Smash Ultimate: New Adventure Mode WORLD OF LIGHT

So what is “World Of Light?

Interestingly enough, that’s not totally clear. There are many things about it that are known, however – for one, it received a dazzling cinematic introduction on the end of the FINAL Smash direct which occurred yesterday, November 1st (Check it!).

But everything shown is quite vague – and perhaps intentionally so. The trailer shows a great army of Master Hands – the traditional final boss of the Smash Bros past arcade modes – evaporating into a mass of light that forms into a dark central hole before exploding outward into millions of massive light beams. The light beams consume and capture every single character, whether they’re a playable fighter or an assist trophy or even just a spirit. No one escapes – except Kirby.

This light beam attack is supposedly how all of the ‘Spirit’ characters from Smash Ultimate’s new ‘Spirits Mode’ became spirits in the first place. Later in the trailer, we see Mario has been captured by a mysterious coil of sorts, and a golden goop creates what appears to be an evil clone of Mario. The player will likely have to fight these clones as they make their way around the game world.

This time, however, the game is represented as a mural on the ground that players will move across, navigating through a number of different small nodes that represent encounters and fights. The mechanical aspects of the spirits from spirit mode will also make an appearance here, with characters having the ability to equip a number of spirits to power themselves up. In addition, what looks to be something of a full skill tree can be briefly seen. The tree gives characters the ability to power up certain statistics or skills of their choice, increasing things like their run speed, shield power, and smash attack strength.

More clips of characters traveling around the mural are also shown. Although the story starts with Kirby, the mural will take players through a variety of worlds, each familiar to the worlds of a specific Smash character. We see glimpses of Pokemon Trainer using an aquatic pokemon to travel across a lake, of a Starfox rep piloting an Archwing across a number of planets, and of Shulk moving into and down what looks like a waterfall in the Xenoblade world.

There are also short hints at a number of new boss type characters and opponents that will make an appearance, in addition to a brief final shot of a symbol hidden at the center of the laser storm that consumed all the characters. Who could this final boss be?

We will find out when the game launches on December 7th. This take on adventure mode is much smarter and more tactful than the previous attempt with the Subspace Emissary in Super Smash Brothers Brawl, which proved that a full 3D campaign filled with a bunch of cluttery easy enemies doesn’t work so well in the format of a 2D platform fighter. This attempt looks a bit more interesting and fleshed out. The plethora of featured RPG mechanics certainly won’t hurt either.

There’s also the Smash theme, which has lyrics now. And it sounds nice. Which is pretty cool.