What do you get when you cross a fighting game and a bunch of beloved video game characters? You get Nintendo’s ever-growing platform fighter, Super Smash Bros.

In June 2018, it was announced that every character that was ever in the series since its genesis on the Nintendo 64 would be returning in the latest installment of the franchise, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

In late 2018, we knew we would get a Fighter’s Pass, which would contain five characters new to the game through downloadable content (DLC). A year later, that pass has been met with love and has exceeded the expectations of most, including myself.

Persona 5 gave Super Smash Bros, Ultimate its snappy menu design and brought the Shin Megami Tensei series to the forefront of JRPG (Japanese Role-playing games) in the Western Hemisphere.

Banjo-Kazooie was considered one of Mario 64’s platforming rivals back in the 90’s and inspired many “collect-a -thon” type games today.

Byleth is a character that tore the fan base in half when in January of this year it was announced that we would be receiving a special presentation by Mr. Sakurai himself where he would reveal the final character in the first wave of DLC. Byleth’s reveal has 84 thousand dislikes (versus 141 thousand likes) while other characters like Bajo- Kazooie’s presentation is only at 493 dislikes (versus 44 thousands likes). When people saw that Byleth was another Fire Emblem character, people went berserk, citing that the game already had seven other characters from that franchise. Nintendo putting in a first party character whose mobile game spin off alone made 500 million dollars in two years? How could they?

Fire Emblem: Three Houses scored incredibly well when it was released July 2019; it was the highest rated Nintendo Switch game last year and has already sold over 2 million copies. Not only that, but the character is incredibly unique from the rest of the characters from the same series, being the first fighter in Super Smash Bros. to use a bow, sword, lance and axe. This character was an excellent inclusion.

In conclusion, this first year of support from Nintendo for their flagship fighting game series is a great sign of things to come, and with another six fighters yet to be revealed, I’m excited to see who comes next. I give the first Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Fighters Pass a superb 9.5/10 for bringing new fighters and franchises at a reasonable price to an already content filled game.