The Smash Ultimate 3.0 update is coming this Spring, and it seems as though Nintendo is planning a major re-haul of something. Why not add back in the best element of Smash 4?
Nintendo teased the Smash Ultimate 3.0 update during the latest Nintendo Direct, and while they were silent as to what will be present in the update, the Smash fandom is abuzz with what such a major update will bring.
As Joker from Persona is coming “before the end of April,” one can assume that the update will go live with his release. Why is Nintendo remaining so silent as to what the Smash Ultimate 3.0 update will contain? Maybe it’s because it’s going to contain all that we’ve ever wanted out of the Smash Ultimate online matchmaking experience.
Getting good
It’s been two months since Smash Ultimate released, and ever since, I’ve been disappointed by the game’s online offerings. But hey, Nintendo seems to listen to their fans fairly often, so why not make another request for a better online experience?
The best parts about For Glory were the easy means of communication. See, in For Glory, you were able to write a new tag in any given lobby, allowing you to write some quick messages to either people that you really liked, or those that you didn’t.
There was a certain tension there that isn’t present in Smash Ultimate. Knowing that your teammate would hold you accountable for spamming or making your team lose in a silly way felt more real than it does in Ultimate. “REALLY…” might be the message you receive, or maybe a friendly “GG” if you played well.
You can voice chat via the Nintendo Switch Online app in Ultimate, but only in private lobbies, and only if the owner of the lobby allows it. It’s not a realistic way of talking to your opponents, and it misses out on the fun and intensity of For Glory’s messaging system.
Consistent rules, consistent fun
Not being able to get a consistent ruleset is such a pain in both private lobbies and random quickplay in Ultimate. Remember how you used to never be able to use items in For Glory? Now, you’ll likely have at least Smash Balls appear, because they’ll be in your opponents’ preferred rules.
Something that often throws me off is not knowing how many stocks you’re going to have before the battle starts. It makes a big difference if you start off with two stocks, as opposed to three or four. Ultimate lends itself to quicker loss of stocks, making two stock battles hardly worth the effort of investing in.
For Glory had something right with Omega Stages only. With the way Ultimate feels, it’s too cramped and congested to have Battlefield platforms taking up so much of the stage. In Smash 4, professional players seemed to mostly prefer Battlefield stages, but now, they’re trending away from the difficult to play on three-platformed arenas. Battlefield battles are a buzzkill in Ultimate, making those quickplay battles a chore to get through.
How would Nintendo add back in For Glory?
Simply put, Nintendo got something really right with adding in an actual functionality for the GSP. They should always keep this matchmaking system in tact, because for the most part, it seems to do a pretty good job of keeping players of similar playstyles together.
Elite serves should also stay because they give the player a goal to strive toward. After that, the rest can go.
Smash Ultimate should all but replicate the online menu options of Smash 4. For Fun and For Glory were so compartmentalized, and gave players the quickest means of getting to the types of battles they wanted.
You’d think more options would be a good thing, but as it turns out, too many rulesets immediately proved to be a bad idea. Take out rule preferences, and set them as they were in For Glory and For Fun.
The private lobbies are fun, and a great update from the clunky ones of Smash 4, that of which used to only allow battles between friends.
What will the ‘Smash Ultimate’ 3.0 update actually contain?
This is a bit of a stumper because it’s hard to know what’s going on in Nintendo’s development rooms for Smash Ultimate. It’s a good thing that Nintendo is choosing to keep the online experience of Smash Ultimate alive and well.
However, there are some good elements that Nintendo could break here. If they touch the private lobbies or GSP, there are bound to be a lot of players who would be very upset with their online Smash experience.
Who knows, the Smash Ultimate 3.0 update could have nothing to do with online battling. What if it adds in movie cutscenes to the World of Light mode? Or what if it adds in a new way of battling that we haven’t thought of yet?
Nothing’s set in stone, and Nintendo can do a lot of things right here by course correcting the self-admitted lackluster Smash Ultimate online experience when the Smash Ultimate 3.0 update goes live later this Spring.
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