When the master hand strikes down and the crazy hand punches up, good and evil are left behind with only survival on their minds. Enemies become allies and allies become enemies. In this fight, it’s every person for themselves.

The new Super Smash Bros. Ultimate game was released on Dec. 7 for the Nintendo Switch. This is the fifth installment in the Super Smash Bros. game series. Over time, Nintendo made changes to each game with every release, but this is the first time to include a multitude of new characters and stages.

“It’s far better than the previous games with lots of new designs are in this game that I really like,” senior Victor Camacho said. “I love that they added every single character that existed in the past Smash Bros. games which is very nostalgic and still added new characters from other games.”

Currently there are 77 playable characters in the game including 69 different characters, seven echo fighters (clones of other characters with similar designs) and one DLC (downloadable content) character.

“The adventure mode is one of the best RPG’s (role playing video game) I’ve ever played, and it is super long. I played for almost a full day, and I’m not even halfway done,” senior Jackson Shellogg said. “The biggest improvement is having all characters and [the game] being on the [Nintendo] switch.”

The game features a adventure mode, known as “World of Light,” where most of the character’s spirits have been removed and taken over by an evil named Galeem. Fortunately, the sole survivor of the attack, Kirby, has crashed in the same place where all of the spirits have been sent to. Now, Kirby has to fight against the “puppet fighters” shells containing the spirits of the other characters to free the spirits of the other characters.   

“Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is a nice combination of all the good things and the characters of those games, (Melee, Brawl, Wii U, and the original) and it was all put into one,” freshman Julia Ryden said. “I honestly can’t find anything bad about the game. It is just super fun in general.”

The new game is a throwback to some of the old games because of the addition to older characters that have been removed over time including: Piranha Plant (Super Mario), Ice Climbers (Ice Climbers) and Pokemon Trainers (Pokemon).

With the large combination of throwbacks to past games and addition of story mode, the game gained popularity with fans of all ages.