Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
I know, I know!
As we discussed at length last December, we have an annual cutoff date for Game of the Year nominations of December 1. That’s to prevent hasty choices where a project hasn’t had enough time to marinate yet; to really sit in our brains to decide if it’s one of the best games of the entire year. Even if we voted in January, it still isn’t enough time in many cases.
Because really, the entire year does matter. A lot of readers cite recency bias, but at Destructoid we have a rigorous process for initial Game of the Year brainstorming (read: a few of us sit in a room together in real life and yell at each other for up to three hours), making sure to comb through every single release. That includes a game that came out over a year ago. See? Older things are remembered!
That’s to say nothing of the fact that Smash Ultimate is one of the most celebrated and complete fighting games of all time: and the most successful. I still play it regularly to this day, and the mere lack of announcements for it (looking at you, Game Awards) can cause mass hysteria. Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together kind of stuff.
Smash Ultimate will continue to stay in the collective zeitgeist for years to come, and has put pretty much every fighter in an unenviable position from this day forward. It’s certainly deserving of the title of 2019’s best Switch game. At least.
