Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

When Nintendo said “Everyone is here,” they meant everyone. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s bonkers roster of 89 playable characters is an achievement, albeit a nightmare to balance. A common experience of disappointment among fighting game fans is seeing the next game in a series you love get announced, but your main not make the roster.. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate says “eff that” and brings back every single character from previous entries, creating a remarkable class reunion of the most iconic heroes and villains of Nintendo’s history. The guest characters, like the long-dormant Banjo-Kazooie and the unexpected Sora from Kingdom Hearts, are wild, and damn, that Joker reveal the night before launch got me to leave my house and buy a copy at midnight. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate was an ongoing cultural event for so long that, much like Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, I can’t quite imagine how Nintendo is going to follow it up on the Switch 2. Maybe after all this expansion, a return to basics is what the series needs.