So it would seem that Smash Ultimate is coming to an end. We just received the second to last fighter, there is no third fighter pass, it doesn't sound like there will be an extra bonus fighter even, and any hopes for any additional modes or features are quickly fading away. I mean I wouldn't be surprised if we still see the occasional balance patch after the final fighter, but the final fighter does sound to be the last major addition coming to the game. And that's fine, the game has plenty of content, but is it truly 'Ultimate' like it's name states? In terms of available fighters and stages, sure, it's nearly as ultimate as it can possibly be, but in terms of offering everything we've come to expect from the Smash series, it is lacking slightly here and there, at least in my opinion.
For a long while I've maintained a thought that I still hold today, when it comes to the future of Smash/Ultimate: I don't really care if we add any more fighters or not at this point, I'd prefer if some great modes missing from past games and some new ideas could be implemented into Ultimate instead. I'd be so much more interested in an expansion pack as opposed to another fighter pass. But that really doesn't seem to be in the cards.
What does seem feasible though, given Nintendo's track record lately, and just by virtue of the thought of "How do you really surpass Smash Ultimate with another entry for the series?" is that we'll see an improved Deluxe version of Ultimate for the Switch's inevitable successor. Think about it, are we really anticipating the next entry to look much different graphically and stylistically from what Ultimate has to offer? I digress, my point is, unless the next Smash game takes a hard left turn somewhere in how it plays, it just seems logical that it will an improved version of Ultimate with all the DLC and some new content as well.
With that all in mind, I want to list every little thing I wish Ultimate had to make it truly the Ultimate Smash Bros experience. Well everything aside from new fighters, there will always be more and new fighters I'd like to see added into the game, but I'm also incredibly content with what the roster looks like now. So I wont dwell much on fighters here, that could be another topic for another day perhaps.
I will arrange these from most desired to least, if something isn't mentioned it means I either forgot it was a Smash feature at some point, or I straight up just don't care if it ever returns to Smash or not (like trophies and masterpieces).
Most Desired
Smash Run - Without a doubt this is the number 1 thing I want to see in Smash again, the fact that this never saw a console release with local splitscreen is criminal. This mode echoed the mode of City Trial from Sakurai's Kirby Air Ride on GameCube which allowed for 4 player local splitscreen multiplayer and it was a blast. To restrict this to only the 3DS is such a tragedy. Not only should this mode be opened up to local multiplayer on the same system, but it should also be playable online, you spend 5 minutes or however long in the large map, with the added ability to fight and interact with each other like in City Trial, but unlike Smash Run on 3DS; and then after the time is up, you fight in a final battle with all the buffs you earned in the large map. This mode alone has a lot of potential, they could add more end game battle types, they could add additional main maps where you collect your buffs, etc. This mode alone could be huge for Smash if they put it in the right game. I can't be the only person that saw this image below back in the day and salivated at the prospect of what they were showcasing:
New Adventure mode - kinda a mix of Melee Adventure and Subspace is what I'm envisioning. World of Light is a solid mode in it's own right, but still it doesn't come close to as compelling of an adventure mode as Subspace Emissary did. But while Subspace was a fun Kirby adventure kind of Smash experience, it kind of lacked cohesion with the idea of what Smash is, the stages were all very generic in terms of environments. This is a huge missed opportunity, look at the short Adventure mode of Melee, you visibly play through levels of classic Nintendo games. So what I imagine is another Subspace kind of game, but scaled back considerably so you can complete it in maybe an hour. But it's a crash course of courses from the games the fighters come from, perhaps even mashed up with other game themes. Ideally this would be a mode that told a nice story and had a very addictive replay value. Maybe what they could do is make upwards of 20 levels, but each fighter only plays through like 4 of them depending on which fighter you choose, almost like a mashup of a classic mode with an adventure mode, that could kind of work lol. I dunno, this one is nothing but a pipe dream, I'm aware of that, but I'd still love to see it all the same.
Missing Stages - I can guess as to why some stages didn't make the cut into Ultimate, but some I'm genuinely not sure why they aren't in here and I really wish they were. I'll quickly run down the missing stages I wish were in Ultimate (spoiler, it's most of them): PokeFloats, Rainbow Road, Pac-Maze, Wooly World, Orbital Gate Assault, Jungle Hijinx, Planet Zebes, Mushroomy Kingdom 1-2, Mute City, Miiverse (in a new incarnation I'm calling Smashverse). Now I know one might argue that a stage like Jungle Hijinx probably wasn't included because the background foreground mechanic might yield issues when this stage is played with stage morph on, so to solve this problem, just make it an exception stage that can't be played with stage morph on, problem solved. Likewise I'm sure solutions can be found for the mechanics of a stage like Pac-Maze to make sense on a home console. And I think Miiverse could easily be updated to work in Ultimate, by means of a similar posting method that Splatoon 2 and Mario Maker 2 have. I call this theoretical new take on Miiverse, the Smashverse. Give it a new color scheme, maybe invert the colors of the Smashverse stage and I think this could be a great way to get the unique Miiverse stage gimmick back in the series. That means the game would need a separate little Smashverse area to post about fighters and the game too if such a stage were included. Also, this isn't a missing stage so much as an improvement I'd like to see, instead of Pictochat 2, I wish they'd make a Pictochat X that would combine the effects of Pictochat 1 and 2, much like Flatzone X combines the effects of Flatzone 1 and 2.
Boss Vs. - Not to be confused with Boss Rush which I'll address later. What I envision here is a mode where one player can pick to be any of the Smash Ultimate Bosses and all the other players work together to try and beat you. Perhaps for Master Hand/Crazy Hand and Dharkon/Galeem, 2 players could take on the roll of the bosses together against the other players.
Fighter Swap - The mechanics for this are essentially here, just not implemented in this way. What I envision is an option we can toggle similar to stage morph, called fighter swap in the rules menu, and if you enable it for your match, you choose 2 fighters at the start of a match, and then throughout the battle you can freely swap between the 2 fighters by hitting maybe a specific taunt, both fighters sharing stock and health, not unlike Pokemon Trainer and Pyra/Mythra. This way you could get all sorts of great combinations, bring back the ability to seemingly morph between Zelda and Sheik or Samus and Zero Samus, have it appear that you're a Pokemon Trainer with different pokemon like Mewtwo and Incineroar, or just have any 2 random fighters swapping in battle, it's up to you. Obviously Squad Strike gets close to this idea, but isn't quite what I'm talking about, this wouldn't be restricted to 3 or 5 lives, and you could set the rules to be whatever you like, like any other normal Smash battle.
Highly Desired
Custom Movesets - These were neat, and the majority of fighters already have 3 sets of custom Movesets from Sm4sh. I'm sure it'd still be a lot of work to finish up and give all the remaining fighters custom movesets, but they really did add a lot of extra variety to an already bursting with content game.
Boss Rush - What needs to be said, a mode where you try to beat all the bosses one after the other, previous Smash games have had it, and it's always a lot of fun when it's there.
Classic All-Star - Likewise, just a great classic mode. The version of All-Star we got here pales in comparison to a proper Classic All-Star mode. Cut the mutliman version or leave it in, I don't care, but give us Classic All Star mode already.
New Alt Characters - I said I wouldn't address new fighters, but I do want to see a small handful of fighters in the game get some new alts that give them different characters that would work with the same moveset like Olimar/Alph, the Koopalings/Bowser Jr, Steve/Alex/Zombie/Enderman, the 4 versions of Hero, etc. And these are who I'd love to see: Ms. Pac-Man as alts for Pac-Man, Ninjara as a alts for Min-Min, and Octoling as a alts for Inkling (bring back custom movesets and you can see how the loadouts for the Splatoon and ARMS characters could easily be altered like in their respective games)
Master Orders & Crazy Orders - I loved these modes, and if this entry did bring back custom moves and some bonus fighter alts, then they could lock this kind of content as well as spirits away as prizes for playing through Master Orders and/or Crazy Orders
Moderately Desired
Smash Tour - I always felt this mode got a bad rap. I'm not gonna pretend I want it just as much as Smash Run, as I don't. But that's this mode's problem, it lives in the shadow of Smash Run because it was the Wii U's mode to complement the 3DS Smash Run mode, and the consensus is obvious, Smash Run is the clearly better mode without question. I wont deny that, but when just examined on it's own, Smash Tour is a fun mode once you get acquainted with it and get a proper understanding of what you're doing. It could use some refining and improvements, but I still like the mode overall, and would very much enjoy to to see it return.
Coin Battle - Seems weird that they removed this mode. I know it's nobody's favorite, but it's still a solid mode in it's own right and I wish it were back.
Lowly Desired
Break the Targets - It's a fun practice kind of mode that can help improve your speed and accuracy, but it's so unreasonable to want every fighter to have their own unique break the targets stage anymore. And it's not a satisfying enough mode for me to be demanding it's return. And if the return were in the form of Brawl or Sm4sh break the target modes, then I'd say don't even bother to begin with.
Board the Platforms - Likewise, a fun practice mode, but not exactly one anyone is losing sleep over it's long absence
Race to the Finish - There have been a few short little Race to the Finish bonuses over the Smash games, again nothing the series needs, but I always liked the F-Zero race to the finish stage in Melee, it'd be cool to see that version or one like it return to help us practice speed and dodging with each fighter.
Smash Amiibo Profile Token - This is a little idea I had, but I think it's great and I'd love to see something like it in Smash. It'd be neat if there was a little Smashball keychain or token or whatever that you could buy that's actually an Amiibo. And what it does is you could save your Smash profile to the Amiibo token, that way if you're ever at a friend's place and they also have Smash, once you start choosing your fighter, you could scan your amiibo and it would load up your profile name and your control scheme including any adjustments you may have made, and your favorite fighter in your favorite alt costume would all be selected as well. Not a big deal, but it seems like such a neat obvious idea to me.
Least Desired (but still desired)
End of Match Bonuses - So I can't be the only one that misses these bonuses at the end of a match based on how you fought. These little awards always reminded me of the labels you'd be given at the end of a round in Goldeneye or Perfect Dark. I was always bummed out to see they never returned after Melee.
Bonus Mode - To that end, I also miss the Bonus Mode from Melee where you tried to fight to get the most points from the end of match bonuses. This is honestly less important to me than the end of match bonuses themselves, but if you implement them with a point system again, you might as well go all the way and add the Bonus Mode fighting mode, I certainly didn't dislike the mode.
That covers most of it, I'll edit or add to this if I think of anything else. Regardless of what the future does or does not bring. Thanks for being a blast Smash Ultimate, and I'm eager to see what happens for the Smash series next, even, if after the next fighter it might not be for a very long time that we here any Smash news again.
For a long while I've maintained a thought that I still hold today, when it comes to the future of Smash/Ultimate: I don't really care if we add any more fighters or not at this point, I'd prefer if some great modes missing from past games and some new ideas could be implemented into Ultimate instead. I'd be so much more interested in an expansion pack as opposed to another fighter pass. But that really doesn't seem to be in the cards.
What does seem feasible though, given Nintendo's track record lately, and just by virtue of the thought of "How do you really surpass Smash Ultimate with another entry for the series?" is that we'll see an improved Deluxe version of Ultimate for the Switch's inevitable successor. Think about it, are we really anticipating the next entry to look much different graphically and stylistically from what Ultimate has to offer? I digress, my point is, unless the next Smash game takes a hard left turn somewhere in how it plays, it just seems logical that it will an improved version of Ultimate with all the DLC and some new content as well.
With that all in mind, I want to list every little thing I wish Ultimate had to make it truly the Ultimate Smash Bros experience. Well everything aside from new fighters, there will always be more and new fighters I'd like to see added into the game, but I'm also incredibly content with what the roster looks like now. So I wont dwell much on fighters here, that could be another topic for another day perhaps.
I will arrange these from most desired to least, if something isn't mentioned it means I either forgot it was a Smash feature at some point, or I straight up just don't care if it ever returns to Smash or not (like trophies and masterpieces).
Most Desired
Smash Run - Without a doubt this is the number 1 thing I want to see in Smash again, the fact that this never saw a console release with local splitscreen is criminal. This mode echoed the mode of City Trial from Sakurai's Kirby Air Ride on GameCube which allowed for 4 player local splitscreen multiplayer and it was a blast. To restrict this to only the 3DS is such a tragedy. Not only should this mode be opened up to local multiplayer on the same system, but it should also be playable online, you spend 5 minutes or however long in the large map, with the added ability to fight and interact with each other like in City Trial, but unlike Smash Run on 3DS; and then after the time is up, you fight in a final battle with all the buffs you earned in the large map. This mode alone has a lot of potential, they could add more end game battle types, they could add additional main maps where you collect your buffs, etc. This mode alone could be huge for Smash if they put it in the right game. I can't be the only person that saw this image below back in the day and salivated at the prospect of what they were showcasing:
New Adventure mode - kinda a mix of Melee Adventure and Subspace is what I'm envisioning. World of Light is a solid mode in it's own right, but still it doesn't come close to as compelling of an adventure mode as Subspace Emissary did. But while Subspace was a fun Kirby adventure kind of Smash experience, it kind of lacked cohesion with the idea of what Smash is, the stages were all very generic in terms of environments. This is a huge missed opportunity, look at the short Adventure mode of Melee, you visibly play through levels of classic Nintendo games. So what I imagine is another Subspace kind of game, but scaled back considerably so you can complete it in maybe an hour. But it's a crash course of courses from the games the fighters come from, perhaps even mashed up with other game themes. Ideally this would be a mode that told a nice story and had a very addictive replay value. Maybe what they could do is make upwards of 20 levels, but each fighter only plays through like 4 of them depending on which fighter you choose, almost like a mashup of a classic mode with an adventure mode, that could kind of work lol. I dunno, this one is nothing but a pipe dream, I'm aware of that, but I'd still love to see it all the same.
Missing Stages - I can guess as to why some stages didn't make the cut into Ultimate, but some I'm genuinely not sure why they aren't in here and I really wish they were. I'll quickly run down the missing stages I wish were in Ultimate (spoiler, it's most of them): PokeFloats, Rainbow Road, Pac-Maze, Wooly World, Orbital Gate Assault, Jungle Hijinx, Planet Zebes, Mushroomy Kingdom 1-2, Mute City, Miiverse (in a new incarnation I'm calling Smashverse). Now I know one might argue that a stage like Jungle Hijinx probably wasn't included because the background foreground mechanic might yield issues when this stage is played with stage morph on, so to solve this problem, just make it an exception stage that can't be played with stage morph on, problem solved. Likewise I'm sure solutions can be found for the mechanics of a stage like Pac-Maze to make sense on a home console. And I think Miiverse could easily be updated to work in Ultimate, by means of a similar posting method that Splatoon 2 and Mario Maker 2 have. I call this theoretical new take on Miiverse, the Smashverse. Give it a new color scheme, maybe invert the colors of the Smashverse stage and I think this could be a great way to get the unique Miiverse stage gimmick back in the series. That means the game would need a separate little Smashverse area to post about fighters and the game too if such a stage were included. Also, this isn't a missing stage so much as an improvement I'd like to see, instead of Pictochat 2, I wish they'd make a Pictochat X that would combine the effects of Pictochat 1 and 2, much like Flatzone X combines the effects of Flatzone 1 and 2.
Boss Vs. - Not to be confused with Boss Rush which I'll address later. What I envision here is a mode where one player can pick to be any of the Smash Ultimate Bosses and all the other players work together to try and beat you. Perhaps for Master Hand/Crazy Hand and Dharkon/Galeem, 2 players could take on the roll of the bosses together against the other players.
Fighter Swap - The mechanics for this are essentially here, just not implemented in this way. What I envision is an option we can toggle similar to stage morph, called fighter swap in the rules menu, and if you enable it for your match, you choose 2 fighters at the start of a match, and then throughout the battle you can freely swap between the 2 fighters by hitting maybe a specific taunt, both fighters sharing stock and health, not unlike Pokemon Trainer and Pyra/Mythra. This way you could get all sorts of great combinations, bring back the ability to seemingly morph between Zelda and Sheik or Samus and Zero Samus, have it appear that you're a Pokemon Trainer with different pokemon like Mewtwo and Incineroar, or just have any 2 random fighters swapping in battle, it's up to you. Obviously Squad Strike gets close to this idea, but isn't quite what I'm talking about, this wouldn't be restricted to 3 or 5 lives, and you could set the rules to be whatever you like, like any other normal Smash battle.
Highly Desired
Custom Movesets - These were neat, and the majority of fighters already have 3 sets of custom Movesets from Sm4sh. I'm sure it'd still be a lot of work to finish up and give all the remaining fighters custom movesets, but they really did add a lot of extra variety to an already bursting with content game.
Boss Rush - What needs to be said, a mode where you try to beat all the bosses one after the other, previous Smash games have had it, and it's always a lot of fun when it's there.
Classic All-Star - Likewise, just a great classic mode. The version of All-Star we got here pales in comparison to a proper Classic All-Star mode. Cut the mutliman version or leave it in, I don't care, but give us Classic All Star mode already.
New Alt Characters - I said I wouldn't address new fighters, but I do want to see a small handful of fighters in the game get some new alts that give them different characters that would work with the same moveset like Olimar/Alph, the Koopalings/Bowser Jr, Steve/Alex/Zombie/Enderman, the 4 versions of Hero, etc. And these are who I'd love to see: Ms. Pac-Man as alts for Pac-Man, Ninjara as a alts for Min-Min, and Octoling as a alts for Inkling (bring back custom movesets and you can see how the loadouts for the Splatoon and ARMS characters could easily be altered like in their respective games)
Master Orders & Crazy Orders - I loved these modes, and if this entry did bring back custom moves and some bonus fighter alts, then they could lock this kind of content as well as spirits away as prizes for playing through Master Orders and/or Crazy Orders
Moderately Desired
Smash Tour - I always felt this mode got a bad rap. I'm not gonna pretend I want it just as much as Smash Run, as I don't. But that's this mode's problem, it lives in the shadow of Smash Run because it was the Wii U's mode to complement the 3DS Smash Run mode, and the consensus is obvious, Smash Run is the clearly better mode without question. I wont deny that, but when just examined on it's own, Smash Tour is a fun mode once you get acquainted with it and get a proper understanding of what you're doing. It could use some refining and improvements, but I still like the mode overall, and would very much enjoy to to see it return.
Coin Battle - Seems weird that they removed this mode. I know it's nobody's favorite, but it's still a solid mode in it's own right and I wish it were back.
Lowly Desired
Break the Targets - It's a fun practice kind of mode that can help improve your speed and accuracy, but it's so unreasonable to want every fighter to have their own unique break the targets stage anymore. And it's not a satisfying enough mode for me to be demanding it's return. And if the return were in the form of Brawl or Sm4sh break the target modes, then I'd say don't even bother to begin with.
Board the Platforms - Likewise, a fun practice mode, but not exactly one anyone is losing sleep over it's long absence
Race to the Finish - There have been a few short little Race to the Finish bonuses over the Smash games, again nothing the series needs, but I always liked the F-Zero race to the finish stage in Melee, it'd be cool to see that version or one like it return to help us practice speed and dodging with each fighter.
Smash Amiibo Profile Token - This is a little idea I had, but I think it's great and I'd love to see something like it in Smash. It'd be neat if there was a little Smashball keychain or token or whatever that you could buy that's actually an Amiibo. And what it does is you could save your Smash profile to the Amiibo token, that way if you're ever at a friend's place and they also have Smash, once you start choosing your fighter, you could scan your amiibo and it would load up your profile name and your control scheme including any adjustments you may have made, and your favorite fighter in your favorite alt costume would all be selected as well. Not a big deal, but it seems like such a neat obvious idea to me.
Least Desired (but still desired)
End of Match Bonuses - So I can't be the only one that misses these bonuses at the end of a match based on how you fought. These little awards always reminded me of the labels you'd be given at the end of a round in Goldeneye or Perfect Dark. I was always bummed out to see they never returned after Melee.
Bonus Mode - To that end, I also miss the Bonus Mode from Melee where you tried to fight to get the most points from the end of match bonuses. This is honestly less important to me than the end of match bonuses themselves, but if you implement them with a point system again, you might as well go all the way and add the Bonus Mode fighting mode, I certainly didn't dislike the mode.
That covers most of it, I'll edit or add to this if I think of anything else. Regardless of what the future does or does not bring. Thanks for being a blast Smash Ultimate, and I'm eager to see what happens for the Smash series next, even, if after the next fighter it might not be for a very long time that we here any Smash news again.
