Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (大乱闘スマッシュブラザーズ SPECIAL) is the fifth installment in the Super Smash Bros. fighting series. It is a 3D on a 2D plane fighting game for the Nintendo Switch developed by Bandai Namco Studios and Sora Ltd. and published by Nintendo. It was released on 7 December 2018.

Sonic the Hedgehog, along with every other character from the previous installments, returned along with a batch of new characters. This game also supports amiibo, including the Sonic amiibo.

Development
The first teaser for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate appeared during a Nintendo Direct on 8 March 2018. Back then, it was only known by the title Super Smash Bros.. It was formally announced during Nintendo's Nintendo Direct presentation at E3 2018.

Responsible for the development of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate are Bandai Namco Studios and Sora Ltd., who were behind the development of Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, with Masahiro Sakurai serving as the director. The intention of Sakurai's for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate was to include every possible character from previous Super Smash Bros. games, which he knew would be both a complex problem for both development and licensing. He also intended to speed up the game by adjusting the characters' abilities. Sakurai knew that Super Smash Bros. Ultimate was both a core title for Nintendo, and that it has a dedicated playerbase that he did not want to disappoint, and believed that he needed to complete these goals to satisfy both groups.

Inclusion of Sonic the Hedgehog
On 12 June 2018, it was announced on the E3 Nintendo Direct that every single playable character from the past four games would return. Among them is Sonic the Hedgehog, marking his third appearance as a fighter in the series. Like in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Sonic must first be unlocked in order to play as him. There are three methods to unlock Sonic:


 * Play VS. matches, Mob Smash, Spirit Board or World of Light. He is the 17th character to be unlocked in order.
 * Clear Classic Mode as Mario.
 * Have Sonic join the player's party in World of Light.

In addition to Sonic's inclusion as a fighter, Green Hill Zone from Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Windy Hill Zone from Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U make a return. Shadow the Hedgehog returns as an Assist Trophy, slowing players down using Chaos Control with the green Chaos Emerald. Knuckles the Echidna also makes an appearance as an Assist Trophy and will attack opponents by punching them, using the Homing Attack, or dig underground and use a powerful uppercut when summoned. Akira Yuki also appears as an Assist Trophy retaining his polygonal form from Virtua Fighter.

Classic Mode
Classic Mode in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has each fighter go through their own predetermined set of opponents and stages, sometimes with special rules or conditions put in place. Sonic's route is named "At the Speed of Sound", and all of his opponents are a mix between the game's fastest characters and references to other Sonic games in chronological order.

The player will unlock the Sonic Fighter Spirit after beating Classic Mode with Sonic.

Sonic the Hedgehog Spirits
Various other Sonic characters also make an appearance in the form of Spirits. Spirits are power up characters that can give fighters a boost in battle. They have replaced Trophies in this installment of the Super Smash Bros. series. They are either a Primary Spirit or a Support Spirit, can be one of five types, (Grab, Shield, Attack, Balanced or Neutral) and can come in one of four classes. In order from weakest to strongest class: Novice (★), Advanced / Hope (★★), Ace (★★★), and Legend (★★★★). All currently known Sonic Spirits include:

Other Spirits
Some Spirits from other series represented in the game utilize Sonic as their Spirit fighter. They are as follows:

Support Spirits
Other notable Spirits include:

World of Light
In the Adventure Mode "World of Light", Sonic and other fighters prepare to battle against a godlike being named Galeem and his army of Master Hands. Galeem unleashes a devastating array of bright yellow lasers which instantly captures anything they come into contact with. The attack puts the fighters into panic, as they all try to either fight back or run away. Sonic uses his speed to outrun the lasers and attempts to save Pikachu in the process. However, Pikachu is captured with Sonic being captured shortly after. Galeem manages to capture all of the fighters aside from Kirby, who escapes on his Warp Star. After this, Galeem envelops the entire galaxy in a burst of light. Kirby eventually crash-lands in the eponymous World of Light and sets out to free the captured fighters who are strewn throughout the world.

Eventually, the freed fighters manage destroy the shield protecting Galeem and beat him in a battle. With the being's power weakened, however, the world is soon taken over by its arch-nemesis, Dharkon, who envelops the world in darkness, and takes control of the remaining fighters and Spirits. After Dharkon's defeat Galeem returns to wage war. Soon, the fighters manage to defeat both Galeen and Dharkon once and for all.

Gameplay
The Adventure Mode has a world map that the character the player has chosen moves around in when not in battle. The player is trying to get to the center of the map, where Galeem is. Throughout the Adventure Mode, the player will find several obstacles.

The most common blockade found are Spirits. To progress, the player will need to fight them. The Spirits take the form of fighters that share common traits with them. After fighting them, the player will free the Spirit and they will be able to use it.

Another common blockade are possessed fighters. Every fighter that was devoured by light was possessed and turned evil. These possessed fighters are usually much more powerful than Spirits. After beating a possessed fighter, the player will be able to play as that fighter. Also, if the player beats a fighter that they have not unlocked in regular gameplay, they will also unlock it there as well. Sonic himself can be found in the Dark Realm, contained in the Legend of Zelda-themed Sacred Land area.

Music
Following the tradition of earlier Super Smash Bros, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has a number of music tracks from the Sonic series included in it. There are twenty in total, which can be played on both Green Hill Zone and Windy Hill Zone. By using the "My Music" feature, the player can adjust how often they want each available song to play on each stage. Most of the songs are available from the start, while the rest must be unlocked:

Trivia

 * Part of the on Twitter, with six days left before the game's release the official Japanese Sega Twitter posted a Tweet representing Sonic's inclusion in the game.
 * This is the first Super Smash Bros. game since the original Super Smash Bros. to not be announced alongside new hardware.
 * Moreover, this is the first time since Super Smash Bros. Melee that a Super Smash Bros. game has not been announced years in advance.
 * This is the first Super Smash Bros. game to not feature the involvement of Satoru Iwata as he passed away in July 2015.
 * The release date of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate falls one day after the late Satoru Iwata's birthday, 6 December, which was also the release date of Super Smash Bros. Wii U in Japan.
 * This is the first Super Smash Bros. game to be released in the same year it was announced.
 * This is the first Super Smash Bros. game since the original Super Smash Bros. to feature 2D illustrations on the box art.
 * This is the first Super Smash Bros. game since Super Smash Bros. Melee, the second installment of the series, where no veteran characters were cut.
 * This is the first Super Smash Bros. game to have none of its newcomers as starter characters.
 * This is the first Super Smash Bros. game to have no unlockable stages.
 * This is the first Super Smash Bros. game where the English voice actor for the Announcer has not been changed from the previous game.
 * Moreover, this is the first Super Smash Bros. game where the English voice actor of the Announcer voices a playable character in the game.
 * This is the first Super Smash Bros. game to not feature Trophies since the original Super Smash Bros.
 * This is the first Super Smash Bros. game to have a vocal theme song in both English and Japanese.
 * This is the first Super Smash Bros. game to allow Master Hand to be legitimately playable, via a brief gameplay sequence near the end of World of Light.
 * With Sonic's inclusion in this game, he is the only third-party character to appear in three Super Smash Bros. titles.
 * Sonic and Knuckles were both featured on the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate blog on 2 July 2018.
 * Sonic's default head icon in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate bears a striking resemblance to several logos and icons in the Sonic series, namely the logo for Sonic Team.
 * So far, Sonic is the only third party character with more than one stage representing his series.
 * Unlike other installments in the Super Smash Bros. series, Sonic actually takes a bit of damage if he falls in any body of water, which is a nod to his inability to swim.
 * This is the first Super Smash Bros. game in which two characters from the Sonic the Hedgehog series appear as Assist Trophies.
 * Knuckles will not show up as an Assist Trophy when Green Hill Zone is chosen as a stage. This is likely due to the fact that he is a background character in the stage as well.
 * This is the first Super Smash Bros. title in which there are three playable characters that are representatives from Sega: Sonic, Bayonetta and Joker.
 * Rodin from the Bayonetta series and Akira from the Virtua Fighter series also make appearances as Assist Trophies.
 * One of Incineroar's alternate costumes resembles Big the Cat.
 * The Spirit cores used to unlock the Sonic the Hedgehog series Spirits all represent the likeness of the characters they summon:
 * The Knuckles Spirit requires the cores of Gordo and Muddy Mole; Gordo represents Knuckles' spiked gloves and Muddy Mole represents Knuckles' digging ability.
 * The Jet the Hawk Spirit requires the cores of Pidgey and Akari Hayami; Pidgey is an allusion to Jet being a type of bird and Akari represents Jet's proficiency in riding Extreme Gear.
 * The Sonic the Werehog Spirit requires the cores of Togedemaru and Werewolf. Werewolf is obviously an allusion to how the Werehog was a more beastly form that Sonic turned into during the nighttime. Togedemaru, while less immediately obvious, is considered an "Electric Hedgehog" referencing Sonic's base form and species.
 * Jun Senoue was requested by Nintendo to pick a song to arrange for the game. As he was allowed to pick any song he wanted, he picked a Mega Man track, specifically a medley of music from Mega Man 4 in the style of a typical Sonic song. He was inspired to do so after seeing graphic novels from Sonic & Mega Man: Worlds Collide and Worlds Unite, specifically Sonic the Hedgehog/Mega Man: Worlds Collide: The Complete Epic and Sonic the Hedgehog/Mega Man: Worlds Unite Vol. 1: Deadly Fusion.
 * As is the case with Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, Sonic's snoring and surfacing voice clips are taken directly from Super Smash Bros. Brawl, in which he was voiced by Jason Griffith, despite being voiced by Roger Craig Smith in this game.
 * Pac-Man’s standard spirit is his artwork for Sonic Dash.
 * Unlike in Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, while Sonic's victory jingle was taken from Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), entitled "Mission Clear", which is the only victory jingle that was straight from another game, his victory jingle was shortened in the final build instead of the full version in the E3 build.