I know what you are asking yourself "really didn't we just do this at E3?". The answer is yes, we did. But Nintendo is really banking on the new Smash Bros game to sell consoles, since they are going through a slump right now. With no new Triple A games coming out for the next few months, console sales have been dipping. There are games coming out, but its mostly indie titles that have been released on every other platform years ago. 

So Smash Direct. What is this about? Well I am gonna break it down for you right here. 

New characters

-Simon Belmont\Richter Belmont - This is the biggest announcement for me. I was mad that he didn't get released for Smash 4. Simon appears to be dressed as he was in the Super Castlevania 4 for the SNES. Richter seems to be pulled right out of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Since they are both "echo fighter" they will be sharing the same move list. Their move set is going to include typical Castlevania items; Holy water, Axes, uppercut, slide kick, and a downward "bullet" kick. Their Final Smash is called "Grand Cross"  

-Chrom - Chrom is going to be an Echo Fighter. He is based on Roy, so they will share similar move sets. The only differences are going to be appearance, animations, and voice lines.  

-Dark Samus - She is based on Samus and will have similar move sets. Only difference will be appearance, amimations, and voice lines.

-King K. Rool - He is from the Smash series and makes his first appearance in a Smash game. He is the main villain of Donky Kong.  

Stages 

They are including a lot of the returning maps from previous Smash Bros games, like Great Bay, Shadow Moss, Living Room, and a lot more. But they also said that they are adding new maps. In total, there is going to be 103 different stages in Ultimate, making it the most out of every Smash game ever released. Every stage will also have a "battlefield" version, a version that is bigger for 8 players (which was a major complaint from Smash 4) and an "omega" version, which is just a flat piece of land (for tournament style play). You can also now turn off stage hazards, so you can keep the stage in tactic, but not have random enemies come on stage and mess things up. It takes out a lot of the random fact that is found in Smash Bros games out of the equation. 

There is also a new option called "stage morphing". With this option turned on, you can now select 2 stages and the during the battle, the game will switch back and forth between the 2 stages. Pretty cool feature. Not something I was looking for, but its cool. 

-There will be a new Castlevania themed stage, complete with random appearances from the man himself, Dracula. He is going to be a triggered event, but they didn't say how to trigger him. The stage will also have candles that you can hit for items. They said that it is the "darkest stage in the game". The stage will also include 34 pieces of music, from classic Castlevania to remixed tunes. 

-New Donk City Hall. Not a surprise with how successful Mario Odyssey is. There is also a singing Pauline in the background for your musical enjoyment.  

My Music

-There is no 900 tracks in the game. In the last game, you were only allowed to select music from that map to play more or less often. Now its by series. So every Zelda stage will have access to every Zelda track in the game.

-You can now create custom playlists and listen to them while the Switch is in sleep mode (hand held mode only)

Trophy's  

Along with new characters and stages there are also going to be new assist trophy's. I personal hate assist trophy's just because if you are going to put the time in to make the character an assist trophy, just make them playable. As for the new ones, Alucard was announced to go with the "Castlevania" theme along with Shovel Knight (which hurts my soul, as I wanted him to be playable).

There will also be; Zero (Mega Man), Knuckles (Sonic), Krystal (Star Fox), Klaptrap (Donkey Kong), Kapp'n (Animal Crossing), Chef Kawasaki (Kirby), Gray Fox (Metal Gear), Nikki (?), Moon (Majora's Mask), and finally Rathalos (Monster Hunter).

Rathalos is rather unique in the fact that he appears as both a boss character and an assist trophy.   

New Game Modes

-Squad Battles - 6 and 10 players (3v3 or 5v5) can compete in a squad battle. Team vs Team. Elimination style.  

-Tournament mode - Up to 32 players can compete in a tournament bracket style system with only 1 winner 

-Smashdown - After a battle, the previously selected fighter will not be selectable any longer forcing you to choose another fighter. First one with the most wins at the end, wins the game.  

-Training mode exclusive stage 

-Classic mode (AKA Single player) - One of the things a lot of people complained about in the last Smash game is now back. There is a single player mode. Each character as a set amount of fighters that they have to go through (set in a theme). 

-They also hinted at another mode, but didn't go into any further details about it.

That is all of the important items of note. If you want to see the whole direct, as there is stuff in it that I didn't cover or go into a lot of detailed over, you can watch that below. 

Something that was also announced, but not during the direct is the new Collectors Edition. 

Its going to come with the game, a Gamecube controller, and the Gamecube adapter. No price has been announced yet, and this is an image of the Pal region version so no idea if its coming to NA or not. I will keep you updated when it is announced. 

Thats its for me. Check out the direct, it was actually really good. 

This is James with Game Fix. Game on everybody!