Author: Trafficblast

The Super Smash Bros. series has always excelled in a party setting thanks to its frenetic action and easy-to-learn mechanics, but the franchise has generally struggled to offer an equally compelling single-player experience. While each installment has featured a variety of modes tailored to solo players–the most robust being Super Smash Bros. Brawl‘s Subspace Emissary, a full-fledge crossover adventure–none of these have had the same lasting appeal as its standard Smash mode. The series’ latest entry, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate for Switch, introduces a few new single-player options of its own in the form of the Spirit Board and World of Light mode, and from what we’ve seen of them thus far, they look to be just what the series needed to elevate its solo experience.

We had the opportunity to try both of the new solo modes during a recent hands-on demo of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Much like Subspace Emissary, World of Light is an expansive single-player adventure that unites the game’s motley cast against a powerful, supernatural entity known as Galeem. As we saw during the final Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Direct, the story begins when Galeem unleashes a barrage of light that reduces every character on the roster–with the exception of Kirby–to Spirits, beings who have lost their corporeal form. As the sole survivor of the onslaught, it falls to the intrepid puffball to rescue the other fighters and put a stop to Galeem’s machinations.

Despite its initial similarities to Subspace Emissary, World of Light differs from it in some notable ways. While the campaign does feature some cutscenes, Nintendo says it isn’t quite as story driven as Brawl’s adventure mode. Instead, World of Light compensates for its lighter narrative with a sprawling world map, which features branching pathways and dozens of battles to take part in. As you work your way through these bouts, you’ll gradually rescue other characters, who you’ll then be able to freely switch between as you head toward the final confrontation with Galeem.

Each opponent you face off against in World of Light comes equipped with Spirits, collectible characters drawn from an array of different video games. Much like the different pieces of equipment you could acquire in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and 3DS, Spirits are used to augment your fighter’s stats and abilities. They come in two varieties. The first, Primary Spirits, confer a stat boost to your character. Depending on their class level, they also typically boast one to three slots that can be outfitted with Support Spirits, which further imbue your fighter with different abilities and attributes. For instance, equipping Fire Emblem Awakening’s Lon’qu as a Support Spirit will give your character a Killing Edge sword at the start of a match, while the Wind Fish from The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening increases the power of your special moves.

Furthermore, Primary Spirits fall under one of three different categories: Attack, Grab, or Shield. Much like the elemental types in Pokemon, these coexist in a rock-paper-scissors-style triangle, each one offering an advantage over another. As a result, the battles in World of Light introduce a new layer of strategy to the series, as you’ll need to carefully consider which Spirits to equip to your fighter in order to counteract the different battle conditions imposed by your opponent’s Spirits. Defeating foes will in turn reward you with their Spirits and other in-game currency, which you’ll then be able to use to level them up and even unlock additional attributes for your fighters on a skill tree.

Complementing World of Light is the aforementioned Spirit Board, another mode in which you can unlock the titular collectibles. True to its name, the Spirit Board is laid out much like a quest board; you’ll be able to select the picture of a Spirit you’d like to challenge and compete against an appropriately themed character who is equipped with it, just as you would in World of Light (albeit without the adventure game trappings found in that mode). The difficulty of these bouts is determined by the rarity of the Spirit you are facing, and they can get surprisingly challenging if you’re battling an Ace or Legendary Spirit. Fortunately, even if you don’t succeed the first time around, you’ll be able to challenge the Spirit again after a set amount of time.

Thanks to the introduction of Spirits, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s new single-player modes are shaping up to be the deepest in the series yet. The game launches for Nintendo Switch on December 7. On top of the new modes, it boasts the largest roster in the franchise to date, with 11 new characters set to debut in the game (plus five as-yet-unannounced fighters slated to arrive throughout 2019 as DLC). You can take a look at some of the new fighters in action here. For even more on the title, check out our roundup of everything we know about Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

On Sunday, November 18, WWE held it’s major fall PPV, Survivor Series. There were a few memorable moments and quite a few cringe-worthy moments as well. This was an evening where wrestlers from WWE’s premiere shows, Raw and Smackdown, would face each other in numerous matches to determine who is the dominant brand.

There were three Survivor Series elimination matches: men’s, women’s, and tag team. Additionally, there were three champion vs. champion matches–four if you count Ronda Rousey vs. Charlotte. According to commentator Michael Cole, Raw swept the evening, with Smackdown losing all its matches. However, Smackdown’s tag team match on the Kickoff Show beat Raw’s, so Cole’s ability to count is subpar at best.

The evening delivered some thrills, chills, and yawns. That may not rhyme, but that’s all I’ve got after watching an almost 6 hour long PPV. Like every human on the internet, I have opinions about how everything went down at the Staples Center in Los Angeles during Survivor Series. Here are the rankings of all the Survivor Series matches, presented in the order they aired on the PPV.

Match Card:

• Tag Team Survivor Series Match [Kickoff Match]
• Women’s Survivor Series Match
• Intercontinental Champion Seth Rollins vs. United States Champion Shinsuke Nakamura
• Raw Tag Team Champions AOP vs. SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Bar
• Buddy Murphy (c) vs. Mustafa Ali (Cruiserweight Championship)
• Men’s Survivor Series Match
• Raw Women’s Champion Ronda Rousey vs. Charlotte
• Universal Champion Brock Lesnar vs. WWE Champion Daniel Bryan

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Survivor Series has come to a close, and it was a bit better than expected, especially the Ronda Rousey vs. Charlotte Flair match. Raw dominated Smackdown over the course of the November 18 evening, for one of WWE’s biggest PPVs of the year.

The Survivor Series PPV aired live from the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. The rosters of Raw and Smackdown battled each other to see which show was the dominant one. Below you’ll find the results for every match and the order of elimination for every Survivor Series bout.

The Kickoff Show for Survivor Series beings 2 PM PT / 5 PM ET / 10 PM GMT on the WWE Network. There are plenty of ways to watch the show before the main card starts at 4 PM PT / 7 PM ET / 12 AM GMT (November 19).

While the Kickoff Show is two hours long, there has only been one confirmed match for the event, and that’s the Tag Team Survivor Series Match which features two teams of 10 battling each other in an elimination bout. For the main card, there will only be one title defense during the evening, and that’s Cruiserweight Champion Buddy Murphy taking on Mustafa Ali.

The rest of the evening will feature plenty of Raw vs. Smackdown matches. It will have title holders from one brand facing champions from the other, except for the women’s champs. Ronda Rousey was originally going to face Becky Lynch, but the Smackdown Women’s Champion got injured, so Lynch picked Charlotte Flair as her replacement. Additionally, Brock Lesnar was going to take on AJ Styles, but days before the event, Daniel Bryan beat Styles for the WWE Championship, so Bryan is off to Survivor Series to fight Lesnar.

Survivor Series Match Card:

• Universal Champion Brock Lesnar vs. WWE Champion Daniel Bryan
• Raw Women’s Champion Ronda Rousey vs. Charlotte
• Intercontinental Champion Seth Rollins vs. United States Champion Shinsuke Nakamura
• Women’s Survivor Series Match
• Men’s Survivor Series Match
• Raw Tag Team Champions AOP vs. SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Bar
• Buddy Murphy (c) vs. Mustafa Ali (Cruiserweight Championship)
• Tag Team Survivor Series Match [Kickoff Match]

Check out the live updates, as they happen, below. In case you’re not caught up, don’t worry; we put the final results in spoiler blocks, and this includes eliminations during the match as well.

Kickoff Show

Team Raw vs. Team Smackdown: 10-Man Tag Team Survivor Series Match

Match in progress

Colons eliminated (Smackdown)

B-Team eliminated (Raw)

Sanity eliminated (Smackdown)

The Ascension eliminated (Raw)

The Good Brothers eliminated (Smackdown)

Lucha House Party eliminated (Raw)

Gable and Roode eliminated (Raw)

New Day eliminated (Smackdown)

Revival eliminated (Raw)

The Usos win by pin at 23:17

Note: Sasha Banks and Bayley were added to the women’s elimination match after Ruby Riott and Natalya had an altercation and were removed from the team.

Main Card

Team Raw vs. Team Smackdown: 5-on-5 Survivor Series Match

NOTE: Natalya and Ruby Rose were replaced by Sasha Banks and Bayley

Naomi eliminated (Smackdown)

Tamina eliminated (Raw)

Mickie James eliminated (Raw)

Carmella eliminated (Smackdown)

Mandy Rose eliminated (Smackdown)

Sonya DeVille (Smackdown) and Bayley (Raw) counted out

Sasha Banks eliminated (Raw)

Asuka eliminated (Smackdown)

Nia Jax wins by pin at 20:!5

Seth Rollins vs. Shinsuke Nakamura

Rollins pins Nakamura at 21:26

AOP vs. The Bar

AOP wins by pin at 9:00

Buddy Murphy (c) vs. Mustafa Ali (Cruiserweight Championship)

Murphy wins by pin at 12:22

Team Raw vs. Team Smackdown: 5-on-5 Survivor Series Match

Samoa Joe eliminated (Smackdown)

Finn Balor eliminated (Raw)

Dolph Ziggler eliminated (Raw)

Jeff Hardy eliminated (Smackdown)

Rey Mysterio eliminated (Smackdown)

The Miz eliminated (Smackdown)

Shane McMahon eliminated (Smackdown)

Braun Strowman wins by pin at 24:00

Ronda Rousey vs. Charlotte Flair

Ronda Rousey wins by DQ at 14:10

Brock Lesnar vs. Daniel Bryan

Brock Lesnar wins by pin at 18:40

That’s the end of the show. Stay tuned for our review.