3.5/5 ★ – Casinopolis's review of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

The epitome of quantity over quality. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate lives up to its moniker as far as being an unparalleled collaboration between video game companies. However, it would be fair to say that Nintendo have squandered this opportunity. Ultimate has a bloated roster of 74 characters on the base game, a handful more in echo fighters, and 23 more in (exorbitant) DLC characters. There are some true icons here who have never before been able to cross paths. But Smash has lost its way as an all-star fighter, giving stage time to all manner of generic and unimportant characters. Nowhere is the quantity > quality philosophy more evident than in its adventure mode, World of Light. To cut a long story short, the campaign establishes a very early formula which is predicated on gimmick scenario fights and the player can equip a range of supporting spirits to level the odds. This boils down to two things: use spirits to cancel out annoying modifiers, or just use a powerhouse team to brute force the fight in a matter of seconds. Now do that 600 times or so. The campaign never truly shifts the needle. Spirits can get stronger with use or with resources earned by playing or exploring. Maps provide a path of spirits to wade through, spirits lead to dungeons, and dungeons lead bosses. Bosses lead to more maps. Maps lead to gauntlet fights of bosses you have already fought. You get the idea. Rinse and repeat too many times, and there's your World of Light campaign. The story is also nothing. There is one particularly nice nod towards the end of the game worth a long-time fan experiencing, but the cost to get there is very high and many would have bailed before getting this chance. Outside of that, what is there to do? You want to play Smash casually with your mates? Great, it will tick that box and give you endless possibilities. The game looks and plays very well, though enthusiasts might tell you the weightiness of Melee is better. (This reviewer is inclined to agree). But for single players? Clear classic mode 74 times? Hit all 124 achievements? Get all 1600 ish spirits? It feels like the mission statement of Smash was to scale for the sake of scale without regard for purpose or quality. The problem with that model is that players will only engage with a small percentage of your content and feel like the rest isn't worth their time.