Super Smash Bros Ultimate, the hit Nintendo Switch Title, has released a patch to bring the game up to Version 2.0.0. Highlighting this release is the appearance of the game’s first post-launch challenger, Piranha Plant, which is available for free to all who registered their game by January 31st, 2019. For those who registered the hit title after that date, Piranha Plant will also be available as a paid DLC in future.

This patch brought an unexpected surprise with its player updates; unlike the previous patch, which brought the game up to Version 1.2.0, Nintendo released the specific updates that had been made to the various characters, rather than simply listing the changed characters and leaving gamers to discover what abilities had been altered on their own. This time around, Nintendo has documented all of the added moves, which has affected fifty-five total characters, including the following favorites: Mario, Donkey Kong, Link, Samus, Yoshi, Kirby, Pikachu, Luigi, Peach, Daisy, and Bowser.

While releasing such update notes is considered common practice among game developers, Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and 3DS often had character changes without any details included. Such is the popularity of the series that enthusiastic gamers took it upon themselves to document updates on various message boards, but it seems that Nintendo has finally decided to ease this burden by providing notes on the changes. The hope among the gaming community seems to be that this becomes the norm for the gaming giant, rather than a one-off occurrence.

Latest Super Smash Bros Ultimate Patch Highlighted by Piranha Plant

Although gamers are typically excited about updates to their favorite titles, Nintendo has caused some agitation for competitors in one of the biggest Super Smash Bros Ultimate tournaments of the year, Genesis 6. Those honing their skills for this huge event were understandably upset when they discovered a patch might be released days before their tournament, perhaps severely altering their strategy at the last hour, but tournament organizers alleviated concerns by announcing that the tournament will be played on the Version 1.2.1 patch.

In addition to updating those fifty-five characters, Nintendo has updated the Spirit Board gameplay option to allow up to four players to participate. However, if any of the four players are KO’d in the Spirit battle, the whole group loses. The Spirits, which factor heavily into the World of Light gameplay mode, will give the gamer attack and defense bonuses when set as the primary Spirit. The Spirits are also used in the Spirit Board mode (predictably), where the gamer goes after a rotating bounty of Spirits, which can be difficult if a gamer doesn’t have the right Spirits equipped. The update has also introduced five new Spirits: Partner Pikachu, Partner Eevee, Dice Block, River Survival, and Golden Dash Mushroom.

Beyond the excitement created by the introduction of Piranha Plant, the launch of this post-launch challenger has gamers eagerly anticipating the introduction of additional characters in future patches. Between the wide-ranging character updates, fresh characters, and new spirits, Super Smash Bros Ultimate players can feel confident that their game will stay fresh into the future.

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