How do I Feel about each Nintendo Direct for Smash Ultimate?

Salutations, my fellow Smash Bros. fans! How are things going for you guys?

Since E3 2018, there have been a decent amount of special Nintendo Directs catered to info on Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. These range from general information on fighters, coverage on certain game modes, to the more recent livestreams from Masahiro Sakurai that highlights Fighters characters.

I will take the liberty of ranking all of the Directs for Ultimate so far, starting from the bottom to the top. You are encouraged to give your opinions in the comments section and it's fine to disagree. Just maintain a kind attitude...

Shall we begin?

Note: unless otherwise noted, the pictures will be images taken from SmashWiki that relate to each Direct.

#9: November 1st Direct

...It seems like stuff related to the World of Light tend to be my least favorite. The final Direct before Ultimate's base release is good, but there's quite a few hiccups within it.

One of the main parts of this presentation that was hard to swallow was the deconfirmation of Shadow the Hedgehog as an Assist Trophy. If he was revealed in an earlier presentation, that would have stung less, although I it that I took certain fan predictions a bit too seriously.

Otherwise, seeing other fan-requested characters like Isaac or Skull Kid put as Assists wasn't fun. I also felt that the Spirits mode section went on too long.

Are there any good parts to this Direct, though? Well...the reveal of World of Light was rather neat. I also enjoyed Ken and Incineroar's trailer, and some of the Mii costumes are cool. The best part of this Direct was the surprise reveal of Piranha Plant. Watching fan reactions to that is gold.

Speaking of which, I recommend checking out the reactions from Alpharad, SomecallmeJohnny, and (pardon my mentioning of him if it makes anyone sad) Etika.

#8: Byleth's Direct

Next up is the Mr. Sakurai Presents Byleth presentation. This is infamous for how many dislikes it has on YouTube.

To address the elephant in the room, I am fine with Byleth themselves. Yes, they are the eighth Fire Emblem fighter, and there wasn't much of a fan request for them, but they are ultimately inoffensive to me.

The reason why I place this Direct near the bottom is due to some of the explanations from Sakurai taking a little too long. This isn't inherently bad, but I almost felt bored with hearing the details on Byleth's specials.

As with every Direct, however, there are some fun parts. The trailer was fairly humorous, with Sothis quipping about "too many swordsmen" at one point. Garreg Mach Monastery is a nice stage. I found it funny how Sakurai intentionally lost every fighter in his Squad Strike and the translator shouting their names.

Of course, this Direct revealed Cuphead from his title indie game as a Mii Gunner costume. Though not as crazy as Sans, seeing Cuphead in official 3D is neat, and the Floral Fury tune is decent.

Though I am not a huge Fire Emblem fan, Byleth and their corresponding Direct is a decent rewatch.

#7: Terry Bogard's Direct

As much as I love Terry as a fighter, his Direct is one of the less fun ones to watch. I believe that this is the longest Smash Direct at 48 minutes.

Now, let me start by saying that it's rather cute that Mr. Sakurai essentially had an hour to geek out about all things related to Terry and his knowledge of Fatal Fury games. Something's endearing about an official game developer just nerding out like a Let's Player.

My primary turnoff from this video was hearing all of the fighter terminology. I am firmly a casual player, so seeing Sakurai explain all of the intricate commands in Terry's kit was a bit much to handle. That said, I have managed to get used to the simple Buster Wolf input and now am trying to do Power Geyser. I appreciate the special cameos of the SNK characters and love that there were 50 songs added on the King of Fighters Stadium.

Another slight issue I have is that for as long as this Direct was, I was hopeful in getting some kind of new mode announced. This is most likely due to misaligned expectations, so it's not a deal breaker. The run of Classic Mode was a neat surprise...

Terry Bogard is a fun fighter, even if his Direct wasn't my favorite.

#6: Hero's Direct

This was the first in the Mr. Sakurai Presents series of videos. I classify them as Smash Directs...

I didn't really know what to expect from this new livestream format from Sakurai, but in all honesty, I found it great for the first time watching.

There are a few things covered here, ranging from intricate details on each Hero's voice actors to the grand tour of Yggdrasil's Altar, my favorite part of the Direct. Sakurai's battle against the AI was good.

Extra goodies covered here are Mii costumes from the Dragon Quest games and a humorous addition of the Very Easy difficulty to Adventure Mode: World of Light.

While not every part of Hero's Direct amazed me, it was certainly an interesting idea seeing a newer approach taken to this video.

#5: Min Min's Direct

As of today's date, this is the most recent Direct for a fighter in Ultimate. I'm not sure exactly when we will get another fighter announcement, but can imagine that there will be one soon.

Min Min's presentation was filmed after the declaration of the worldwide pandemic of the coronavirus, so Sakurai did this directly from his house. It was low-key interesting to see his two TVs and multiple game consoles.

The overall feel of this Direct was good. We still got the overview of where the character originated and Sakurai's signature sense of humor. Needless to say, this revealed Min Min herself as the ARMS rep.

To be frank, there aren't any major issues with the Direct itself; we got a healthy amount of information, especially given the circumstances, and the extra stuff includes a fun option to rematch Spirit battles in the Collection mode. Going from here, though, my rankings have a bit more pleasant surprises.

#4: Joker's Direct

Currently, this is the only Fighters presentation to be fashioned more like a standard Smash Direct. It came completely out of nowhere!

Unlike every other Direct so far, this one wasn't hosted by Masahiro Sakurai. I'm not exactly sure who covered it; I want to say it's Xander Mobus, seeing as he is the voice actor of Joker, but I honestly don't know.

Obviously, the star of the show was Joker himself; after not knowing anything for four months, we got an official look at this fighter and his elegant playstyle. Mementos is one of my favorite stages.

A notable part of this Direct was the inclusion of Stage Builder, the first new mode added to Ultimate. I'm not much of a stage builder myself, but fans have come up with numerous wild stages to play on. There is also the implementation of the Smash World app that was teased in the November 2018 Direct.

For a shadow drop presentation, this was one of the cooler Directs IMO.

#3: Banjo-Kazooie's Direct

Occasionally, there are those Nintendo Directs that are just plain fun to watch. The September 2019 one featuring Banjo-Kazooie conveys that feeling well.

For starters, this came immediately after a regular Nintendo Direct. Quite the treat, yes? One thing that I liked was how the background audience laughed more throughout Sakurai's increased humor.

Banjo and Kazooie were given a nice rundown alongside their pretty stage, Spiral Mountain. All of the character cameos are fun, and the music is well-selected. Furthermore, Sakurai mentioned the Xbox One as the best way to experience the duo's classic adventure. Definitely didn't expect that in a Nintendo presentation... :sweat_smile:

While finally seeing the bear and bird return home was great...I think the big showstopper was the inclusion of Sans from Undertale as a Mii Gunner costume. This alone made the Mii Gunner super popular for Google search results during the week of Sans' unveiling. Me, I'm not big into Undertale (or EarthBound for that matter; the gameplay is a bit too complex for me to enjoy), but Sans is certainly one of the best costumes. Megalovania is also quite the banger song.

Another part of this Direct I enjoyed was seeing Home-Run Contest come back. It's a fun minigame to play on occasion. Sakurai touted this as "pretty much" the final new mode, so maybe Smash Run HD won't be happening. I am still hopeful, though.

...Yeah. The Banjo-Kazooie Direct is easily my favorite of the Mr. Sakurai Presents series thus far.

Image taken from Nintendo's YouTube channel.

#2: E3 2018 Presentation

Technically speaking, this isn't a *Smash* Direct, so much as it's a part of Nintendo's E3 showing. I count it as one due to its length and how Sakurai hosts it.

This was the formal reveal of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. It was heralded by a brilliant trailer advertising that every single veteran came back in this new game. I after seeing "Everyone is Here!" pop up, I...was hyped. I specifically saying something like "What?!" when seeing characters like Cloud, Pichu, and Young Link confirmed. Then, the artwork shown is magnificent. Such a magical moment... :heart_eyes:

A big chunk of the Direct was focused on giving us details on how veterans have changed since their last appearance. Afterwards, we got a tiny bit of info about gameplay mechanics and a look at some stages. New characters revealed included Inkling and Daisy, the latter being under the new Echo Fighter monkier. Finally, we ended off with a trailer confirming that "Ridley hits the Big Time!" Ooh, that was lovely.

One thing that I picked up on is that non-Smash fanatics like Arlo or TheBitBlock may have pegged this as a lame showing of Nintendo's E3 2018. I definitely understand that argument; it would have been better to have this Direct as its own independent video prior to E3. Using it as half of the main presentation would have it override any other new games, like Super Mario Party.

Still, as someone who cherishes Smash as one of my most beloved game series, I am unabashed by this look into Ultimate. Reactions I recommend watching include SullyPwnz, WiiDude83, and Alpharad's combined watch with ESAM and MVD.

#1: August 8th Direct

This second look into Ultimate is without a doubt my favorite Direct for this game! when I said about there being the occasional plain fun presentations from the Big N? This one is yet another example of such.

Right at the beginning, we get treated to a gorgeous trailer revealing both Simon and Richter Belmont as playable characters. I don't know if I said this, but while I don't equate my love for Simon Belmont as high as I would for characters like Ridley, I cannot bring myself to undermine how great it is that he's in Smash now.

Throughout the whole Smash Direct, there were good announcements: Chrom and Dark Samus are added as new Echo Fighters, there are 103 stages in the base game, all available for 8 players and at the start, we can customize playlists as often as we want, and there are some fun new Pokémon and Assist Trophies.

Why, even the competitive community got their share with the Squad Strike mode, Final Smash Meter, and the special Training stage. There was something for everybody to enjoy!

My favorite moment, however, was the reveal of King K. Rool. After seeing DK show up in The Rivals trailer, I was like, "No way. King K. Rool?!" Then, after the quaking and a hilarious troll from King Dedede, Donkey Kong's archnemesis finally ed the battle. My goodness, what a closer!

I can rewatch the standard version of that Direct without ever getting tired, but ESAM and MVD made a great video on it; the latter in particular has one of the best reactions to the Dedede troll. SomecallmeJohnny also is good.

I feel positive in saying that this will remain my favorite Smash Ultimate Direct. :blush:

And there we go! My rankings on all nine Directs we have so far of SSBU. This was fun to write about. I really do consider it a privilege to have all of these special video presentations on the latest Smash game. For fighters, I will briefly rank their Directs alongside the best and worst costumes as they come out until the end of next year.

Thanks for reading!