The Best Nintendo Game Every Year 1983 - 2024
7. 2018 - Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
When it comes to the Most Hype Video Game Trailers Of All Time, few reach the bar that Super Smash Bros Ultimate’s reveal hit. With previous games including DLC and often guest characters from non-Nintendo property, there was always the question about whether Nintendo had secured contracts for more than one appearance. As such, when Solid Snake landed (who missing from 2014’s Smash games) and the trailer announced “everyone is here”... well, heads rolled.
And they carried on rolling for the next three years as Nintendo released more and more incredible DLC offerings like Minecraft’s Steve, Kazuya and Sora.
Super Smash Bros Ultimate deserves its flowers as a celebration of the medium we love, through the eyes of the company that has been through the most. With 89 playable characters, 115 versus stages, over 1000 pieces of music… Masahiro Sakurai’s magnum opus is a museum in game form.
It also helps that it’s also the most complete version of the gameplay with fast yet crunchy, rewarding feedback and a great escalation from casual party play to something deep and challenging for diehards. With the best campaign of the series on top of it, and the Spirit system making for an endless stream of unique battle set-ups, it wasn’t shocking that Nintendo said that the game was still one of the Switch’s most played five years later in 2023.