For this week, I played Super Smash Bros Ultimate (SSBU), a crossover fighting game developed by Bandai Namco Studios and Sora Ltd and published by Nintendo in 2018 for play on the Nintendo Switch. SSBU is rated E and is suitable for players aged 10 and up. Players of SSBU can engage with the game casually or through tournaments both in person and online.
SSBU has a decent diversity of characters with all characters being balanced with each other, however in terms of other aspects feminist theory such as not having feminist story, not allowing players control or agency in their game experiences. SSBU does not seem to effectively intertwine feminist theories outside of diversity.
SSBU’s character roster is vast, consisting of 89 characters (counting different forms of fighters as different characters) of roughly 50 male characters, 17 female characters, and 12 non-gendered. These numbers are rough as multiple characters such as Robin and Corrin have different costumes for a male and female version. During play all fighters have the same amount of action commands: basic attack, smash attack, shield, and grab. Some fighters additionally have a counter skill, though this is a much rarer ability.
Full Character roster for Smash
Source: https://www.ssbwiki.com/Super_Smash_Bros._Ultimate
SSBU has a wide range of characters that are all balanced to each other, meaning that there is no obvious advantage that comes from playing any one character. Additionally, if we look at tournament wins based on character, we do find that female fighters do perform well at the highest level of play. SSBU supports diversity by having a wide range of characters that players can choose to play with no character being overwhelmingly more powerful than the rest of the cast.
Number of times a character has won a major SSBU Tournament
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/smashbros/comments/133wn7d/ultimate_characters_by_major_wins_may_2023/
However, SSBU fails to reflect other aspects of feminist theory such as having a feminist narrative and giving players a sense of control and agency.
When considering the story of SSBU (World of Light), the majority of the story involves freeing trapped fighters and teaming up together in order to gain spirits and defeat the boss, Galeem. In structure, this story closely follows the pattern of having a hero character gaining allies and defeating a final boss, a standard fantasy story. This structure stands in contrast to what Chess writes is a “feminist story”. In my experience playing World of Light, I was treated this mode as a fighter collector and did not really pay attention to any of the story, instead choosing to focus on playing the game. There are no major emotional moments and no time for any introspection of my role in the SSBU world. It is reasonable to play hundreds of hours of SSBU without engaging with World of Light. When first opening the game, the first option is to “Smash”, the game mode where players choose fighters to play PVP with other people. SSBU fails to deliver a feminist story by minimizing their story through numerous PVE fights and by de-prioritizing the story from the menu.
World of Light is a map exploration game mode where you can collect more fighter. There are a few cutscenes, but most of the gameplay is fighting other characters
Source: https://www.ssbwiki.com/Adventure_Mode:_World_of_Light
Control and agency appear multiple times in SSBU though I will focus on Mii Fighters for this. The second major instance of control and agency is the Mii fighters. Players are able to customize three Mii fighters (the brawler, swordfighter, and gunner) by creating their own Miis. Miis can be created with both male and female options and support a variety of different visual customization for facial features, body type, and more. However, the game limits what types of attacks each Mii Fighter is able to perform so the combinations are quite limited. Additionally (in my own experience), I find that the movesets of the Mii fighters are visually lacking compared to other characters which decreases my fun as sensation. Compared to other games such as Stardew Valley or Candy Crush where player control and agency is much more in the forefront of gameplay, SSBU doesn’t effectively support player control and agency.
Example of a Mii Gunner Fighter in the Customization screen
Source: https://www.fanbyte.com/legacy/smash-ultimate-mii-fighter-guide
In terms of improving SSBU, I would focus on improving player control and agency. I think an expansion of the Mii fighter system both in the attacks they can perform as well as the costumes they wear would be a good place to allow players further personalize their experience in the game. Currently, the options for attack options are limited and all Mii Fighters use the same weapon. By expanding the costumes to support weapon costumes as well as other player created costumes (similar to what Animal Crossing does) could be a good way to further incorporate control and agency to SSBU. A question I have relates to the lack of narrative in SSBU. Since SSBU is primarily a fighting game, can it ever have a compelling feminist story? Are there any genres of games where feminist principles might not apply?
