Finally downloaded this last night, and started playing today. Oh my gosh this game is absurdly hard. The Boss' spirit fight is absurdly difficult. What the fuck. I've probably died like 20 or 30 times now.

Woo, I got into Elite Smash! Man, that was tough. I'm scared to play now because I don't want to get booted out of it. But I'm excited to be a member of this super exclusive club, snoot snoot. I had to get my Ness to 1.402 million GSP to get in, but that number is always changing because of the growing number of players. It might also have something to do with win/loss ratio?

@X-pert74

Some four-star Spirits like The Boss are meant to be fought later in the game, when you have lots of other strong Spirits that can buff your own performance. Just try coming back to those later!

@TriforceBun

I feel the same way. I got Lucas to Elite, and then proceeded to just start playing as other people so I don't go and lose that fancy little crown on the menu.

@TriforceBun I see; I completely missed the star rankings for each spirit at first. I tried to go into this game as (relatively) uninformed as possible, so that more of it could be a surprise. But clearly, I missed out on some info that would have made things less frustrating for me. My bad, lol.

I've been playing for a few hours now, and still have only unlocked a few characters; I think right now I have Mario, Donkey Kong, Kirby, Fox, Marth (who I've primarily been using), Lucas, Pac-Man, and Duck Hunt dog, in the single player. I also unlocked Ness, Zelda, and Bowser outside of the single-player, when they randomly appeared as fighters. I really hope I can unlock some more characters who I like soon, like Corrin, Richter, Peach, and Snake :s :s

I've barely played this game all week!

@X-pert74

It took me a while to grok how the spirit system works too! There's a lot to remember lol.

I have no idea what elite Smash is. Does the game explain it anywhere?!

@Zero
It mentions it when you unlock it, without too much explanation. Sakurai first mentioned it in one of the last Smash Directs as a separate online tier for top players. From what I've played against you NWers, I definitely think y'all can get your mains to hit this threshold. Carlos mentioned earlier that he got in with multiple fighters!

There was one guy I saw somewhere online that got into Elite Smash with the entire roster. Geez.

@kgtennispro
Today I found out the hard way that the game kicks you out of Elite Smash! Yikes! I guess you have to actively continue playing and winning to stay in. Which I guess makes sense, since theoretically if it's a percentage thing, other players would eventually surpass you if you did nothing. But it's still a bit of a bummer in a way.

Oh well, I did at least unlock an in-game Milestone for playing an Elite Smash battle!

Do you guys have a quarter-second of lag when playing online, or does wiring your Switch in eliminate that? I feel like I'll pick up on bad habits if I accommodate my playstyle to the online lag. I'd prefer instantaneous movement on my end and the other player jittering a little.

@TriforceBun That was a terrible explanation how do I even know what I'm trying to do?

Not that I really want to play against top players.

@Secret_Tunnel I don't think I have a quarter second lag. Just wire it in!

@Zero

LOL I didn't seem to actual explain what it was there, did I?

Win a lot online and your online score will go up. Once it reaches a certain threshold, you get put into Elite Smash with that character, where you fight only other people with an online score above that threshold.

@Secret_Tunnel

For me it depends on who I'm fighting, but most 1v1 matches run really smoothly to me. A quarter-second of lag sounds kinda chunky. If you're experiencing it on every match, the problem might be your connection!

I didn't even know there was an online score lol.

On another note, I mean, I guess I sort of got my wish?! But this probably confirms that he is NOT coming as a DLC character. Boo.

@Secret_Tunnel To be honest, I haven't noticed a difference between wired and wireless (5ghz here, for me). I think it's honestly just how the game is, and I think some people are just more sensitive to it than others.

The game has already confirmed to have more lag than Brawl, using any controller configuration. Add another frame of lag for online play, and yeah, it's going to kind of feel like the game is underwater. My brain always feels a step ahead of the action on screen. The only way Bandi-Namco could really remedy this would be to potentially:

a.) Decrease any kind of artificial input buffer they have in the game (not uncommon in fighting games. A buffer helps players input frame perfect inputs so that they don't have to be AS precise when inputting moves)
b.) Change the game's graphical rendering pipeline to reduce lag. There's the potential that this game's graphics may add to input delay, which isn't uncommon for HD games this generation. (PS4 games, for instance, require a triple buffer V-Sync, which is why most PS4 games tend to have more of an input delay than their XBox One counterparts)

ST, if I had to guess, I'd say your connection is probably fine. This is just how it's going to be, from what I can tell.

@TriforceBun
@PogueSquadron

A quarter of a second might be an exaggeration, I'm not sure how to measure it, haha. I might have to try it out a few more times and see if I can adjust--I don't notice any lag during offline play, but online bugs me a little so far.

@TriforceBun

It honestly isn't very hard at all if you're at least pretty good at Smash. I could probably make it in with a bunch of characters, maybe even most, unless it was just easier when the game was new, which I kinda doubt. I haven't spent a HUGE amount of time playing quick play matches, yet both Samuses and ROB are still in Elite Smash. I haven't even touched ROB since that first session and he's still there. And I was shocked when I got to Elite with him, I didn't play for a super long time with him. I had a good streak though.

I don't really get what it's calculating to put you in Elite Smash.
And I got into it with all 3 in one sitting, not spending a super long time with any of them. I had a pretty good win ratio though, maybe that was it? I only lost a few with all 3.

ROB is 900,870 or somerhing like that and my Samuses are 1,110,000ish each.

I noticed when I got to the 900k ish point was when I got into Elite for all three.

Man they really changed up the physics and how dodging and blocking work in this game. I’m down from being “okay, maybe kind of a threat to most other players” to downright “terrible.” Ugh. I’ve accidentally sent Mewtwo teleporting down to his demise at the bottom of the screen far too often for my own liking. Bah.

I'm nearly done with World of Light, which I've been playing on Hard Mode. It's fine, has a couple neat moments with the map, and I like seeing how the character spirits are represented, but I'll be glad to be finished with it. Soon I'll have all the Spirits freed, Challenges completed, and all that'll be left will be the never-ending grind of trying to git gud online, which I've mostly neglected.

Played some more online tonight, and had a great time! It won me over, woo! Sitting around 900k with Young Link. I was worried that he was becoming a little overplayed from what I've been hearing, but I didn't get matched up with another Young Link the entire time! Fought against a regular Link though, that was a fun duel.

@nate38

Agreed, seeing what battles they came up with for each Spirit is fun, and the map is pretty endearing. But having to switch your Spirits before every battle is a little tedious to me with the long the load times. Maybe I'll just throw on a Neutral-class main spirit and leave him for all the battles that I don't need a specialized Spirit for...

I've been having a better time with Classic Mode. Constant action, and I love striving for that 9.9! I think 8.9 is my highest so far...

@Secret_Tunnel

Yeah, Classic Mode is a blast! Haven’t even touched the Adventure mode, Classic keeps me engaged pretty well on its own. Plus it unlocks fighters at a fairly quick pace. IMO.

Aaand I played more World of Light last night, and that's winning me over too! Combining the legendary Hades Final Form, which gives you a boost in attack power, with the Great Zapfish, which makes you giant at the start of the battle, kind of broke all the rest of the fights, so I'm making myself use characters and Spirits that I'm not used to, haha.

Dunkey just posted his first video playing the game too. Been waiting for this!

@Secret_Tunnel

Hah! The videos of him screwing around online are great.