There is an old legend, confirmed by one of the people directly involved, which emerged from Nintendo’s development studios: shortly before his death, the great Satoru Iwata had a meeting with Masahiro Sakurai – creator of Kirby and the Super Smash Bros series – during which he begged him to once again put himself at the service of the Big N in order to give birth to a definitive version, next-gen, “Ultimate”, of the famous fighting-game themed video game characters.
Masahiro Sakurai, tired after years of working on a series of technically strenuous titles, nevertheless accepted the assignment, and following Iwata’s death he transformed it into a real mission: he was determined to create the final form of his work, both to please millions of fans who have been calling her out loud for years, and above all to honor the will and memory of her boss and mentor.
From that determination Super Smash Bros Ultimate was born, an exceptional work that, with almost 30 million copies placed, has over time become the best-selling production of the fighting genre of all time, a successful esports, a title suitable for all palates, as well as one of the largest video game-themed encyclopedias ever created. In case you want to know more, we have created an analysis that puts in black and white the reasons why a phenomenon like Super Smash Bros Ultimate will probably never happen again.
But what interests us today is precisely the wording “Ultimate” which was placed at the end of the title of the work: an adjective that was perfectly indicative of the project, because beyond a fabric of excellent technique there was a mass of unprecedented content. All the characters never appeared on the roster would return to the stage, accompanied by many newcomers, by dozens of iconic levels, by thousands of original soundtracks drawn directly from the great masterpieces of the medium.
And here an inevitable debate opens: what is the difference between what is called “more of the same” and an experience that we could define as “Ultimate”? Why is the continuity of a project sometimes perceived as a lack, and in other cases as the culmination of a fantastic journey? You could write dozens of articles that analyze the issue, studying the way in which new chapters of certain sagas are received by the public, but one thing is certain: when it comes to story-driven experiences – maybe even just single-player – gamers they are very intolerant to “more of the same”.
But when it comes to video games with a more arcade footprint, the story changes completely. In the confines of fighting games, racing, arena shooters, the amount of content is crucial: fans want a lot of everything, from maps to weapons passing through the characters to finally get to the vehicles. They want all-encompassing versions of the formulas they’ve come to love, and that’s where Splatoon 3 comes in.
A fantastic title, Splatoon 3, which has only one small formal flaw: it deserved to be called Splatoon Ultimate. Because that number next to the title can be deceiving, it can make you think of something different, distant from the original formula, when Splatoon 3 is nothing more than the definitive formula at the base of the Splatoon saga, the maximum expression of what can be achieved in the colored Mollusca Blends.
The 12 maps, the 11 categories of weapons that wind along 53 individual guns, the 16 special tools and the incalculable amount of customization options, reflect the desire to stage a definitive version; which, in hindsight, over the years has become a staple of the philosophy behind Switch, perhaps a reflection of the desire to bring back to the heights that some brands consolidated during the WiiU era deserved.
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is the perfect example of this category of titles, because despite the 8 that stands next to the name of the iconic brand it has begun to change, to slowly transform itself into a definitive and all-encompassing edition of Mario Kart, putting in place great circuits from the past and an avalanche of novelties; today it is so rich that it is actually an “Ultimate” Mario Kart, so much so that on the horizon it is still impossible to identify the debut of a possible heir.
Perhaps this is precisely the future that each epitome of Nintendo’s classic production deserves, which traditionally has always been close to the so-called arcade formulas; Mario Kart, Mario Party, Mario Strikers, Splatoon: it is possible that in a not too distant day they will all assume the “Ultimate formula”, approaching the style of games as services but without becoming one completely, absorbing only what is good emerges from the video game as a platform.
Right now we are in the middle of the Splatoon 3 era, an experience that is dominating the sales charts around the world but is still sometimes accused of being an avoidable more of the same. And this is where the problem arises: what does an inspirational title that we improperly call “arcade” have to do to build a successful sequel? In situations where a formula is still fully effective, the mechanics are young, the audience is “hungry”, how should the developers proceed?
They should work just like they did on Splatoon 3: filing the technical component to adhere more to the undergrowth of esports and increase the depth, improving the visual experience and fluidity of the staging, integrating all the options most loved by the public and adding more. new. And this may seem like a simple, almost obvious operation, but the truth is that it is much more complex than it might appear.
Let’s try to concretely imagine the next chapter of Mario Kart: if this did not host a number of circuits comparable to those of its predecessor, an equivalent number of drivers, vehicles and instruments – all accompanied by a substantial original offer and the will to expand the formula further – it probably wouldn’t be able to collect that crown that right now has allowed Mario Kart 8 Deluxe to place more than 46 million copies on the Nintendo Switch alone.
We are at the weekend following the first Splatfest of Splatoon 3, the first taste of post-launch support for this definitive chapter, or the beginning of a long journey that, ideally, will lead one of Nintendo’s most innovative works to transcend its boundaries. This weekend, in fact, there will also be a Super Smash Bros Ultimate maxi-tournament in San Antonio, Texas; Is it possible that in a few months we will see a similar explosion also in the confines of the Mollusca Scrum between Inkling and Octoling?
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