At Nintendo’s E3 event, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate was announced and brought with it a cavalcade of new changes and additions to the entire roster. Series director Masahiro Sakurai mentioned there would be over 10,000 total changes to the game. While we don’t think we’ll need to list all those, here’s a bunch of changes that will directly affect the way you play your favorite Smash character!

Characters: 

Mario - Mario features Cappy on his head from Super Mario Odyssey. It’s uncertain whether Cappy will factor into combat at any point in Smash or if he’ll simply be a new taunt for Mario. 

Link - Armed in his Breath of the Wild Champion’s Tunic, Link has new bombs that can be detonated remotely. 

Ryu - Ryu will always face his opponent in one-on-one battles, similar to his appearance in Street Fighter games. This should limit the amount of input error players face while in combat. 

Marth - Marth’s Dancing Blade (Forward + B) has been sped up. 

Snake - Is back and we are very excited.

Pokemon Trainer - Squirtle, Ivysaur, and Charizard return with Pokemon Trainer and their switch-out is much quicker than before. There is also less opportunity for opponents to punish the switched-in Pokemon. Leaf from Pokemon Fire Red and Leaf Green is also selectable. 

Pichu - Pichu has also returned from Super Smash Bros. Melee. The baby Pokemon’s electric attacks still damage it, but it’s unknown if there will be any improvements to the character to balance the negatives out.

Robin - Robin’s Levin Sword and Tomes have visible meters that can be seen next to their character portraits. This will give the player (and their opponent) an idea of how many resources the Robin player has available.

Villager - Similarly, Villager players (and opponents) can see what item (if any) is currently pocketed.

Young Link - Young Link returns from his appearance in Melee. It will be interesting to see how he fares alongside Link and Toon Link, along with the other sword-wielding characters.

Wolf - Fox McCloud’s arch rival, Wolf, returns for the first time since Brawl. Series creator Masahiro Sakurai has said that Wolf’s moves have been “significantly upgraded,” which hopefully means that Wolf’s moves will lead to less accidental deaths.

Shulk - Rather than have to cycle through Monado Arts, Shulk players can now easily select them from a more convenient layout, as seen below. Now, Shulk players can spend less time selecting Arts and spend more time “really feeling it!”

Ganondorf - Ganondorf returns to his popular Ocarina of Time design, which seems to coincide with his Melee appearance. This ‘Dorf was much quicker and more agile than his Brawl and Smash 4 counterpart. We’ve also seen Ganondorf use his sword for more than show this time around.

Palutena - The Goddess of Light’s moveset has been streamlined, and her Down + B now acts as both a counter and a reflect.

ROB - ROB now has a fuel indicator on his side, alerting the player (and their foes) to how much their robot pal has left in the tank.

Dark Pit / Lucina - These two have been given new designations called “Echo Fighters” and have a small Epsilon character next to their name in all official marketing. Echo Fighters are the official name for “clone characters” or characters who have almost identical movesets to other fighters.

Daisy - Daisy was revealed as the newest Echo Fighter, being a clone of Peach. It’s unknown currently just how different she will be than her pink counterpart.

Inkling - Inkling’s base abilities were outlined throughout the presentation. Simply put, Inkling’s playstyle revolves around keeping their opponent covered in paint, which needs to be recharged throughout the course of the fight. Inkling has a number of different ink-based attacks at their disposal. For a full walkthrough of Inkling’s abilities, check out the video below.

Gameplay:

Stages - Each stage will now have a Battlefield and Omega variant.

Dodges - Dodges have had some changes done to them. While air dodges have been improved, creating more opportunities to move while airborne, repeated “spamming” of dodges will have a negative impact on the player, reducing the effectiveness of the dodge and making them easier to hit.

Short Hops - “Short hops” are now easier to perform by pressing the A button and Jump simultaneously. Short hops are aerial moves that are performed a short distance from the ground. Certain characters aerial attacks might be better choices for combat than their grounded moves, making this universal change helpful for them.

Perfect Shield - The “Perfect Shield” mechanics have also been altered to reward skilled players and dissuade spamming the maneuver. Rather than hitting the Shield button on the first few frames of an opponent’s attack to get a Perfect Shield, players must now release the shield button during these frames. It’s unknown just how much advantage players will have after performing a Perfect Shield or what the deficit will be to a mistimed Shield.

One-on-One Damage - Damage has been increased in one-on-one fights in order to speed them up. The Nintendo Treehouse event also showed a new scoreboard exclusive to one-on-one battles that appears when a player is KOed.

Gamecube Controllers - A Gamecube controller has been announced for the latest Smash title. No words yet on a price or availability.

Amiibo Support - For those who enjoy the AI Fight Club aspect of Smash, every Amiibo figure of a Smash character will be compatible with the new game, regardless of what series it was from.

That's all for now, but be sure to check out the whole Smash Bros Ultimate Roster Reveal and get set to for some altogether new Smash maining with what we know about Ridley so far!