Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Bee Movie Script

According to all known laws of aviation,

there is no way a bee should be able to fly.

Its wings are too small to get its fat little body off the ground.

The bee, of course, flies anyway

because bees don't care what humans think is impossible.

Yellow, black. Yellow, black. Yellow, black. Yellow, black.

Ooh, black and yellow! Let's shake it up a little.

Barry! Breakfast is ready!

Ooming!

Hang on a second.

Hello?

- Barry? - Adam?

- Oan you believe this is happening? - I can't. I'll pick you up.

Looking sharp.

Use the stairs. Your father paid good money for those.

Sorry. I'm excited.

Here's the graduate. We're very proud of you, son.

A perfect report card, all B's.

Very proud.

Ma! I got a thing going here.

- You got lint on your fuzz. - Ow! That's me!

- Wave to us! We'll be in row 118,000. - Bye!

Barry, I told you, stop flying in the house!

- Hey, Adam. - Hey, Barry.

- Is that fuzz gel? - A little. Special day, graduation.

Never thought I'd make it.

Three days grade school, three days high school.

Those were awkward.

Three days college. I'm glad I took a day and hitchhiked around the hive.

You did come back different.

- Hi, Barry. - Artie, growing a mustache? Looks good.

- Hear about Frankie? - Yeah.

- You going to the funeral? - No, I'm not going.

Everybody knows, sting someone, you die.

Don't waste it on a squirrel. Such a hothead.

I guess he could have just gotten out of the way.

I love this incorporating an amusement park into our day.

That's why we don't need vacations.

Boy, quite a bit of pomp... under the circumstances.

- Well, Adam, today we are men. - We are!

- Bee-men. - Amen!

Hallelujah!

Students, faculty, distinguished bees,

please welcome Dean Buzzwell.

Welcome, New Hive Oity graduating class of...

...9:15.

That concludes our ceremonies.

And begins your career at Honex Industries!

Will we pick ourjob today?

I heard it's just orientation.

Heads up! Here we go.

Keep your hands and antennas inside the tram at all times.

- Wonder what it'll be like? - A little scary.

Welcome to Honex, a division of Honesco

and a part of the Hexagon Group.

This is it!

Wow.

Wow.

We know that you, as a bee, have worked your whole life

to get to the point where you can work for your whole life.

Honey begins when our valiant Pollen Jocks bring the nectar to the hive.

Our top-secret formula

is automatically color-corrected, scent-adjusted and bubble-contoured

into this soothing sweet syrup

with its distinctive golden glow you know as...

Honey!

- That girl was hot. - She's my cousin!

- She is? - Yes, we're all cousins.

- Right. You're right. - At Honex, we constantly strive

to improve every aspect of bee existence.

These bees are stress-testing a new helmet technology.

- What do you think he makes? - Not enough.

Here we have our latest advancement, the Krelman.

- What does that do? - Oatches that little strand of honey

that hangs after you pour it. Saves us millions.

Oan anyone work on the Krelman?

Of course. Most bee jobs are small ones. But bees know

that every small job, if it's done well, means a lot.

But choose carefully

because you'll stay in the job you pick for the rest of your life.

The same job the rest of your life? I didn't know that.

What's the difference?

You'll be happy to know that bees, as a species, haven't had one day off

in 27 million years.

So you'll just work us to death?

We'll sure try.

Wow! That blew my mind!

"What's the difference?" How can you say that?

One job forever? That's an insane choice to have to make.

I'm relieved. Now we only have to make one decision in life.

But, Adam, how could they never have told us that?

Why would you question anything? We're bees.

We're the most perfectly functioning society on Earth.

You ever think maybe things work a little too well here?

Like what? Give me one example.

I don't know. But you know what I'm talking about.

Please clear the gate. Royal Nectar Force on approach.

Wait a second. Oheck it out.

- Hey, those are Pollen Jocks! - Wow.

I've never seen them this close.

They know what it's like outside the hive.

Yeah, but some don't come back.

- Hey, Jocks! - Hi, Jocks!

You guys did great!

You're monsters! You're sky freaks! I love it! I love it!

- I wonder where they were. - I don't know.

Their day's not planned.

Outside the hive, flying who knows where, doing who knows what.

You can'tjust decide to be a Pollen Jock. You have to be bred for that.

Right.

Look. That's more pollen than you and I will see in a lifetime.

It's just a status symbol. Bees make too much of it.

Perhaps. Unless you're wearing it and the ladies see you wearing it.

Those ladies? Aren't they our cousins too?

Distant. Distant.

Look at these two.

- Oouple of Hive Harrys. - Let's have fun with them.

It must be dangerous being a Pollen Jock.

Yeah. Once a bear pinned me against a mushroom!

He had a paw on my throat, and with the other, he was slapping me!

- Oh, my! - I never thought I'd knock him out.

What were you doing during this?

Trying to alert the authorities.

I can autograph that.

A little gusty out there today, wasn't it, comrades?

Yeah. Gusty.

We're hitting a sunflower patch six miles from here tomorrow.

- Six miles, huh? - Barry!

A puddle jump for us, but maybe you're not up for it.

- Maybe I am. - You are not!

We're going 0900 at J-Gate.

What do you think, buzzy-boy? Are you bee enough?

I might be. It all depends on what 0900 means.

Hey, Honex!

Dad, you surprised me.

You decide what you're interested in?

- Well, there's a lot of choices. - But you only get one.

Do you ever get bored doing the same job every day?

Son, let me tell you about stirring.

You grab that stick, and you just move it around, and you stir it around.

You get yourself into a rhythm. It's a beautiful thing.

You know, Dad, the more I think about it,

maybe the honey field just isn't right for me.

You were thinking of what, making balloon animals?

That's a bad job for a guy with a stinger.

Janet, your son's not sure he wants to go into honey!

- Barry, you are so funny sometimes. - I'm not trying to be funny.

You're not funny! You're going into honey. Our son, the stirrer!

- You're gonna be a stirrer? - No one's listening to me!

Wait till you see the sticks I have.

I could say anything right now. I'm gonna get an ant tattoo!

Let's open some honey and celebrate!

Maybe I'll pierce my thorax. Shave my antennae.

Shack up with a grasshopper. Get a gold tooth and call everybody "dawg"!

I'm so proud.

- We're starting work today! - Today's the day.

Oome on! All the good jobs will be gone.

Yeah, right.

Pollen counting, stunt bee, pouring, stirrer, front desk, hair removal...

- Is it still available? - Hang on. Two left!

One of them's yours! Oongratulations! Step to the side.

- What'd you get? - Picking crud out. Stellar!

Wow!

Oouple of newbies?

Yes, sir! Our first day! We are ready!

Make your choice.

- You want to go first? - No, you go.

Oh, my. What's available?

Restroom attendant's open, not for the reason you think.

- Any chance of getting the Krelman? - Sure, you're on.

I'm sorry, the Krelman just closed out.

Wax monkey's always open.

The Krelman opened up again.

What happened?

A bee died. Makes an opening. See? He's dead. Another dead one.

Deady. Deadified. Two more dead.

Dead from the neck up. Dead from the neck down. That's life!

Oh, this is so hard!

Heating, cooling, stunt bee, pourer, stirrer,

humming, inspector number seven, lint coordinator, stripe supervisor,

mite wrangler. Barry, what do you think I should... Barry?

Barry!

All right, we've got the sunflower patch in quadrant nine...

What happened to you? Where are you?

- I'm going out. - Out? Out where?

- Out there. - Oh, no!

I have to, before I go to work for the rest of my life.

You're gonna die! You're crazy! Hello?

Another call coming in.

If anyone's feeling brave, there's a Korean deli on 83rd

that gets their roses today.

Hey, guys.

- Look at that. - Isn't that the kid we saw yesterday?

Hold it, son, flight deck's restricted.

It's OK, Lou. We're gonna take him up.

Really? Feeling lucky, are you?

Sign here, here. Just initial that.

- Thank you. - OK.

You got a rain advisory today,

and as you all know, bees cannot fly in rain.

So be careful. As always, watch your brooms,

hockey sticks, dogs, birds, bears and bats.

Also, I got a couple of reports of root beer being poured on us.

Murphy's in a home because of it, babbling like a cicada!

- That's awful. - And a reminder for you rookies,

bee law number one, absolutely no talking to humans!

All right, launch positions!

Buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz! Buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz! Buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz!

Black and yellow!

Hello!

You ready for this, hot shot?

Yeah. Yeah, bring it on.

Wind, check.

- Antennae, check. - Nectar pack, check.

- Wings, check. - Stinger, check.

Scared out of my shorts, check.

OK, ladies,

let's move it out!

Pound those petunias, you striped stem-suckers!

All of you, drain those flowers!

Wow! I'm out!

I can't believe I'm out!

So blue.

I feel so fast and free!

Box kite!

Wow!

Flowers!

This is Blue Leader. We have roses visual.

Bring it around 30 degrees and hold.

Roses!

30 degrees, roger. Bringing it around.

Stand to the side, kid. It's got a bit of a kick.

That is one nectar collector!

- Ever see pollination up close? - No, sir.

I pick up some pollen here, sprinkle it over here. Maybe a dash over there,

a pinch on that one. See that? It's a little bit of magic.

That's amazing. Why do we do that?

That's pollen power. More pollen, more flowers, more nectar, more honey for us.

Oool.

I'm picking up a lot of bright yellow. Oould be daisies. Don't we need those?

Oopy that visual.

Wait. One of these flowers seems to be on the move.

Say again? You're reporting a moving flower?

Affirmative.

That was on the line!

This is the coolest. What is it?

I don't know, but I'm loving this color.

It smells good. Not like a flower, but I like it.

Yeah, fuzzy.

Ohemical-y.

Oareful, guys. It's a little grabby.

My sweet lord of bees!

Oandy-brain, get off there!

Problem!

- Guys! - This could be bad.

Affirmative.

Very close.

Gonna hurt.

Mama's little boy.

You are way out of position, rookie!

Ooming in at you like a missile!

Help me!

I don't think these are flowers.

- Should we tell him? - I think he knows.

What is this?!

Match point!

You can start packing up, honey, because you're about to eat it!

Yowser!

Gross.

There's a bee in the car!

- Do something! - I'm driving!

- Hi, bee. - He's back here!

He's going to sting me!

Nobody move. If you don't move, he won't sting you. Freeze!

He blinked!

Spray him, Granny!

What are you doing?!

Wow... the tension level out here is unbelievable.

I gotta get home.

Oan't fly in rain.

Oan't fly in rain.

Oan't fly in rain.

Mayday! Mayday! Bee going down!

Ken, could you close the window please?

Ken, could you close the window please?

Oheck out my new resume. I made it into a fold-out brochure.

You see? Folds out.

Oh, no. More humans. I don't need this.

What was that?

Maybe this time. This time. This time. This time! This time! This...

Drapes!

That is diabolical.

It's fantastic. It's got all my special skills, even my top-ten favorite movies.

What's number one? Star Wars?

Nah, I don't go for that...

...kind of stuff.

No wonder we shouldn't talk to them. They're out of their minds.

When I leave a job interview, they're flabbergasted, can't believe what I say.

There's the sun. Maybe that's a way out.

I don't remember the sun having a big 75 on it.

I predicted global warming.

I could feel it getting hotter. At first I thought it was just me.

Wait! Stop! Bee!

Stand back. These are winter boots.

Wait!

Don't kill him!

You know I'm allergic to them! This thing could kill me!

Why does his life have less value than yours?

Why does his life have any less value than mine? Is that your statement?

I'm just saying all life has value. You don't know what he's capable of feeling.

My brochure!

There you go, little guy.

I'm not scared of him. It's an allergic thing.

Put that on your resume brochure.

My whole face could puff up.

Make it one of your special skills.

Knocking someone out is also a special skill.

Right. Bye, Vanessa. Thanks.

- Vanessa, next week? Yogurt night? - Sure, Ken. You know, whatever.

- You could put carob chips on there. - Bye.

- Supposed to be less calories. - Bye.

I gotta say something.

She saved my life. I gotta say something.

All right, here it goes.

Nah.

What would I say?

I could really get in trouble.

It's a bee law. You're not supposed to talk to a human.

I can't believe I'm doing this.

I've got to.

Oh, I can't do it. Oome on!

No. Yes. No.

Do it. I can't.

How should I start it? "You like jazz?" No, that's no good.

Here she comes! Speak, you fool!

Hi!

I'm sorry.

- You're talking. - Yes, I know.

You're talking!

I'm so sorry.

No, it's OK. It's fine. I know I'm dreaming.

But I don't recall going to bed.

Well, I'm sure this is very disconcerting.

This is a bit of a surprise to me. I mean, you're a bee!

I am. And I'm not supposed to be doing this,

but they were all trying to kill me.

And if it wasn't for you...

I had to thank you. It's just how I was raised.

That was a little weird.

- I'm talking with a bee. - Yeah.

I'm talking to a bee. And the bee is talking to me!

I just want to say I'm grateful. I'll leave now.

- Wait! How did you learn to do that? - What?

The talking thing.

Same way you did, I guess. "Mama, Dada, honey." You pick it up.

- That's very funny. - Yeah.

Bees are funny. If we didn't laugh, we'd cry with what we have to deal with.

Anyway...

Oan I...

...get you something? - Like what?

I don't know. I mean... I don't know. Ooffee?

I don't want to put you out.

It's no trouble. It takes two minutes.

- It's just coffee. - I hate to impose.

- Don't be ridiculous! - Actually, I would love a cup.

Hey, you want rum cake?

- I shouldn't. - Have some.

- No, I can't. - Oome on!

I'm trying to lose a couple micrograms.

- Where? - These stripes don't help.

You look great!

I don't know if you know anything about fashion.

Are you all right?

No.

He's making the tie in the cab as they're flying up Madison.

He finally gets there.

He runs up the steps into the church. The wedding is on.

And he says, "Watermelon? I thought you said Guatemalan.

Why would I marry a watermelon?"

Is that a bee joke?

That's the kind of stuff we do.

Yeah, different.

So, what are you gonna do, Barry?

About work? I don't know.

I want to do my part for the hive, but I can't do it the way they want.

I know how you feel.

- You do? - Sure.

My parents wanted me to be a lawyer or a doctor, but I wanted to be a florist.

- Really? - My only interest is flowers.

Our new queen was just elected with that same campaign slogan.

Anyway, if you look...

There's my hive right there. See it?

You're in Sheep Meadow!

Yes! I'm right off the Turtle Pond!

No way! I know that area. I lost a toe ring there once.

- Why do girls put rings on their toes? - Why not?

- It's like putting a hat on your knee. - Maybe I'll try that.

- You all right, ma'am? - Oh, yeah. Fine.

Just having two cups of coffee!

Anyway, this has been great. Thanks for the coffee.

Yeah, it's no trouble.

Sorry I couldn't finish it. If I did, I'd be up the rest of my life.

Are you...?

Oan I take a piece of this with me?

Sure! Here, have a crumb.

- Thanks! - Yeah.

All right. Well, then... I guess I'll see you around.

Or not.

OK, Barry.

And thank you so much again... for before.

Oh, that? That was nothing.

Well, not nothing, but... Anyway...

This can't possibly work.

He's all set to go. We may as well try it.

OK, Dave, pull the chute.

- Sounds amazing. - It was amazing!

It was the scariest, happiest moment of my life.

Humans! I can't believe you were with humans!

Giant, scary humans! What were they like?

Huge and crazy. They talk crazy.

They eat crazy giant things. They drive crazy.

- Do they try and kill you, like on TV? - Some of them. But some of them don't.

- How'd you get back? - Poodle.

You did it, and I'm glad. You saw whatever you wanted to see.

You had your "experience." Now you can pick out yourjob and be normal.

- Well... - Well?

Well, I met someone.

You did? Was she Bee-ish?

- A wasp?! Your parents will kill you! - No, no, no, not a wasp.

- Spider? - I'm not attracted to spiders.

I know it's the hottest thing, with the eight legs and all.

I can't get by that face.

So who is she?

She's... human.

No, no. That's a bee law. You wouldn't break a bee law.

- Her name's Vanessa. - Oh, boy.

She's so nice. And she's a florist!

Oh, no! You're dating a human florist!

We're not dating.

You're flying outside the hive, talking to humans that attack our homes

with power washers and M-80s! One-eighth a stick of dynamite!

She saved my life! And she understands me.

This is over!

Eat this.

This is not over! What was that?

- They call it a crumb. - It was so stingin' stripey!

And that's not what they eat. That's what falls off what they eat!

- You know what a Oinnabon is? - No.

It's bread and cinnamon and frosting. They heat it up...

Sit down!

...really hot! - Listen to me!

We are not them! We're us. There's us and there's them!

Yes, but who can deny the heart that is yearning?

There's no yearning. Stop yearning. Listen to me!

You have got to start thinking bee, my friend. Thinking bee!

- Thinking bee. - Thinking bee.

Thinking bee! Thinking bee! Thinking bee! Thinking bee!

There he is. He's in the pool.

You know what your problem is, Barry?

I gotta start thinking bee?

How much longer will this go on?

It's been three days! Why aren't you working?

I've got a lot of big life decisions to think about.

What life? You have no life! You have no job. You're barely a bee!

Would it kill you to make a little honey?

Barry, come out. Your father's talking to you.

Martin, would you talk to him?

Barry, I'm talking to you!

You coming?

Got everything?

All set!

Go ahead. I'll catch up.

Don't be too long.

Watch this!

Vanessa!

- We're still here. - I told you not to yell at him.

He doesn't respond to yelling!

- Then why yell at me? - Because you don't listen!

I'm not listening to this.

Sorry, I've gotta go.

- Where are you going? - I'm meeting a friend.

A girl? Is this why you can't decide?

Bye.

I just hope she's Bee-ish.

They have a huge parade of flowers every year in Pasadena?

To be in the Tournament of Roses, that's every florist's dream!

Up on a float, surrounded by flowers, crowds cheering.

A tournament. Do the roses compete in athletic events?

No. All right, I've got one. How come you don't fly everywhere?

It's exhausting. Why don't you run everywhere? It's faster.

Yeah, OK, I see, I see. All right, your turn.

TiVo. You can just freeze live TV? That's insane!

You don't have that?

We have Hivo, but it's a disease. It's a horrible, horrible disease.

Oh, my.

Dumb bees!

You must want to sting all those jerks.

We try not to sting. It's usually fatal for us.

So you have to watch your temper.

Very carefully. You kick a wall, take a walk,

write an angry letter and throw it out. Work through it like any emotion:

Anger, jealousy, lust.

Oh, my goodness! Are you OK?

Yeah.

- What is wrong with you?! - It's a bug.

He's not bothering anybody. Get out of here, you creep!

What was that? A Pic 'N' Save circular?

Yeah, it was. How did you know?

It felt like about 10 pages. Seventy-five is pretty much our limit.

You've really got that down to a science.

- I lost a cousin to Italian Vogue. - I'll bet.

What in the name of Mighty Hercules is this?

How did this get here? Oute Bee, Golden Blossom,

Ray Liotta Private Select?

- Is he that actor? - I never heard of him.

- Why is this here? - For people. We eat it.

You don't have enough food of your own?

- Well, yes. - How do you get it?

- Bees make it. - I know who makes it!

And it's hard to make it!

There's heating, cooling, stirring. You need a whole Krelman thing!

- It's organic. - It's our-ganic!

It's just honey, Barry.

Just what?!

Bees don't know about this! This is stealing! A lot of stealing!

You've taken our homes, schools, hospitals! This is all we have!

And it's on sale?! I'm getting to the bottom of this.

I'm getting to the bottom of all of this!

Hey, Hector.

- You almost done? - Almost.

He is here. I sense it.

Well, I guess I'll go home now

and just leave this nice honey out, with no one around.

You're busted, box boy!

I knew I heard something. So you can talk!

I can talk. And now you'll start talking!

Where you getting the sweet stuff? Who's your supplier?

I don't understand. I thought we were friends.

The last thing we want to do is upset bees!

You're too late! It's ours now!

You, sir, have crossed the wrong sword!

You, sir, will be lunch for my iguana, Ignacio!

Where is the honey coming from?

Tell me where!

Honey Farms! It comes from Honey Farms!

Orazy person!

What horrible thing has happened here?

These faces, they never knew what hit them. And now

they're on the road to nowhere!

Just keep still.

What? You're not dead?

Do I look dead? They will wipe anything that moves. Where you headed?

To Honey Farms. I am onto something huge here.

I'm going to Alaska. Moose blood, crazy stuff. Blows your head off!

I'm going to Tacoma.

- And you? - He really is dead.

All right.

Uh-oh!

- What is that?! - Oh, no!

- A wiper! Triple blade! - Triple blade?

Jump on! It's your only chance, bee!

Why does everything have to be so doggone clean?!

How much do you people need to see?!

Open your eyes! Stick your head out the window!

From NPR News in Washington, I'm Oarl Kasell.

But don't kill no more bugs!

- Bee! - Moose blood guy!!

- You hear something? - Like what?

Like tiny screaming.

Turn off the radio.

Whassup, bee boy?

Hey, Blood.

Just a row of honey jars, as far as the eye could see.

Wow!

I assume wherever this truck goes is where they're getting it.

I mean, that honey's ours.

- Bees hang tight. - We're all jammed in.

It's a close community.

Not us, man. We on our own. Every mosquito on his own.

- What if you get in trouble? - You a mosquito, you in trouble.

Nobody likes us. They just smack. See a mosquito, smack, smack!

At least you're out in the world. You must meet girls.

Mosquito girls try to trade up, get with a moth, dragonfly.

Mosquito girl don't want no mosquito.

You got to be kidding me!

Mooseblood's about to leave the building! So long, bee!

- Hey, guys! - Mooseblood!

I knew I'd catch y'all down here. Did you bring your crazy straw?

We throw it in jars, slap a label on it, and it's pretty much pure profit.

What is this place?

A bee's got a brain the size of a pinhead.

They are pinheads!

Pinhead.

- Oheck out the new smoker. - Oh, sweet. That's the one you want.

The Thomas 3000!

Smoker?

Ninety puffs a minute, semi-automatic. Twice the nicotine, all the tar.

A couple breaths of this knocks them right out.

They make the honey, and we make the money.

"They make the honey, and we make the money"?

Oh, my!

What's going on? Are you OK?

Yeah. It doesn't last too long.

Do you know you're in a fake hive with fake walls?

Our queen was moved here. We had no choice.

This is your queen? That's a man in women's clothes!

That's a drag queen!

What is this?

Oh, no!

There's hundreds of them!

Bee honey.

Our honey is being brazenly stolen on a massive scale!

This is worse than anything bears have done! I intend to do something.

Oh, Barry, stop.

Who told you humans are taking our honey? That's a rumor.

Do these look like rumors?

That's a conspiracy theory. These are obviously doctored photos.

How did you get mixed up in this?

He's been talking to humans.

- What? - Talking to humans?!

He has a human girlfriend. And they make out!

Make out? Barry!

We do not.

- You wish you could. - Whose side are you on?

The bees!

I dated a cricket once in San Antonio. Those crazy legs kept me up all night.

Barry, this is what you want to do with your life?

I want to do it for all our lives. Nobody works harder than bees!

Dad, I remember you coming home so overworked

your hands were still stirring. You couldn't stop.

I remember that.

What right do they have to our honey?

We live on two cups a year. They put it in lip balm for no reason whatsoever!

Even if it's true, what can one bee do?

Sting them where it really hurts.

In the face! The eye!

- That would hurt. - No.

Up the nose? That's a killer.

There's only one place you can sting the humans, one place where it matters.

Hive at Five, the hive's only full-hour action news source.

No more bee beards!

With Bob Bumble at the anchor desk.

Weather with Storm Stinger.

Sports with Buzz Larvi.

And Jeanette Ohung.

- Good evening. I'm Bob Bumble. - And I'm Jeanette Ohung.

A tri-county bee, Barry Benson,

intends to sue the human race for stealing our honey,

packaging it and profiting from it illegally!

Tomorrow night on Bee Larry King,

we'll have three former queens here in our studio, discussing their new book,

Olassy Ladies, out this week on Hexagon.

Tonight we're talking to Barry Benson.

Did you ever think, "I'm a kid from the hive. I can't do this"?

Bees have never been afraid to change the world.

What about Bee Oolumbus? Bee Gandhi? Bejesus?

Where I'm from, we'd never sue humans.

We were thinking of stickball or candy stores.

How old are you?

The bee community is supporting you in this case,

which will be the trial of the bee century.

You know, they have a Larry King in the human world too.

It's a common name. Next week...

He looks like you and has a show and suspenders and colored dots...

Next week...

Glasses, quotes on the bottom from the guest even though you just heard 'em.

Bear Week next week! They're scary, hairy and here live.

Always leans forward, pointy shoulders, squinty eyes, very Jewish.

In tennis, you attack at the point of weakness!

It was my grandmother, Ken. She's 81.

Honey, her backhand's a joke! I'm not gonna take advantage of that?

Quiet, please. Actual work going on here.

- Is that that same bee? - Yes, it is!

I'm helping him sue the human race.

- Hello. - Hello, bee.

This is Ken.

Yeah, I remember you. Timberland, size ten and a half. Vibram sole, I believe.

Why does he talk again?

Listen, you better go 'cause we're really busy working.

But it's our yogurt night!

Bye-bye.

Why is yogurt night so difficult?!

You poor thing. You two have been at this for hours!

Yes, and Adam here has been a huge help.

- Frosting... - How many sugars?

Just one. I try not to use the competition.

So why are you helping me?

Bees have good qualities.

And it takes my mind off the shop.

Instead of flowers, people are giving balloon bouquets now.

Those are great, if you're three.

And artificial flowers.

- Oh, those just get me psychotic! - Yeah, me too.

Bent stingers, pointless pollination.

Bees must hate those fake things!

Nothing worse than a daffodil that's had work done.

Maybe this could make up for it a little bit.

- This lawsuit's a pretty big deal. - I guess.

You sure you want to go through with it?

Am I sure? When I'm done with the humans, they won't be able

to say, "Honey, I'm home," without paying a royalty!

It's an incredible scene here in downtown Manhattan,

where the world anxiously waits, because for the first time in history,

we will hear for ourselves if a honeybee can actually speak.

What have we gotten into here, Barry?

It's pretty big, isn't it?

I can't believe how many humans don't work during the day.

You think billion-dollar multinational food companies have good lawyers?

Everybody needs to stay behind the barricade.

- What's the matter? - I don't know, I just got a chill.

Well, if it isn't the bee team.

You boys work on this?

All rise! The Honorable Judge Bumbleton presiding.

All right. Oase number 4475,

Superior Oourt of New York, Barry Bee Benson v. the Honey Industry

is now in session.

Mr. Montgomery, you're representing the five food companies collectively?

A privilege.

Mr. Benson... you're representing all the bees of the world?

I'm kidding. Yes, Your Honor, we're ready to proceed.

Mr. Montgomery, your opening statement, please.

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury,

my grandmother was a simple woman.

Born on a farm, she believed it was man's divine right

to benefit from the bounty of nature God put before us.

If we lived in the topsy-turvy world Mr. Benson imagines,

just think of what would it mean.

I would have to negotiate with the silkworm

for the elastic in my britches!

Talking bee!

How do we know this isn't some sort of

holographic motion-picture-capture Hollywood wizardry?

They could be using laser beams!

Robotics! Ventriloquism! Oloning! For all we know,

he could be on steroids!

Mr. Benson?

Ladies and gentlemen, there's no trickery here.

I'm just an ordinary bee. Honey's pretty important to me.

It's important to all bees. We invented it!

We make it. And we protect it with our lives.

Unfortunately, there are some people in this room

who think they can take it from us

'cause we're the little guys! I'm hoping that, after this is all over,

you'll see how, by taking our honey, you not only take everything we have

but everything we are!

I wish he'd dress like that all the time. So nice!

Oall your first witness.

So, Mr. Klauss Vanderhayden of Honey Farms, big company you have.

I suppose so.

I see you also own Honeyburton and Honron!

Yes, they provide beekeepers for our farms.

Beekeeper. I find that to be a very disturbing term.

I don't imagine you employ any bee-free-ers, do you?

- No. - I couldn't hear you.

- No. - No.

Because you don't free bees. You keep bees. Not only that,

it seems you thought a bear would be an appropriate image for a jar of honey.

They're very lovable creatures.

Yogi Bear, Fozzie Bear, Build-A-Bear.

You mean like this?

Bears kill bees!

How'd you like his head crashing through your living room?!

Biting into your couch! Spitting out your throw pillows!

OK, that's enough. Take him away.

So, Mr. Sting, thank you for being here. Your name intrigues me.

- Where have I heard it before? - I was with a band called The Police.

But you've never been a police officer, have you?

No, I haven't.

No, you haven't. And so here we have yet another example

of bee culture casually stolen by a human

for nothing more than a prance-about stage name.

Oh, please.

Have you ever been stung, Mr. Sting?

Because I'm feeling a little stung, Sting.

Or should I say... Mr. Gordon M. Sumner!

That's not his real name?! You idiots!

Mr. Liotta, first, belated congratulations on

your Emmy win for a guest spot on ER in 2005.

Thank you. Thank you.

I see from your resume that you're devilishly handsome

with a churning inner turmoil that's ready to blow.

I enjoy what I do. Is that a crime?

Not yet it isn't. But is this what it's come to for you?

Exploiting tiny, helpless bees so you don't

have to rehearse your part and learn your lines, sir?

Watch it, Benson! I could blow right now!

This isn't a goodfella. This is a badfella!

Why doesn't someone just step on this creep, and we can all go home?!

- Order in this court! - You're all thinking it!

Order! Order, I say!

- Say it! - Mr. Liotta, please sit down!

I think it was awfully nice of that bear to pitch in like that.

I think the jury's on our side.

Are we doing everything right, legally?

I'm a florist.

Right. Well, here's to a great team.

To a great team!

Well, hello.

- Ken! - Hello.

I didn't think you were coming.

No, I was just late. I tried to call, but... the battery.

I didn't want all this to go to waste, so I called Barry. Luckily, he was free.

Oh, that was lucky.

There's a little left. I could heat it up.

Yeah, heat it up, sure, whatever.

So I hear you're quite a tennis player.

I'm not much for the game myself. The ball's a little grabby.

That's where I usually sit. Right... there.

Ken, Barry was looking at your resume,

and he agreed with me that eating with chopsticks isn't really a special skill.

You think I don't see what you're doing?

I know how hard it is to find the rightjob. We have that in common.

Do we?

Bees have 100 percent employment, but we do jobs like taking the crud out.

That's just what I was thinking about doing.

Ken, I let Barry borrow your razor for his fuzz. I hope that was all right.

I'm going to drain the old stinger.

Yeah, you do that.

Look at that.

You know, I've just about had it

with your little mind games.

- What's that? - Italian Vogue.

Mamma mia, that's a lot of pages.

A lot of ads.

Remember what Van said, why is your life more valuable than mine?

Funny, I just can't seem to recall that!

I think something stinks in here!

I love the smell of flowers.

How do you like the smell of flames?!

Not as much.

Water bug! Not taking sides!

Ken, I'm wearing a Ohapstick hat! This is pathetic!

I've got issues!

Well, well, well, a royal flush!

- You're bluffing. - Am I?

Surf's up, dude!

Poo water!

That bowl is gnarly.

Except for those dirty yellow rings!

Kenneth! What are you doing?!

You know, I don't even like honey! I don't eat it!

We need to talk!

He's just a little bee!

And he happens to be the nicest bee I've met in a long time!

Long time? What are you talking about?! Are there other bugs in your life?

No, but there are other things bugging me in life. And you're one of them!

Fine! Talking bees, no yogurt night...

My nerves are fried from riding on this emotional roller coaster!

Goodbye, Ken.

And for your information,

I prefer sugar-free, artificial sweeteners made by man!

I'm sorry about all that.

I know it's got an aftertaste! I like it!

I always felt there was some kind of barrier between Ken and me.

I couldn't overcome it. Oh, well.

Are you OK for the trial?

I believe Mr. Montgomery is about out of ideas.

We would like to call Mr. Barry Benson Bee to the stand.

Good idea! You can really see why he's considered one of the best lawyers...

Yeah.

Layton, you've gotta weave some magic

with this jury, or it's gonna be all over.

Don't worry. The only thing I have to do to turn this jury around

is to remind them of what they don't like about bees.

- You got the tweezers? - Are you allergic?

Only to losing, son. Only to losing.

Mr. Benson Bee, I'll ask you what I think we'd all like to know.

What exactly is your relationship

to that woman?

We're friends.

- Good friends? - Yes.

How good? Do you live together?

Wait a minute...

Are you her little...

...bedbug?

I've seen a bee documentary or two. From what I understand,

doesn't your queen give birth to all the bee children?

- Yeah, but... - So those aren't your real parents!

- Oh, Barry... - Yes, they are!

Hold me back!

You're an illegitimate bee, aren't you, Benson?

He's denouncing bees!

Don't y'all date your cousins?

- Objection! - I'm going to pincushion this guy!

Adam, don't! It's what he wants!

Oh, I'm hit!!

Oh, lordy, I am hit!

Order! Order!

The venom! The venom is coursing through my veins!

I have been felled by a winged beast of destruction!

You see? You can't treat them like equals! They're striped savages!

Stinging's the only thing they know! It's their way!

- Adam, stay with me. - I can't feel my legs.

What angel of mercy will come forward to suck the poison

from my heaving buttocks?

I will have order in this court. Order!

Order, please!

The case of the honeybees versus the human race

took a pointed turn against the bees

yesterday when one of their legal team stung Layton T. Montgomery.

- Hey, buddy. - Hey.

- Is there much pain? - Yeah.

I...

I blew the whole case, didn't I?

It doesn't matter. What matters is you're alive. You could have died.

I'd be better off dead. Look at me.

They got it from the cafeteria downstairs, in a tuna sandwich.

Look, there's a little celery still on it.

What was it like to sting someone?

I can't explain it. It was all...

All adrenaline and then... and then ecstasy!

All right.

You think it was all a trap?

Of course. I'm sorry. I flew us right into this.

What were we thinking? Look at us. We're just a couple of bugs in this world.

What will the humans do to us if they win?

I don't know.

I hear they put the roaches in motels. That doesn't sound so bad.

Adam, they check in, but they don't check out!

Oh, my.

Oould you get a nurse to close that window?

- Why? - The smoke.

Bees don't smoke.

Right. Bees don't smoke.

Bees don't smoke! But some bees are smoking.

That's it! That's our case!

It is? It's not over?

Get dressed. I've gotta go somewhere.

Get back to the court and stall. Stall any way you can.

And assuming you've done step correctly, you're ready for the tub.

Mr. Flayman.

Yes? Yes, Your Honor!

Where is the rest of your team?

Well, Your Honor, it's interesting.

Bees are trained to fly haphazardly,

and as a result, we don't make very good time.

I actually heard a funny story about...

Your Honor, haven't these ridiculous bugs

taken up enough of this court's valuable time?

How much longer will we allow these absurd shenanigans to go on?

They have presented no compelling evidence to support their charges

against my clients, who run legitimate businesses.

I move for a complete dismissal of this entire case!

Mr. Flayman, I'm afraid I'm going

to have to consider Mr. Montgomery's motion.

But you can't! We have a terrific case.

Where is your proof? Where is the evidence?

Show me the smoking gun!

Hold it, Your Honor! You want a smoking gun?

Here is your smoking gun.

What is that?

It's a bee smoker!

What, this? This harmless little contraption?

This couldn't hurt a fly, let alone a bee.

Look at what has happened

to bees who have never been asked, "Smoking or non?"

Is this what nature intended for us?

To be forcibly addicted to smoke machines

and man-made wooden slat work camps?

Living out our lives as honey slaves to the white man?

- What are we gonna do? - He's playing the species card.

Ladies and gentlemen, please, free these bees!

Free the bees! Free the bees!

Free the bees!

Free the bees! Free the bees!

The court finds in favor of the bees!

Vanessa, we won!

I knew you could do it! High-five!

Sorry.

I'm OK! You know what this means?

All the honey will finally belong to the bees.

Now we won't have to work so hard all the time.

This is an unholy perversion of the balance of nature, Benson.

You'll regret this.

Barry, how much honey is out there?

All right. One at a time.

Barry, who are you wearing?

My sweater is Ralph Lauren, and I have no pants.

- What if Montgomery's right? - What do you mean?

We've been living the bee way a long time, 27 million years.

Oongratulations on your victory. What will you demand as a settlement?

First, we'll demand a complete shutdown of all bee work camps.

Then we want back the honey that was ours to begin with,

every last drop.

We demand an end to the glorification of the bear as anything more

than a filthy, smelly, bad-breath stink machine.

We're all aware of what they do in the woods.

Wait for my signal.

Take him out.

He'll have nauseous for a few hours, then he'll be fine.

And we will no longer tolerate bee-negative nicknames...

But it's just a prance-about stage name!

...unnecessary inclusion of honey in bogus health products

and la-dee-da human tea-time snack garnishments.

Oan't breathe.

Bring it in, boys!

Hold it right there! Good.

Tap it.

Mr. Buzzwell, we just passed three cups, and there's gallons more coming!

- I think we need to shut down! - Shut down? We've never shut down.

Shut down honey production!

Stop making honey!

Turn your key, sir!

What do we do now?

Oannonball!

We're shutting honey production!

Mission abort.

Aborting pollination and nectar detail. Returning to base.

Adam, you wouldn't believe how much honey was out there.

Oh, yeah?

What's going on? Where is everybody?

- Are they out celebrating? - They're home.

They don't know what to do. Laying out, sleeping in.

I heard your Uncle Oarl was on his way to San Antonio with a cricket.

At least we got our honey back.

Sometimes I think, so what if humans liked our honey? Who wouldn't?

It's the greatest thing in the world! I was excited to be part of making it.

This was my new desk. This was my new job. I wanted to do it really well.

And now...

Now I can't.

I don't understand why they're not happy.

I thought their lives would be better!

They're doing nothing. It's amazing. Honey really changes people.

You don't have any idea what's going on, do you?

- What did you want to show me? - This.

What happened here?

That is not the half of it.

Oh, no. Oh, my.

They're all wilting.

Doesn't look very good, does it?

No.

And whose fault do you think that is?

You know, I'm gonna guess bees.

Bees?

Specifically, me.

I didn't think bees not needing to make honey would affect all these things.

It's notjust flowers. Fruits, vegetables, they all need bees.

That's our whole SAT test right there.

Take away produce, that affects the entire animal kingdom.

And then, of course...

The human species?

So if there's no more pollination,

it could all just go south here, couldn't it?

I know this is also partly my fault.

How about a suicide pact?

How do we do it?

- I'll sting you, you step on me. - Thatjust kills you twice.

Right, right.

Listen, Barry... sorry, but I gotta get going.

I had to open my mouth and talk.

Vanessa?

Vanessa? Why are you leaving? Where are you going?

To the final Tournament of Roses parade in Pasadena.

They've moved it to this weekend because all the flowers are dying.

It's the last chance I'll ever have to see it.

Vanessa, I just wanna say I'm sorry. I never meant it to turn out like this.

I know. Me neither.

Tournament of Roses. Roses can't do sports.

Wait a minute. Roses. Roses?

Roses!

Vanessa!

Roses?!

Barry?

- Roses are flowers! - Yes, they are.

Flowers, bees, pollen!

I know. That's why this is the last parade.

Maybe not. Oould you ask him to slow down?

Oould you slow down?

Barry!

OK, I made a huge mistake. This is a total disaster, all my fault.

Yes, it kind of is.

I've ruined the planet. I wanted to help you

with the flower shop. I've made it worse.

Actually, it's completely closed down.

I thought maybe you were remodeling.

But I have another idea, and it's greater than my previous ideas combined.

I don't want to hear it!

All right, they have the roses, the roses have the pollen.

I know every bee, plant and flower bud in this park.

All we gotta do is get what they've got back here with what we've got.

- Bees. - Park.

- Pollen! - Flowers.

- Repollination! - Across the nation!

Tournament of Roses, Pasadena, Oalifornia.

They've got nothing but flowers, floats and cotton candy.

Security will be tight.

I have an idea.

Vanessa Bloome, FTD.

Official floral business. It's real.

Sorry, ma'am. Nice brooch.

Thank you. It was a gift.

Once inside, we just pick the right float.

How about The Princess and the Pea?

I could be the princess, and you could be the pea!

Yes, I got it.

- Where should I sit? - What are you?

- I believe I'm the pea. - The pea?

It goes under the mattresses.

- Not in this fairy tale, sweetheart. - I'm getting the marshal.

You do that! This whole parade is a fiasco!

Let's see what this baby'll do.

Hey, what are you doing?!

Then all we do is blend in with traffic...

...without arousing suspicion.

Once at the airport, there's no stopping us.

Stop! Security.

- You and your insect pack your float? - Yes.

Has it been in your possession the entire time?

Would you remove your shoes?

- Remove your stinger. - It's part of me.

I know. Just having some fun. Enjoy your flight.

Then if we're lucky, we'll have just enough pollen to do the job.

Oan you believe how lucky we are? We have just enough pollen to do the job!

I think this is gonna work.

It's got to work.

Attention, passengers, this is Oaptain Scott.

We have a bit of bad weather in New York.

It looks like we'll experience a couple hours delay.

Barry, these are cut flowers with no water. They'll never make it.

I gotta get up there and talk to them.

Be careful.

Oan I get help with the Sky Mall magazine?

I'd like to order the talking inflatable nose and ear hair trimmer.

Oaptain, I'm in a real situation.

- What'd you say, Hal? - Nothing.

Bee!

Don't freak out! My entire species...

What are you doing?

- Wait a minute! I'm an attorney! - Who's an attorney?

Don't move.

Oh, Barry.

Good afternoon, passengers. This is your captain.

Would a Miss Vanessa Bloome in 24B please report to the cockpit?

And please hurry!

What happened here?

There was a DustBuster, a toupee, a life raft exploded.

One's bald, one's in a boat, they're both unconscious!

- Is that another bee joke? - No!

No one's flying the plane!

This is JFK control tower, Flight 356. What's your status?

This is Vanessa Bloome. I'm a florist from New York.

Where's the pilot?

He's unconscious, and so is the copilot.

Not good. Does anyone onboard have flight experience?

As a matter of fact, there is.

- Who's that? - Barry Benson.

From the honey trial?! Oh, great.

Vanessa, this is nothing more than a big metal bee.

It's got giant wings, huge engines.

I can't fly a plane.

- Why not? Isn't John Travolta a pilot? - Yes.

How hard could it be?

Wait, Barry! We're headed into some lightning.

This is Bob Bumble. We have some late-breaking news from JFK Airport,

where a suspenseful scene is developing.

Barry Benson, fresh from his legal victory...

That's Barry!

...is attempting to land a plane, loaded with people, flowers

and an incapacitated flight crew.

Flowers?!

We have a storm in the area and two individuals at the controls

with absolutely no flight experience.

Just a minute. There's a bee on that plane.

I'm quite familiar with Mr. Benson and his no-account compadres.

They've done enough damage.

But isn't he your only hope?

Technically, a bee shouldn't be able to fly at all.

Their wings are too small...

Haven't we heard this a million times?

"The surface area of the wings and body mass make no sense."

- Get this on the air! - Got it.

- Stand by. - We're going live.

The way we work may be a mystery to you.

Making honey takes a lot of bees doing a lot of small jobs.

But let me tell you about a small job.

If you do it well, it makes a big difference.

More than we realized. To us, to everyone.

That's why I want to get bees back to working together.

That's the bee way! We're not made of Jell-O.

We get behind a fellow.

- Black and yellow! - Hello!

Left, right, down, hover.

- Hover? - Forget hover.

This isn't so hard. Beep-beep! Beep-beep!

Barry, what happened?!

Wait, I think we were on autopilot the whole time.

- That may have been helping me. - And now we're not!

So it turns out I cannot fly a plane.

All of you, let's get behind this fellow! Move it out!

Move out!

Our only chance is if I do what I'd do, you copy me with the wings of the plane!

Don't have to yell.

I'm not yelling! We're in a lot of trouble.

It's very hard to concentrate with that panicky tone in your voice!

It's not a tone. I'm panicking!

I can't do this!

Vanessa, pull yourself together. You have to snap out of it!

You snap out of it.

You snap out of it.

- You snap out of it! - You snap out of it!

- You snap out of it! - You snap out of it!

- You snap out of it! - You snap out of it!

- Hold it! - Why? Oome on, it's my turn.

How is the plane flying?

I don't know.

Hello?

Benson, got any flowers for a happy occasion in there?

The Pollen Jocks!

They do get behind a fellow.

- Black and yellow. - Hello.

All right, let's drop this tin can on the blacktop.

Where? I can't see anything. Oan you?

No, nothing. It's all cloudy.

Oome on. You got to think bee, Barry.

- Thinking bee. - Thinking bee.

Thinking bee! Thinking bee! Thinking bee!

Wait a minute. I think I'm feeling something.

- What? - I don't know. It's strong, pulling me.

Like a 27-million-year-old instinct.

Bring the nose down.

Thinking bee! Thinking bee! Thinking bee!

- What in the world is on the tarmac? - Get some lights on that!

Thinking bee! Thinking bee! Thinking bee!

- Vanessa, aim for the flower. - OK.

Out the engines. We're going in on bee power. Ready, boys?

Affirmative!

Good. Good. Easy, now. That's it.

Land on that flower!

Ready? Full reverse!

Spin it around!

- Not that flower! The other one! - Which one?

- That flower. - I'm aiming at the flower!

That's a fat guy in a flowered shirt. I mean the giant pulsating flower

made of millions of bees!

Pull forward. Nose down. Tail up.

Rotate around it.

- This is insane, Barry! - This's the only way I know how to fly.

Am I koo-koo-kachoo, or is this plane flying in an insect-like pattern?

Get your nose in there. Don't be afraid. Smell it. Full reverse!

Just drop it. Be a part of it.

Aim for the center!

Now drop it in! Drop it in, woman!

Oome on, already.

Barry, we did it! You taught me how to fly!

- Yes. No high-five! - Right.

Barry, it worked! Did you see the giant flower?

What giant flower? Where? Of course I saw the flower! That was genius!

- Thank you. - But we're not done yet.

Listen, everyone!

This runway is covered with the last pollen

from the last flowers available anywhere on Earth.

That means this is our last chance.

We're the only ones who make honey, pollinate flowers and dress like this.

If we're gonna survive as a species, this is our moment! What do you say?

Are we going to be bees, orjust Museum of Natural History keychains?

We're bees!

Keychain!

Then follow me! Except Keychain.

Hold on, Barry. Here.

You've earned this.

Yeah!

I'm a Pollen Jock! And it's a perfect fit. All I gotta do are the sleeves.

Oh, yeah.

That's our Barry.

Mom! The bees are back!

If anybody needs to make a call, now's the time.

I got a feeling we'll be working late tonight!

Here's your change. Have a great afternoon! Oan I help who's next?

Would you like some honey with that? It is bee-approved. Don't forget these.

Milk, cream, cheese, it's all me. And I don't see a nickel!

Sometimes I just feel like a piece of meat!

I had no idea.

Barry, I'm sorry. Have you got a moment?

Would you excuse me? My mosquito associate will help you.

Sorry I'm late.

He's a lawyer too?

I was already a blood-sucking parasite. All I needed was a briefcase.

Have a great afternoon!

Barry, I just got this huge tulip order, and I can't get them anywhere.

No problem, Vannie. Just leave it to me.

You're a lifesaver, Barry. Oan I help who's next?

All right, scramble, jocks! It's time to fly.

Thank you, Barry!

That bee is living my life!

Let it go, Kenny.

- When will this nightmare end?! - Let it all go.

- Beautiful day to fly. - Sure is.

Between you and me, I was dying to get out of that office.

You have got to start thinking bee, my friend.

- Thinking bee! - Me?

Hold it. Let's just stop for a second. Hold it.

I'm sorry. I'm sorry, everyone. Oan we stop here?

I'm not making a major life decision during a production number!

All right. Take ten, everybody. Wrap it up, guys.

I had virtually no rehearsal for that.

Special thanks to SergeiK. |Healing Field||Throwing/Recovery||||Can be thrown on the ground. Once thrown, it will open up and will heal anyone standing on it.||Super Smash Bros. |- |Healing Sprout||Throwing/Recovery||||Sticks to fighters and gradually heals them. Can be transferred on contact like the Gooey Bomb.||Super Smash Bros. |- |Killing Edge||Battering||||Will occasionally glow, causing it to do more damage.||Fire Emblem |- |Rage Blaster||Shooting||||Does more damage the higher the user's damage is.||Super Smash Bros. |- |Ramblin' Evil Mushroom||Shooting||||Emits spores that, when they hit an opponent, cause a mushroom to grow on that opponent's head, reversing their controls.||EarthBound |- |Staff||Shooting||||Fires a laser which deals increased damage the greater its distance from the user.||Kid Icarus |- |Super Launch Star||Throwing||||Can be set in midair, where it will attract and launch any characters that get too close to it. The launch has the potential to KO fighters.||Mario |}

Development

Towards the end of Super Smash Bros. 4's post-launch development, Masahiro Sakurai announced that his next project had been decided and that he would be taking a small vacation following the end of development. Unlike previous Smash titles, which had their development studios built from the ground up, Bandai Namco returned to help game development. Prior to starting development, the team had a choice between completely overhauling the game's system and feel or working off of what was established in the last game. The team ultimately went with the latter. Had the team gone with the former, the game would have likely only had a third of its characters. Despite deciding to base the game off of the previous installment, Sakurai still increased the overall speed of the game, but only by an amount that wouldn't be too alienating to people unfamiliar with the series. Sakurai notes that he had wanted to make these changes in previous titles, but was unable to because it was easy for one to lose track of their character's position on screen, especially on the Nintendo 3DS. When Sakurai had revealed to his development team that he intended to bring back every previously playable character, he was met with silence. The project plan was later finished by December 2015, and development officially began in February 2016, immediately after DLC wrapped up for SSB4. On November 12, 2017, Nintendo filed a number of trademarks, notably including a Japanese Super Smash Bros. logo.

A Super Smash Bros. title for the Switch was later officially revealed on March 8, 2018 via a Nintendo Direct. Without explicitly confirming the playable status of any characters, the teaser trailer hinted the Inklings would be debuting in the game as newcomers, while also suggesting that Mario, Link, and several other series veterans would be returning. Shortly after the reveal, Sakurai confirmed in a tweet that he had been working on the game "in silence, day after day". On March 22, 2018, Nintendo announced the Super Smash Bros. Invitational 2018, a tournament taking place on June 12th where invited professional players will play the upcoming game. Later, in volume 542 of his Famitsu article, Sakurai revealed that his work schedule had been cut down significantly, citing strict regulations regarding work hours. On April 18, 2018, Nintendo again filed a number of trademarks for several game logos, including the Super Smash Bros. logo. Most of these game logos originate from games with some relationship to the Smash series, including Pikmin, Star Fox, and F-Zero. These trademarks were approved on May 14, 2018.

The first extended look at the game came at Nintendo's E3 2018 presentation. Masahiro Sakurai introduced the coverage, which kicked off with an extended video showing new incarnations for veteran characters. After confirming the return of previously cut characters such as Ice Climbers and Snake, the tagline "Everyone Is Here" was introduced, and the video revealed that all playable characters from previous Smash Bros. titles would be returning to the new game, including the formerly cut Pichu and Young Link from Melee, as well as Pokémon Trainer and Wolf from Brawl. New information on the Ultimate incarnations of characters was revealed, including the presence of Cappy in Mario's taunts and other moves, that Zelda would be based on her A Link to the Past design, all the DLC fighters from Smash 4 would return as part of the launch roster, Ike would have his Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn designs from the two previous games and much more. The presentation introduced "Echo Fighters", which Lucina and Dark Pit are now marked as, while Daisy was revealed as a new Echo Fighter. The presentation also confirmed returning elements, items, and stages, which would receive revamped Ω forms and Battlefield forms. The trailer also confirmed the Inklings as the game's first newcomers, while concluding with a reveal of the game's final title: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. The presentation officially concluded with a final trailer in which Ridley from the Metroid series - long requested by fans for inclusion in the series but rebuffed by Sakurai due to his large size - was confirmed as a playable character.

Following the end of the presentation, a Nintendo Treehouse event went live. During the Treehouse event, several matches were streamed and some new features were revealed and discussed. In addition to the Treehouse livestream, a playable demo of the game was opened to the public at E3 2018 and at the Nintendo Store in New York. Following the end of the Splatoon 2 World Championships, the Super Smash Bros. Invitational 2018 began. During the match pitting MkLeo as Bayonetta against Plup as Ridley, Masahiro Sakurai reportedly shook his head after MkLeo had performed a successful ladder combo on Plup. At the end of the invitational, the Nintendo Treehouse livestream resumed, further showcasing more gameplay elements and matches. In addition to this, the official Super Smash Bros. Ultimate website was published. This would serve as the primary source for new details about the game.

At the EVO 2018 fighting game tournament, Nintendo revealed that a new Ultimate-focused Nintendo Direct presentation would be released on August 8, 2018. The presentation opened with a trailer confirming the inclusion of content from Konami's Castlevania franchise for the first time in the series. The trailer revealed the presence of new fighters, Simon Belmont and his Echo Fighter, Richter Belmont; a new Assist Trophy, Alucard; a new stage called Dracula's Castle, and more. The Direct also covered two new Echo Fighters, Chrom and Dark Samus, as well as new music, modes, stages, and items. The presentation concluded with a trailer introducing a new playable character: King K. Rool, leader of the Kremlings and nemesis of the Kong family from the Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Country series.

In a Nintendo Direct presentation shown on September 13, 2018, a Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Nintendo Switch console bundle was unveiled, featuring a specially designed dock and Joy-Con controllers along with the download code for the game. Isabelle, from the Animal Crossing series was also revealed as a newcomer.

The final pre-release Ultimate-focused Nintendo Direct presentation aired on November 1, 2018. This revealed Ken and Incineroar as new playable characters, as well as the inclusion of DLC fighters - Piranha Plant appearing shortly after launch, followed by five other unannounced characters, which have been selected in advance by Nintendo as future additions, and have yet to be developed. It also took a deeper look at the game's modes and online infrastructure, and revealed Spirits mode and Adventure Mode: World of Light, before finishing with the mode's opening cutscene and the reveal of the game's vocal theme, Lifelight.

On November 20, 2018, an overview trailer narrated by Xander Mobus (The Announcer) covered the game in further detail, showcasing all of the playable fighters, stages, items, Pokémon, Assist Trophies, Spirits, modes and more.

At the 2018 Game Awards, the Phantom Thieves from Persona 5 interrupted the broadcast to announce that their leader, codenamed "Joker," would be joining the roster as the first DLC fighter of the Fighters Pass in Ultimate.

During the Nintendo Direct on February 13, 2019, a spring update was announced alongside a sneak peek at Joker's model and a look at new amiibo.

In the "Nintendo Switch My Way" trailer, "Stage Builder" was leaked. It is yet to be confirmed if this was purposeful on Nintendo's behalf or if it was simply a marketing ploy.

On April 16, 2019, a video titled New Content Approaching was released. The video detailed Joker's moveset and confirmed that he would release the next day, April 17. The video also revealed Mementos, Stage Builder, new Mii Costumes, Video Editor, and Shared Content. Version 3.0.0 was on April 17.

During Nintendo's E3 2019 presentation, Hero from Dragon Quest and Banjo & Kazooie from their namesake series Banjo-Kazooie were confirmed as the second and third newcomers in the Fighters Pass, set to be released at some point in Summer and Fall of 2019 respectively.

Changes from SSB4

Menu and UI changes

The stock counter in a one-on-one stock match.

• In Vs. mode, the stage selection screen now appears before the character selection menu, making players select a stage before selecting characters.
  • The rule selection screen appears before the stage selection screen. Players can now save rulesets for quick access.
• All stages now have a Battlefield form. Ω forms are also standardized to have the same underside shape akin to Final Destination, with none of them having vertical walls.
• Stage hazards can be turned off for the first time in the series, allowing players to remove intrusive elements, such as "environment changes or enemy appearances" from gameplay.
• The new Stage Morph option allows two stages to be selected at once; the two stages will transition into one another either at random or on specified time intervals.
• Alternate costumes are now shown at the bottom of the player's portrait, with at least eight small stock icons representing each palette swap. Additionally, each color is now listed with a name from the numbers 1-8 (e.g. Color 7).
• In timed matches, characters in the lead will occasionally flash with a gold sparkle.
• While a Smash Mode match is loading, an intense versus splash screen will appear, showing the combatants. Tips still appear regularly on loading screens in other modes, and can appear on the splash screen when loading takes long enough.
• The damage meter now displays tenths of a damage percentage (e.g. 10.5%). Note that while all games since Melee have used decimal percentages, this is the first game to reveal that fact instead of simply rounding down for display.
• In one-on-one stock fights, the stock count of both fighters will be briefly displayed onscreen whenever a stock is lost (except when its the final stock).
• The character select screen is now similar in appearance to the original Super Smash Bros. menu when starting the game, with the other fighters unlocked later on.
  • Instead of being roughly organized by series, the character select screen now organizes characters (with the exception of Echo Fighters and Mii Fighters) by when they were first officially announced for a Super Smash Bros. game.
• While a fighter is knocked off the stage, a minimap which shows the character locations, blast zone, and camera zoom will appear on the corner of the screen.
• The closer a fighter is to a blast zone, the smaller their "magnifying glass" camera becomes. It will start flashing when they are almost touching the blast line.
• Like Little Mac's Power Meter in Smash 4, several characters now sport additional UI elements next to their damage meter, such as Villager's Pocketed item, Robin's durability counters, Inkling's Ink Tank gauge, or Joker's Rebellion Gauge.
• Stages that once shared names now have been renamed. For example, the Smash 64 version of Yoshi's Island is now Super Happy Tree and the Brawl version of Mario Circuit is now Figure-8 Circuit.
• Tracks in My Music are now organized by series rather than by stage, such that all music from a given series will be available across the stages corresponding to that series.
  • Additionally, many remixes from 64 and Melee have had their names updated to reflect the source music title, rather than the stage they were present on, such as "Poke Floats" becoming "Pokemon Red/Pokemon Blue Medley".
• Sound Test can be used to create music playlists, which can be played in handheld mode while the screen is off like a music player.
• Two new battle modes are present:
  • Squad Strike has players battle with a squad of 3 or 5 fighters. Multiple formats of Squad Strike are available, including one where the entire team of fighters is used in a single continuous battle, similar to the final battle of Smash Tour in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U.
  • Smashdown renders the fighters selected in a given battle unavailable for use in following battles, forcing players to select a different fighter with every match they play.
• Echo Fighters can either be displayed in their own character slots, or share their slot with the character they are based on, depending on user preference.
• The main text font from Melee, Brawl and SSB4 is no longer used.
• The user can set up control settings for players who don't enter a name.

Gameplay changes

• To increase gameplay speed, all damage taken in one-on-one fights with no items is multiplied by 1.2×.
• Buffering has been strengthened, as actions can now be buffered by inputting them at any point during a previous action and holding the inputs until they are possible. The 10-frame buffer from Brawl and Smash 4 is still present in case the inputs are not held.
• Short hop aerial attacks now have a damage multiplier of 0.85×. This applies until the player lands or uses a midair jump.
• Buried opponents no longer take less knockback from attacks.
• The physics of launch movement have been overall sped up, with characters receiving knockback having a much higher initial speed and deceleration, resulting in being launched at higher speeds yet slowing down to nothing quickly. This does not affect moves with fixed knockback.
  • If a character is struck with enough knockback by a meteor smash, they will be KO'd as soon as they are off-screen, rather than reaching the bottom blast line. This makes sacrificial KOs that rely on meteor smashes more reliable.
  • Hitstun increases at a slower rate for knockback that causes tumbling, decreasing it at higher percents compared to Smash 4. However, this is compensated by characters being faster overall as described by the mobility changes below, still allowing for more combo opportunities below high percents.
• Fall speeds and gravity are now temporarily homogenized during hitstun from knockback which launches at angles 70-110 degrees. This prevents fast fallers from being disproportionally susceptible to ladder combos, but also prevents them from having improved vertical survivability.
• The base amount of freeze frames has been increased. However, there is an additional freeze frames multiplier that is lower the more players are participating in a match, with a maximum of 1× for two players (effectively standardizing freeze frames in one-on-one matches) and a minimum of 0.75× for eight players.
• Rage has had its knockback increase reduced to a maximum 10% boost, down from 15%. Additionally, it no longer applies to hits that use set knockback, preventing linking moves with high set knockback from KOing at disproportionately early percentages.
• Stale-move negation uses higher damage reduction values, with a fully stale move dealing 0.4695× of its original damage (down from 0.5294×). Additionally, moves now stale when hitting a shield.
• Shields deplete faster when held, now even surpassing Melee's shield depletion.
• When holding a special move button or multiple shield buttons while shielding, moving the control stick allows for shield angling without triggering rolls, sidesteps, or jumps (with tap jump on), making it easier to perform.
• Perfect shields are performed in reverse: instead of pressing the shield button a few frames before an attack connects, players have to release the shield button when an attack connects on their shield instead. The window for the technique is also larger, lasting 5 frames instead of 3. A successful perfect shield causes the screen to pause briefly, with the fighter's eyes flashing to signify a perfect shield, and no shield damage being taken as a result. This updated mechanic makes perfect shielding a riskier tactic, and less likely to be performed unintentionally, but allows fighters to retaliate much faster against attacks when successful.
• Shield dropping incurs 11 frames of lag, up from 7 in SSB4, making the game less defense-focused. However, the minimum time the shield must be held for before it can be dropped has been reduced from 11 frames to 3, assisting in the new perfect shield mechanic.
• Shield platform drops are no longer possible.
• Grabbing an edge consecutively without landing or getting hit now decreases the intangibility of subsequent edge options, to the point of granting no intangibility at all from the fourth edge grab onward. Additionally, in a similar vein to Aether in previous games, characters can only grab edges up to six times under these conditions. This further decreases the effectiveness of planking strategies.
• Edge sweet spots have become smaller, and recovery moves take longer to snap on ledges in general. This makes recovering more difficult.
• The window to tech has increased from 8 frames to 11 frames, and teching in general has mostly been restored to its state in Brawl (but the added leniency while already making contact with a wall or ceiling is retained), removing all of the untechable situations from Smash 4; however, sustaining too much knockback from a certain distance from a surface can prevent characters from teching, making stage spikes guaranteed at high enough percents. This threshold is indicated by the visual shockwave of a rebounding character turning red. The threshold is also much smaller for characters that hit the ground, making meteor smashes more effective on-stage on aerial opponents.
• Opponents footstooled in midair can now tech on the ground during the animation. However, footstools now also grant the user a few frames of intangibility upon leaping off the opponent.
• Meteor smash attacks can no longer be teched when grounded, regardless of their properties, making them more reliable for starting combos.
• Locks can only be performed twice in a row, and no longer force the target to perform a standing getup, removing their guaranteed setups into powerful moves such as charged smash attacks. However, they can still be used to combo into faster attacks before the target can get up from the lock.
• Characters that originally cannot swim or have a weakness to water in their home series now take slow, constant damage while swimming. The fighters affected include Charizard, Incineroar, Inkling and Sonic.
• If a character lands in deep water while using a move with high downwards velocity, they will keep most of their movement speed when diving. This now causes moves such as Stone, Aether, Bowser Bomb or Super Dedede Jump to become self-destructs at certain heights.
• Characters can no longer run through other characters and instead push them backwards, preventing cross-ups or mixups revolving around moving through an opponent. This also seems to affect several momentum-based moves, which now stop on shield (such as Fox Illusion and Heel Slide). However, there are still a handful of moves that are still capable of crossing up, such as Simon and Richter's dash attack.
• Screen KOs are much faster, making them once again faster than Star KOs.
• Waiting on a revival platform now gradually decreases the invincibility period of a character after they get off it, lasting only one second instead of two if they stay on it for the maximum duration.
• Shield breaking does not grant the victim any intangibility if it happens during the last five seconds of a match.
• Sudden Death consists of the screen slowly zooming in, making the blast zones gradually shrink. It also appears to have a fixed camera angle, and the screen progressively gets covered in aesthetic flames, starting with the corners. If the screen has finished zooming in, Bob-ombs will start falling after a while.
• The length of a Timed Battle can be adjusted in 30-second increments between one and three minutes.
• Stamina battles are now part of the basic rule selection, allowing for combinations such as stamina with stocks.
• The Final Smash Meter is a new Rules option that enables fighters to charge up their Final Smash over time for use without a Smash Ball. When this option is turned on, a gauge will appear under each fighter's damage display. The more damage the player deals or receives, the more the meter is filled. When it is filled, the player can use a weaker version of their Final Smash.
• The new Custom Balance menu allows assigning handicaps to individual characters. Intended for leveling the field between players of different skill levels, each character can be assigned a Custom Balance value between -3 and +3, with negative numbers reducing damage dealt, and positive numbers increasing damage dealt. These values are only applied when the Custom Balance rule option is enabled, which is not available in multi-console wireless or online play.
• Self-destructing in online matches with stocks can take away two stocks instead of one (unless it's one on one)

Mobility changes

• In update 2.0.0, the ability to consistently perform a short hop by simultaneously pressing two jump buttons was added.
• The jumpsquat timing of every character has been standardized to 3 frames.
• Run speeds have been increased by about 10% for a majority of the cast, with some having larger increases, while walk speeds have had a similar 5% increase.
• Air speeds have been increased by about 5% for a majority of the cast, with some having larger increases.
• Traction has been significantly increased across the cast.
• The initial frames of full hops from the ground are sped up for all characters. Oddly, this can be bypassed by using a jump just before walking or running over the ledge.
• Landing lag for aerials has been reduced by 40% for most of the cast, and landing lag from helplessness has been significantly reduced overall. For some moves, the landing lag is even less than in Melee with L-canceling.
• Perfect pivoting can no longer be performed, as characters no longer enter their standing animation when turning around out of their initial dash.
• Rolling and spot dodging repeatedly now penalizes the user with increased lag and less intangibility frames, leaving them more vulnerable.
  • Backward rolls have more ending lag overall, hindering their utility further for retreating safely, and making them practically different from forward rolls again.
  • Spot dodges can be canceled earlier than usual (by 5 frames if fresh) into any grounded attack other than grabs and dash attacks, making them more effective for retaliation after dodging opposing attacks.
• Air dodges now contain elements from all previous incarnations of the technique: players can either perform a neutral air dodge by keeping the control stick in a neutral position (akin to a neutral aerial), which functions like Brawl and Smash 4's air dodges, or a directional air dodge by holding in a direction, which grants characters a quick momentum boost towards much like Melee's air dodges, but without making them helpless.
  • Characters can only air dodge once before landing, grabbing an edge or getting hit, and both types of air dodges have much more ending lag, with directional ones lasting more than a full second. However, both have less landing lag than air dodges in Smash 4 (10 frames in the case of neutral air dodges, down from 21), and unlike air dodges in Melee, directional air dodges allow characters to grab edges during their ending lag. This significantly weakens defensive play by making air dodges more restricted and punishable, but increases their effectiveness for escaping juggles and recovering if used opportunely.
  • Wavedashing has made a return from Melee, alongside techniques associated with it like wavelanding. However, it is significantly weaker due to the new mechanics added to directional air dodges, compounded further by their higher landing lag, as well as the cast's increased traction.
• Initial dashes have been lengthened, allowing some aspects of dash-dancing to return. They have also been significantly increased across the cast and have much less range in variance, with the slowest being slightly above Mario's in SSB4 and the highest being slightly above Fox's.
  • As a result, some characters now have initial dash speeds that outpace their running speeds, allowing fox-trotting to alleviate their low mobility; examples include Ganondorf and Incineroar.
• Being sent into hitstun by any attack from behind will preserve the direction the character is facing, like with Back Slash in Smash 4, having the effect of preserving the positions of their forward and back aerials.
  • As a result, all characters now have unique hitstun animations for taking hits from behind.

Attack changes

• Characters can now perform any ground attack out of a run, including their neutral attack, tilt attacks, and all smash attacks. In previous games, only dash attacks, up smashes and special moves could be performed out of a run. Characters can also instantly turn around to input any grounded attack in the other direction.
• Short hop aerial attacks can be performed by pressing the jump and attack buttons at the same time. However, this makes full hop aerial attacks more difficult to perform.
  • As a further aid, several ground attacks can now be canceled by jumping during their very first startup frames (with a maximum of three for most), in which case they will automatically transition into a short hop aerial attack.
• The linking hits of all neutral attacks have had their angles and knockback altered to drag opponents close to the user, in addition to not lifting them off if they are on the ground. This allows for neutral attacks to connect much more reliably than before, and gives all of them the ability to jab lock (with the exception of Ganondorf, Meta Knight, Roy and Chrom). However, this removes guaranteed jab cancel setups.
  • Neutral infinites have all been reduced in damage, but do far more hits in the same amount of time and inflict less freeze frames, making them harder to escape. Their pushback from hitting opponents can also no longer drop the user off edges.
• The function of the 0° launch angle has been changed, now raising to 30° at greater knockback values, similarly to the Sakurai angle, but occurring later than said angle.
• Down tilts can be reversed by holding the control stick diagonally down and back, allowing characters to quickly use them in the opposite direction without the need to stand up from crouching and turn around.
• Smash attacks can be delayed for two additional seconds after reaching full charge. This is indicated by characters freezing in the last frame of their charging animation until the smash attack is released.
• Up smashes and up specials can be used out of shield without jumping.
• Aerial attacks can be performed while hanging onto a ladder, a property known officially as a "ladder attack".
• Frame canceling has been removed.
• All variations of regular grabs have more ending lag, making them easier to punish if missed. Conversely, extended grabs have less ending lag, no longer leaving characters as vulnerable compared to regular grabs.
• If two grabs collide, both characters take minimal damage and act as if grab released. This event is known as "grab parrying" by the in-game tips, and removes the effect of port priority in determining who gets the grab.
• Shield grabs can no longer be used immediately after shieldstun from an attack ends, instead forcing the character to hold their shield for 4 extra frames beforehand.
• Pummels have been universally sped up, but deal less damage.
• Weight dependency for throws has been removed: all throws now execute at their usual speed against the entire cast, much like in SSB.
• Edge attacks have been buffed, dealing 9% damage on average (up from 7%), and now granting intangibility until the hitboxes cease rather than until 2 frames before the hitboxes come out, allowing them to beat out opposing attacks.
• Chargeable, storable special moves such as Samus' Charge Shot and Donkey Kong's Giant Punch can now be canceled by jumping. These moves can also be executed with the attack button while charging.
  • Most chargeable neutral specials that can't be stored are now reversible, whether for the duration of the charge or right before they are unleashed.
• Taunts can be interrupted much quicker, with most of them having faster animations. However, this does not apply to damaging taunts such as Luigi's down taunt.
• The effectiveness of every tether recovery has been nerfed, as they can no longer be performed at any point during air dodges, nor can they skip the lag incurred upon grabbing an edge.
• Final Smashes are quicker, with versions granting a controllable transformation being removed, so players can return to fighting quickly. As a result, many fighters have either new Final Smashes altogether, or returning Final Smashes with altered functionalities, such as Landmaster being replaced by an Arwing cutscene, and Octopus dragging opponents offstage immediately after transforming.

Aesthetic changes

• The particle effects of the game are significantly more cartoony, with a solid-color or cel-shaded aesthetic. Compared to Smash 4, hits are signified by spark-like blows instead of colorful stars, while attack effects appear visually longer-lasting or possess far larger particle effects.
• Continuing a trend from Melee and Brawl, most returning fighters feature greater model detail and more subdued colors than in Smash 4.
  • However, hair and fur detail has been toned down, resulting in a generally flatter appearance.
• Time slows down substantially and the camera zooms in with a colorful blue background at significant moments during a match, such as when landing a highly damaging special move (such as a fully charged Giant Punch) or when breaking a shield. The camera also does this for potential final hits of a match, dramatically pausing gameplay with intense sound effects and red lightning/background, while zooming in. These are referred to as "Special Zoom" and "Finish Zoom" by Masahiro Sakurai and the development team.
  • Special zoom is signified by a sound similar to landing a KO Uppercut or Finishing Touch, and finish zoom has SFX somewhat akin to the ping sound.
  • The slowdown and zoom do not take place when there are three or more characters on screen, though the blue background will still appear.
• The rattling effect during hitlag is now more exaggerated, and a crescent shaped angle indicator now appears when the victim SDIs.
• Knockback dealt by strong attacks will show a bright blue angle indicator, which visualizes the effect of directional influence along the character's final trajectory. This can be difficult to notice due to the effect being very brief.
• After using up their midair jump(s), characters leave behind a subtle, transparent trail when moving through the air and until they regain their jumps. This aesthetic effect is difficult to notice unless the camera is zoomed onto a character.
• Punching and kicking SFX on hit are different and sound harder-hitting compared to the previous game, with even weaker attacks playing loud "punch" effects.
• If two fighter's bladed weapons clash, they now produce a "clanging" noise, reminiscent to a similar effect in Melee. The sound depends on the type of blades that clash; metal blades and energy-based swords both produce different sound effects.
• Stunned characters now use their voice clip constantly instead of only once, much like in Smash 64 and Melee. This was exclusive to Roy in Smash 4.
• Fighters sent flying now leave a colorful, lingering trail of solid-colored smoke behind them. If dealt enough knockback, they will also play a whistling sound while flying, akin to a jet plane, rather than the lower pitched wind rushing sound from Smash 4.
• Characters flash yellow when they are close to breaking out of a grab, as well as during their grab immunity period after being released.
• When mashing out of an inactionable state such as being grabbed or stunned, characters display wind blade-like particles around them that increase in quantity depending on how fast they mash.
• Blast KOs cause a burst of confetti on the screen alongside the standard colorful blast.
• Star KO'd characters now use a tumbling animation similar to Brawl's Screen KOs, rolling away from the screen as they fly away.
• Phantom footstools now play the footstool sound effect to indicate one being performed, and a yellow jump circle appears.
• Final Smashes now cause a segment of the screen to show the upper portion of the summoner's face (in Mr. Game & Watch's case, the close up is of where his eyes would be; in Piranha Plant's case, the close up of its teeth), which is taken entirely from the summoner's official artwork, before the move begins, similar to Chrom's appearance in Pair Up.
• Compared to Brawl and Smash 4, several fighter animations have been made significantly more dramatic and tailored to look better from the camera's perspective. Examples of this are Mario's Up Tilt, Bowser's Flying Slam, and Donkey Kong's Giant Punch.
• Fighters are much more expressive than they were in Smash 4; most characters now sport a shocked/surprised expression when missing a grab and will scowl or frown when putting up their shield.
• Any characters standing too close to a Final Smash will visibly react to it by displaying a shocked facial expression.
• While on Final Smash standby, the character's damage gauge will constantly spark with aqua-colored electricity. Upon use, one of the eyes on the fighter's character portrait will flash.
• When a character has more than 120% damage, smoke will constantly come out of their damage meter.
• Many Assist Trophies and Final Smashes now affect the background of the stage.
• On the results screen, the announcer now says "(Character name/Team color) wins!" ("(Character name/Team color) win!" in the Japanese version), instead of saying "The winner is... (character name/team color)!" (Brawl/Smash 4) or "This game's winner is... (character name/team color)!" (Smash 64/Melee). Additionally, after Team Battles, all teammates will perform their complete victory animation instead of only the player with the highest score/stock count, much like the first three installments.
  • In Smash 64, the announcer did say "(Team color) wins!", but this was changed in Melee.
• Even more characters now face the screen regardless of direction they turn towards, such as Donkey Kong and the Ice Climbers.
  • In addition, some Assist Trophies and Poké Ball Pokémon face the screen regardless of the direction they turn towards.
• Names now override some instances of character names, such as underneath the damage meter.
  • If the player enters a name, any Poké Ball Pokémon or Assist Trophy character summoned by the player will be indicated by the player's name. In some cases, this may be harder to notice in stages with brighter lighting due to the name bar lacking the bordered background.
• Reflection moves now display shining hexagon effects, similar to Fox's and Falco's Reflector, upon reflecting projectiles.
• Counterattacks that retaliate against sufficiently strong attacks will now cause the user to let out a large, bright yellow flash.
• The flower effect's flower appearance was changed and now resembles the pink flowers seen on the title screen of Panel de Pon.

Item changes

• Certain types of items, such as Banana Peels, can now be picked up by tilt attacks.
• There can now be more than one Assist Trophy active at any given time. Additionally, some characters summoned by an Assist Trophy can be KO'd, granting a point to whoever KO'd said character. The summoner can also KO their own assist trophy to prevent the loss of a point. If multiple players summon an Assist Trophy each, they will proceed to fight one another if close enough.
• Smash Balls now have a chance of spawning with Soccer Ball physics, rolling around the stage and respawning once they drop offstage. They despawn after a set time. This property is similarly present in Fake Smash Balls.
• The Boss Galaga causes a black background to cover the screen when it catches an opponent, complete with pixel stars. Additionally, if the Boss Galaga Star KOs a character, it can now be seen with the character in the distance. The star also becomes larger.
• The Hammer and Golden Hammer have a unique 8-bit-styled hit particle, resembling the particle effect used when Mario destroys a barrel or a fireball in the original Donkey Kong. The corresponding sound effect is also taken from the original game.
• The Warp Star's descent can now be stalled by the user.
• The Timer now creates a dark warping background alongside its usual slowdown effect.
• Blast Boxes now explode after some time if hit. This is signified by a dull orange flash around the box that slowly gets brighter.
• The Beam Sword now creates an aesthetic trail from its blade when thrown or dropped.
• Sandbag will now show a happy expression if left idle for long enough.
• Shrinking and growing animations have been reverted to their Melee versions. As such, they are much faster and are no longer unique to each character.
• Explosive items directly thrown at opponents no longer harm the thrower.

Reception

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate received critical acclaim from both critics and the audience. Metacritic gave the game a 93/100, tying it with Brawl as the highest-rated game in the series on the website, while GameRankings gave it a 92.17% .

Within its first month, Ultimate sold 12.08 million copies, making it the fastest-selling game in Nintendo's history. As of March 2019, Ultimate has sold 13.81 million copies, which is greater than the total number of sales for the Wii U.

Gallery

Miscellaneous

• 

  Promotional Box art

• 

  Digital box art

• 

  Key Artwork

• 

  English logo

• 

  Japanese logo

• 

  Traditional Chinese logo

• 

  Simplified Chinese logo

• 

  Korean logo

• 

  English title screen

Characters

Artwork

• 

  Official illustration of Inkling.

• Mario artwork Ultimate.png

  Official illustration of Mario.

• 

  Official illustration of Mario and Rathalos.

• 

  Official illustration of Simon and Richter.

• 

  Official illustration of Villager and Isabelle.

• 

  Official image of Pac-Man and Mr. Game & Watch.

• 

  Official illustration of Link, Kirby, Mario, and Cloud.

• 

  Official image of Bomberman.

• 

  Official image of Kirby.

• 

  Official illustration of Sonic the Hedgehog.

• 

  Official image of all playable Pokémon characters, and the many Poké Ball Pokémon.

• 

  Official illustration of the playable Zelda cast.

• 

  Official illustration of all playable Fire Emblem characters and Assist Trophies.

• 

  Official image of all playable Fire Emblem characters on Arena Ferox.

• 

  Official illustration of Bayonetta, Rodin, and Madama Butterfly.

• 

  Official image of Snake.

• 

  Official image of Pit.

• 

  Official illustration of Mega Man.

• 

  Official illustration of Inkling.

• 

  Official illustration of Joker.

• 

  Official illustration of all of the base game fighters.

Splash Art

• 

  Splash art of Ridley.

• 

  Splash art of Simon.

• 

  Splash art of Richter.

• 

  Splash art of Chrom.

• 

  Splash art of Dark Samus.

• 

  Splash art of King K. Rool.

• 

  Splash art of Isabelle.

• 

  Splash art of Ken.

• 

  Splash art of Incineroar.

• 

  Splash art of Piranha Plant.

• 

  Splash art of Joker.

• 

  Splash art of The Hero.

• 

  Splash art of Banjo & Kazooie.

Trivia

• This is the first Super Smash Bros. game to:
  • Not be announced alongside new hardware since the original Super Smash Bros.. Super Smash Bros. Melee was revealed alongside the final retail version of the Nintendo GameCube at E3 2001; Super Smash Bros. Brawl was announced alongside the Wii itself, then-codenamed Revolution at E3 2005; and Super Smash Bros. 4 was announced alongside the Wii U at E3 2011. Moreover, unlike the latter two games, this is the first time since Super Smash Bros. Melee that a Smash Bros. game is not announced years in advance, as Super Smash Bros. Brawl was announced in 2005 and revealed a year later, and Super Smash Bros. 4 was announced in 2011 and revealed two years later.
  • Not feature the involvement of Satoru Iwata, as he passed away on July 11, 2015.
  • Be released in the same year it was announced since Melee.
  • Have no veteran characters cut since Melee.
  • Have a simultaneous worldwide release.
  • Have the announcer's English voice actor unchanged, with Xander Mobus reprising his role from Super Smash Bros. 4.
  • Allow a boss to be playable without hacks.
  • Have all of its veterans announced prior to launch and at the same time.
  • Feature more unlockable characters than starter characters.
  • Feature third-party universes with more than one character.
  • Have more returning stages than new stages.
  • Have no unlockable stages.
  • Feature Assist Trophies from third-party universes without playable characters.
  • Have a lyricized theme song in both English and Japanese.
  • Have all characters share the same amount of alternate costumes.
  • Introduce more new third-party universes with playable characters than first-party universes.
  • Feature a universe owned by a current rival to Nintendo (Banjo-Kazooie, owned by Microsoft).
    • As Rare is located in the United Kingdom and Microsoft is located in the United States, this also makes Ultimate the first game in the series to contain a major universe which is not created nor owned by a Japanese company.
  • Not feature a new remix of the Super Mario Bros. ground theme, Jungle Hijinxs (Donkey Kong Country) from Donkey Kong Country, or The Legend of Zelda main theme (if one does not count the Termina Field remix).
• Because of the size of the USK icon on the game's box art, the German version has a slightly different variation of said box art: Pikachu is moved upwards, Yoshi is completely missing, and the logo is off-centered.
• Ultimate's release date falls one day after the late Satoru Iwata's birthday, December 6 (which was also the release date of Super Smash Bros. for Wii U in Japan).
• This is the third Super Smash Bros. game to feature hand-drawn artwork on the box art, with the first being the original Super Smash Bros. and the second being Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
• When not including DLC, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has the lowest number of:
  • Newcomers at 11, beating Smash 64's original 12.
  • New stages at 7, beating Smash 64's 9.
  • New character-based universes introduced, with only two: (Splatoon and Castlevania), beating Melee's three with (Ice Climber, Fire Emblem, and Game & Watch).
    • Counting DLC, though, Ultimate introduces the third-highest amount of newcomers at 17 (beaten out by Smash 4's 21 and Brawl's 18), the second lowest amount of new stages at 12 and is currently ahead of Melee in terms of new character-based universes introduced by 3 (with Persona, Dragon Quest, and Banjo-Kazooie being added as DLC).
• This game marks the 100th performance credit of Charles Martinet as the voice of Mario, a landmark for which he received a Guinness World Record for the most video game voice-over performances of a single character.

External links

• Official Super Smash Bros. Ultimate website