleom returns as a boss in the game's Adventure Mode. Fittingly for Wolf's Classic Mode route, it is the final boss there.
  • King K. Rool is a different sort, as this is the character's first major appearance in any game for over ten years, with his last role being as a Secret Character in Mario Super Sluggers.
  • Leaf is in almost the same boat as King K. Rool, as she hadn't been seen since 2004's Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen for over a decade's worth. A version of her named Green did manage to sneak in a fresh appearance in Pokémon Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee! a few weeks before Ultimate's release, though.
  • Spiky-Eared Pichu returns after a 9-year absence as one of Pichu's costumes.
  • Although Krystal only shows up an Assist Trophy, it still marks her first physical appearance in over twelve years. She was last seen in Star Fox Command before the series went on hiatus and then came back, but with a semi-reboot game that dropped Krystal in favor of restoring Peppy's place on the team.^note She is mentioned in the ending for Star Fox Zero, but isn't actually seen at any point.
  • After being the only primary universes^note (series with character and/or stage representation) entirely cut during the transition from Brawl to 3DS/Wii U, the Metal Gear and Electroplankton franchises make their grand return as well.
  • Many (but not all) old stages that debuted once and never returned for a long time (Saffron City, Brinstar Depths, Fountain of Dreams, etc.) returned.
  • Several original tracks from Smash 64 return for the first time: Bonus Game, Meta Crystal, Duel Zone, and Training Mode.
  • In terms of gameplay modes, the Tourney mode is available offline for the first time since Brawl, as it was exclusive to the online mode in Wii U, while it was missing altogether in 3DS.
  • As for the Assist Trophies, Gray Fox and Isaac returns after their absence in 3DS/Wii U (it's very obvious for the former).
  • Spirits replace trophies and are directly represented by art assets from their source games; as a result, you can expect to see spirits who haven't made appearances in any video game in over 30 years.
  • The Banjo-Kazooie DLC marks the duo's first appearance on a Nintendo console since Banjo-Pilot on the Game Boy Advance in 2005, and their first appearance in any game since Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing With Banjo-Kazooie in 2010.
  • For game modes, Home Run Contest was added back in September 2019, after being left out of the initial release.