Super Smash Bros Strife

Developer(s)	Sora Ltd., Bandai Namco Games
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Platform(s)	Nintendo Switch
Genre(s)	Party, Fighting
Release Date(s)	November 21, 2019 December 5, 2019 December 17th, 2019
Age Rating(s)	ESRB: E10+
Media Included	Nintendo Switch game cartridge

Super Smash Bros. Strife (大乱闘スマッシュブラザーズ Z, Great Fray Smash Brothers Z), often shortened to "SSBS", or "Strife", is the fifth installment in the Super Smash Bros. series published by Nintendo, however it can be considered the sixth installment if Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U are considered separate installments. The game runs on an improved and tweaked version of the engine used for Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, and largely keeps the same artstyle as said game.

Gameplay

The gameplay remains largely the same as previous games in the series. Up to 4 (or 8) players fight with an assortment of different characters on a stage of choice. When fighters get hit, they take damage, which increases the amount of knockback they take when getting hit. If a fighter is knocked out of the boundaries of the stage, they lose a point, and the player who knocked them out gains a point, and the player with the most points when time runs out is the winner. However, there is also a stock mode, where players lose a life every time they get knocked out, and the last player standing wins. If a time limit is enabled for stock mode and time runs out, then the player with the most stock remaining is the winner.

Gameplay Changes from Wii U/3DS

Due to being made on the same engine, Super Smash Bros. Strife plays very similarly to Super Smash Bros. for Wii U in many aspects, however, various new mechanics and adjustments have been added.

• A big new mechanic in Strife is the Strife Burst. There is a meter on each player's HUD that slowly goes up when dealing and taking damage. When this meter fills up, players can activate the Strife Burst, which drastically powers up their fighter's attack power and speed for a short amount of time. A new item is introduced to compliment this new mechanic called the Burst Gem, which flys around the stage similarly to the Smash Ball, and when broken, will fill up the meter immediately. Strife Burst can be turned off in the Rules, and when turned off, the Burst Gem will not appear in matches regardless of if it's turned on or not in the Item List. The amount of charge the meter must contain in order to activate a Strife Burst can also be modified in the Rules.

• Another new mechanic introduced is grab parrying, where if two fighters attempt to grab each other at the same time, both grabs will be cancelled out and both fighters will be pushed back. This works similarly to when two hitboxes collide at the same time, albeit without the priority system.
• Gravity and fall speed have been slightly raised for every character, and in addition, the knockback system has been adjusted so fighters are KO'd significantly earlier than before. This makes the game a bit faster than it's predecessor, but still remaining slower than Super Smash Bros. Melee. 

• Attacks with the bury effect are a guaranteed meteor smash in midair, and if a fighter in air is still in hitstun from an aerial bury attack, they will be buried when landing on the ground.

• Fighters can now get put to sleep in midair, however, the effect lasts only three fourths as long as it does on ground. In addition, all moves with the sleep effect now go past shields, putting shielded fighters to sleep.

• The rage mechanic from Wii U and 3DS has been removed entirely.
• Sudden Death can now be disabled. If Sudden Death is disabled and two or more players have the same score/stock, then the player with the least amount of damage taken on the life they were on wins. If the players have taken the same amount of damage, then port priority decides the winner.
• The Special Smash gamemode has been removed, and in it's place is the new Player Settings feature. Players can each individually set the settings for their fighter in Smash and 8-Player Smash, including most of the options from Special Smash along with several new options.
• Game speed and camera options can now be set in the Rules, and Stamina is now a mode along with Time, Stock and Coin matches.

Characters

There are 74 total fighters in Super Smash Bros. Strife, not counting Mii Fighters. 50 fighters are available from the start, and 24 have to be unlocked. There are 17 total newcomers, and 5 of them must be unlocked. Click on the character icons to go to their character pages. (Note: Not all character pages are done.)

Starting Roster

Secret Fighters

Unlock Conditions

As per previous Smash games, every secret fighter has two different ways to be unlocked, either through playing a certain number of matches, or through an other way that usually involves playing single-player gamemodes.

Character	Criteria 1	Criteria 2
Jigglypuff	Play 10 matches.	Complete Classic mode without using any continues.
Ike	Play 15 matches.	Clear 10-Man Smash within 15 seconds.
Ness	Play 20 matches.	Complete Event Match 14: Projectile Panic
Greninja	Play 30 matches.	Complete a Master Order on Hard or higher.
Meta Knight	Play 35 matches.	Complete Adventure mode.
Luigi	Play 40 matches.	Complete Adventure mode as Mario without using any continues.
Captain Falcon	Play 50 matches.	Clear 100-Man Smash.
Wii Fit Trainer	Play 60 matches.	Get 2250 ft. or farther in Home-Run Contest.
Paper Mario	Play 65 matches.	Complete every Break the Targets stage as Mario.
Waluigi	Play 75 matches.	Complete Crazy Orders after winning 10 rounds.
Wolf	Play 90 matches.	Get 1 KO or more in a single Cruel Smash.
Palutena	Play 100 matches.	Destroy 175 or more blocks in a single game of Trophy Rush.
Chibi-Robo	Play 125 matches.	Collect 100 different trophies.
Roy	Play 135 matches.	Complete Event Match 28: Bring on the Fire!
Lucas	Play 150 matches.	Complete Adventure mode as Ness without using any continues.
Dr. Mario	Play 175 matches.	Complete Classic mode as Mario on Normal or higher without using any continues.
Duck Hunt	Play 200 matches.	Complete every Board the Platforms stage.
Pichu	Play 210 matches.	Complete Crazy Orders as Pikachu after winning 15 rounds.
Dark Samus	Play 225 matches.	Complete Classic mode as Samus on Hard or higher without using any continues.
Mewtwo	Play 230 matches.	Complete Smash Tower.
Mr. Game and Watch	Play 240 matches.	Complete Adventure mode with Mario, Luigi, Donkey Kong, Little Mac and Pac-Man.
Bayonetta	Play 250 matches.	Complete a Master Order on Insane.
Ryu	Play 275 matches.	Play 15 matches on Suzaku Castle.
Balloon Fighter	Play 300 matches.	Complete Event Match 44: Retro Throwdown.

Alternate Costumes

As with Super Smash Bros. for Wii U/3DS, some characters have radically different alternate costumes, some of which change the character into a completely different one. Strife introduces a few new alternate costumes amongst returning ones.

Alternate Costumes
Toadette (Captain Toad)		Koopalings (Bowser Jr.)		Birdo (Yoshi)		Biker Wario (Wario)		Meta Ridley (Ridley)		Dark Pit (Pit)		Alph (Olimar)		Female Villager (Villager)
Male WFT (Wii Fit Trainer)					Male Inkling (Inkling)					Springtron (Spring Man)

Challenger Approaching Screens

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Items

Poke Ball Pokemon

Names in orange indicate Pokemon that can come out of Master Balls, and names in blue indicate Pokemon that can come out of Beast Balls. Names in bold indicate Pokemon that must be unlocked.

Poké Ball Pokémon
Beedrill		Pidgeot		Raichu		Clefairy		Vileplume		Meowth		Golem		Farfetch'd
Electrode		Alolan Exeggutor		Alolan Marowak		Koffing		Magikarp		Eevee		Snorlax		Mew
Togepi		Xatu		Bellossom		Politoed		Unown		Scizor		Blissey		Suicune
Lugia		Ho-Oh		Swampert		Gardevoir		Breloom		Camerupt		Salamence		Metagross
Kyogre		Groudon		Luxray		Roserade		Honchkrow		Bonsly		Garchomp		Abomasnow
Electivire		Porygon-Z		Dusknoir		Darkrai		Arceus		Audino		Leavanny		Whimsicott
Krookodile		Scraggy		Chandelure		Genesect		Diggersby		Spewpa		Honedge		Heliolisk
Hawlucha		Gourgeist		Xerneas		Zygarde		Diancie		Litten		Popplio		Pikipek
Crabrawler		Lycanroc		Mareanie		Lurantis		Bewear		Oranguru		Passimian		Komala
Mimikyu		Solgaleo		Lunala		Nihilego		Buzzwole		Xurkitree		Magearna		Blacephalon

Stages

This section is a work in progress, and not all stages are currently listed. The list serves as a placeholder and is planned to be replaced with a proper table later on.

Names in bold indicate stages that must be unlocked.

New Stages

• Battlefield 
• Final Destination
• The Odyssey
• Bowser's Castle 
• Bob-omb Battlefield
• Gloomy Manor
• Dr. Mario 
• Prism Island
• Mangrove Cove
• Gangplank Galleon
• Temple of Time
• Alola Pokemon League 
• Poke Floats 2 
• Inkopolis
• Spring Stadium
• Main Street
• Noisy Notebook 
• Parachute 
• Gyromite
• Balloon Fight
• Studiopolis Zone 
• Pac-Maze DX 

Past Stages

• Mushroom Kingdom II (Melee)
• 3D Land (3DS)
• Mario Circuit (Wii U)
• Yoshi's Story (64)
• WarioWare (Brawl)
• Jungle Japes (Melee)
• Hyrule Castle (64)
• Temple (Melee)
• Fountain of Dreams (Melee)
• Pyrosphere (Wii U)
• Brinstar Depths (Melee)
• Palutena's Temple (Wii U)
• Sector Z (64)
• Spear Pillar (Brawl)
• Big Blue (Melee)
• Magicant (3DS)
• Tortimer Island (3DS)
• Distant Planet (Brawl)
• Pilotwings (Wii U)
• Suzaku Castle (Wii U/3DS)
• Umbra Clock Tower (Wii U/3DS)

Unlock Conditions

Stage	Criteria
Bob-omb Battlefield	Defeat King Bob-omb in Smash Tower.
Gloomy Manor	Unlock Luigi.
Dr. Mario	Unlock Dr. Mario.
Prism Island	Unlock Paper Mario.
Poke Floats 2	Unlock Jigglypuff.
Parachute	Unlock Mr. Game & Watch.
Gyromite	Complete Classic Mode as R.O.B. without using any continues.
Balloon Fight	Unlock Balloon Fighter.
Pac-Maze DX	Complete Event Match 19: Pac-Man Fever.
Fountain of Dreams	Complete 100-Man Smash as Bandana Dee.
Brinstar Depths	Complete Classic Mode with Ridley on Very Hard or higher.
Sector Z	Complete Adventure Mode as Fox, Falco and Slippy.
Big Blue	Complete 10-Man Smash as Captain Falcon in under 10 seconds.
Umbra Clock Tower	Unlock Bayonetta.

Modes

Classic Mode

Classic Mode has been changed to a formula similar to that of Classic Mode from Brawl and prior. However, a few changes have been made.

There are 6 difficulties, Very Easy, Easy, Normal, Hard, Very Hard, and Insane. What difficulty you are playing on is represented by the color of the background on the round screens, blue is Very Easy, cyan is Easy, green is Normal, yellow is Hard, orange is Very Hard, and red is Insane. Similarly to Classic Mode in 3DS and Wii U, you must spend a certain amount of gold depending on the difficulty.

Difficulties
Very Easy				Price to Play is 100G 4 Rounds, 1 Bonus Stage No Choosable Rounds Final Round is 4-Player Free-for-All Master Hand is not fought
Easy				Price to Play is 50G 6 Rounds, 1 Bonus Stage No Choosable Rounds Final Round is 4-Player Free-for-All Master Hand is not fought
Normal				Free to Play 10 Rounds, 2 Bonus Stages Rounds 3 & 6 allow you to choose between 3 different fights Round 7 is Multi-Man Smash with the Fighting Shadow Team, Round 8 is a Metal Battle, Round 9 is a 4-Player Free-for-All Final Round is a fight with Master Hand
Hard				Price to Play is 250G 10 Rounds, 2 Bonus Stages Rounds 3 & 6 allow you to choose between 3 different fights Round 7 is Multi-Man Smash with the Fighting Shadow Team, Round 8 is a Metal Battle, Round 9 is a 4-Player Free-for-All Final Round is a fight with Master Hand
Very Hard				Price to Play is 500G 10 Rounds, 2 Bonus Stages Rounds 3 & 6 allow you to choose between 3 different fights Round 7 is Multi-Man Smash with the Fighting Shadow Team, Round 8 is a Metal Battle, Round 9 is an 8-Player Free-for-All Final Round is a fight with Master Hand and Crazy Hand
Insane				Price to Play is 750G 11 Rounds, 2 Bonus Stages Rounds 3 & 6 allow you to choose between 3 different fights Round 7 is Multi-Man Smash with the Fighting Shadow Team, Round 8 is a Metal Battle, Round 9 is an 8-Player Free-for-All Final Round is a fight with Master Core

On Rounds 3 and 6 on Normal or higher, you have an option of choosing between 3 different matches, a 1-on-1, a Giant Battle, or a Team Battle, with varying difficulties. Playing the harder match will get you better rewards.

Classic Mode Bosses
Master Hand			Master Core			Crazy Hand

On Very Hard difficulty or higher, you fight with Master Core, which has been changed greatly from it's appearance in Super Smash Bros. 4. The fight begins with Master Hand appearing in the background behind Final Destination, who then proceeds to release a shockwave, eradicating his outer self and revealing Master Core within. Master Core proceeds to charge up and surrounds itself with several layers of crystal. This is where the fight begins, as Master Core proceeds to float around the stage releasing high-knockback shockwaves every few seconds. The player must continuously hit Master Core until one of it's crystal layers is broken. After this, a new phase begins where Master Core goes into the background and starts forming crystal opponents, each with different looks and attack patterns. These opponents are some of the same opponents faced in Wii U/3DS, including Master Edges, Master Beast, and Master Giant, however they have each recieved a visual overhaul, now formed out of crystal as opposed to their shadowy look from the previous game. In between each of these opponents, Master Core will come back onto the stage, where the player must again keep hitting Master Core to further destroy it's crystal layers. Master Edges, Master Beast, and Master Giant are all slightly weaker compared to Wii U/3DS to balance out the increase in phases. Once all of it's layers have been depleted, Master Core will fall to the bottom of the stage and must be launched off to be defeated.

All-Star

All-Star mode returns from previous installments, however, unlike Wii U/3DS, you do not immediately have access to the mode and must once again unlock it by unlocking all of the secret fighters. Unlike the completely random order in Melee and the chronological orders in Brawl and Wii U/3DS, Strife's All-Star mode has players face off against 1 specific group of fighters per round in random order. (i.e. Face off against every Mario character in one round, and then every Pokemon character in the next). Certain characters will be put into the same round despite not being in the same universe however, such as Yoshi with the rest of the Mario characters, as well as every third-party being put together, possibly to decrease the number of rounds which would otherwise be massive. Like Melee, enemy fighters will also sometimes have alternate-color costumes on. However, drastically different alternate costumes like Bowser Jr's Koopaling alts or Alph will not be picked. In the rest area, players have 3 Heart Containers to use in between rounds unlike the varied assortment of healing items in Wii U/3DS, and you must press up on the door in the middle of the rest area to start the next fight, most likely to make it easier to get to the healing items instead of accidentally starting the next fight.

Fighter Group	Fighters Faced	Possible Stages
Super Mario	Mario Dr. Mario Luigi Peach Captain Toad Rosalina Bowser Bowser Jr. Yoshi Paper Mario
Donkey Kong	Donkey Kong Diddy Kong King K. Rool
Wario	Wario Waluigi
Legend of Zelda	Link Toon Link Zelda Sheik Ganondorf Skull Kid
Metroid	Samus Zero Suit Samus Ridley Dark Samus
Kirby	Kirby King Dedede Bandana Dee Meta Knight
Star Fox	Fox Falco Slippy Wolf
Kid Icarus	Pit Palutena
Fire Emblem	Marth Roy Ike Robin Lucina
Pokemon	Pikachu Jigglypuff Charizard Squirtle Ivysaur Mewtwo Pichu Lucario Greninja Decidueye
Mother/EarthBound	Ness Lucas
Retro	R.O.B. Ice Climbers Duck Hunt Balloon Fighter Mr. Game & Watch
Others	Olimar Captain Falcon Villager Shulk Inkling Spring Man Isaac Little Mac Chibi-Robo Wii Fit Trainer
Third-Party	Sonic Mega Man Pac-Man Bomberman Rayman Bayonetta Ryu

Smash Tower

Smash Tower is a new single player gamemode in Super Smash Bros. Strife, where players select a fighter and go through a 50-floor tower consisting of many different types of fights that gets progressively harder as you go. You start out with 3 lives. You only have one life during a match, and if you lose, then you lose one life from your total life count and have to try the match again, as opposed to all of your lives being used in the same match like Classic mode and Adventure mode. Every 10th floor is a boss battle, and if this floor is cleared, then you will be sent back to that floor upon getting a game over until reaching the next boss floor. The boss you face is randomly selected from a pool of 9 different bosses, and the final floor will always be a fight with Master Hand and Crazy Hand. Losing all of your lives will result in a game over, which will penalize you by sending you back to the last boss floor as mentioned, as well as losing any of the loot that you won on the floors that came after it. Sometimes you can also receive items when clearing floors, which you can use before starting a match to give yourself a boost during the fight. They can not be used during floors that consist of bonus challenges such as Home-Run Contest and Target Smash. Upon completing Smash Tower for the first time, you will unlock Smash Tower EX, which is a harder variant with 100 floors and several more match types added into the mix such as Coin battles, Stamina battles and so on. In addition to this, on some floors, the player is given negative effects that only they have, such as flower, raised damage ratio, light weight, small size, etc. Items can not be used when a negative effect is in place. Due to being 100 floors, every boss is faced in this version of the tower. The final floor is a fight with Master Core, and unlike other floors, you are given multiple lives in one try.

Smash Tower Bosses
Petey Piranha	King Bob-omb	Dyna Blade	Andross	Necrozma	Dr. Coyle	Metal Face	Dr. Eggman	Yellow Devil

Boss Battles

Boss Battles returns from Brawl, allowing players to fight every Smash Tower boss one-by-one in random order until they've defeated them all, similarly to All-Star mode. This mode must be unlocked by clearing the EX mode of Smash Tower. 

Custom

The custom fighter system from Wii U/3DS has been overhauled. Equipment has been completely removed, and in it's place are Badges. 3 badges can be equipped per custom fighter, and each of them has varying effects, many of which are carried over from the bonus effects of equipment from Wii U/3DS. Only a few badges are available by default, and the rest must be unlocked by playing single player gamemodes. Since equipment is gone, stats can now be modified at will. There are now 6 different stats, Attack, Special, Jump, Speed, Defense, and Arms, similarly to Smash Run. When creating a custom fighter, by default you have 60 usable points, which can give to stats to increase them. Every stat has 100 points by default, and points can be subtracted from stats to be given to other stats. The maximum amount of points a stat can have is 300.

Smash Shop

The Smash Shop is where gold can be spent to unlock a variety of different items. The first three options are the Trophy Pack, Custom Pack, and Badge Pack. These can be purchased for 500G each and will contain a random assortment of 3 different trophies, custom moves, and badges respectively, and they can be bought an infinite amount of times. The rest of the items are one-time purchases, and can include modes, CDs, and more.

Online

For Glory

For Glory now has a ranking system. Players now have seperate Rank Scores for each ladder, 1-on-1, Team Battle and Free-for-All respectively. Rank Score determines what players you are matched up with, and there are 6 different tiers of Rank Score depending on how high it is. Players are most likely to be matched up with players of the same tier. Each player starts out at 1000 Rank Score in the Bronze tier, and the maximum Rank Score is 9999.

Rank Score Tiers

Bronze 1-1999

Silver 2000-2999

Gold 3000-3999

Platinum 4000-4999

Crystal 5000-5999

Rainbow 6000-9999

Rank Score points are gained and lost at the end of each match depending on how well the player performs.

Bonus	Points
Match Won	+25
Match Lost	-10
KOs	+5 per KO
Falls	-3 per Fall
Self-Destructs	-10 per SD
Stocks Remaining	+5 per Stock Remaining
Win Streak	+5 per Win
Loss Streak	-3 per Loss

A leaderboard option is available in the menu of each ladder that allows you to see the players with the highest Rank Scores and compare your Rank Score with others, including players on your Friend List.

Images

The logo.

The Japanese logo.

The Japanese boxart.

The title screen.

The main menu.

Classic Mode

Classic Mode

Classic Mode

Classic Mode

Classic Mode

Classic Mode

Classic Mode

Classic Mode

The results screen in Versus mode.

The background of the results screen changes depending on the system clock on the Switch.

The custom fighter creation screen.

The stat system has been modified, allowing for free modification of stats without equipment.

The heads-up display, with the Strife Burst meter.

The Smash Tower gamemode.

Facing a boss in Smash Tower.

Selecting the Normal difficulty in Classic mode.

Selecting the Insane difficulty in Classic mode.

The Continue screen after running out of lives in Classic, Adventure or All-Star.

The For Glory menu, where you choose which ladder you want to play.

The loading screen. It displays info and tips depending on what mode is being played.

The Smash Shop.

Every available mode in Stadium.

When playing For Glory, the results screen will show how many points you gained or lost for your Rank Score.

The Notice screen when unlocking content or reaching milestones.

Trivia

• Super Smash Bros. Strife has the highest number of unlockable characters in a Super Smash Bros. game, at 24.
• Super Smash Bros. Strife is the first game in the Super Smash Bros. series to not be lead and designed by Masahiro Sakurai.