Super Smash Bros Ultimate Direct: Here's everything just revealed

We were expecting a lot of new information on Super Smash Bros Ultimate during today's Nintendo Direct, and it certainly didn't disappoint. Nintendo and series creator Masahiro Sakurai managed to pack a lot into its relatively short running time, covering everything from new stages and characters to new assist trophies and game modes. In case you missed it, here's everything that was discussed during today's show.

There weren't a ton of new stages announced today, but we did to see a couple new ones. Accompanying the debut of Simon and Richter Belmont is Dracula's Castle, which of course features candlesticks that drop items when they're broken, as well as Castlevania's rogues gallery of monster movie villains. Another new stage is New Donk City Hall, which is based on the location from Super Mario Odyssey.

Sakurai says that there will be more than 100 stages in the game, but he also noted that each stage will have Battlefield and Omega (think Final Destination) versions as well. Players will be able to turn off hazards for each stage, allowing them to fight without the stage acting as an enemy too. Finally, there will be a new Stage Morph feature that allows players to pick two different stages and transition between them in the middle of a battle.

There will, of course, be new items and Pokemon to use in Super Smash Bros Ultimate too. Today we got a glimpse at just a handful of them, and some of the more interesting ones include the Rage Blaster, which becomes more powerful as the user's damage percentage climbs, and Death's Scythe, which will immediately KO heavily damaged players. New Pokemon that will appear in Ultimate include Alolan Exeggutor, Vulpix (both standard and Alolan varieties), Solgaleo, Lunala, Mimikyu, Abra, Ditto, and Pyukumuku.

As we assumed, Sakurai spent a fair amount of time talking about the game modes that will be available in Super Smash Bros Ultimate. Classic mode, which made its debut way back in the very first Super Smash Bros game for N64, will be returning in Ultimate. This single-player mode is pretty straightforward, as it simply challenges players to fight through a line up of different characters, culminating with a fight against Master Hand (or at least that's the way it's worked in previous games).

Stamina Battle is also returning, taking its place alongside Time Battle and Stock Battle as one of Ultimate's standard game modes. In Stamina Battle, players will have to deplete the stamina of their opponents and the last one standing wins. Though it's fairly simple, it's also quite a bit different from the other two standard modes, which focus on earning points through knock outs.

Squad Strike is an interesting new mode that allows players to go head-to-head with groups of fighters instead of just one. 3-on-3 or 5-on-5 battles will be available, with each player controlling an entire team.

Of course, there will also be a Tourney mode in Super Smash Bros Ultimate, but most veterans probably expected that. Tourney mode will be the one to play when you have more players than you can fit in a standard match, and up to 32 people can participate in a single tournament. You can fill any gaps you may have with AI players too, making this a viable mode for smaller groups as well.

Finally, we come to Smashdown, which is indeed a very interesting mode. In Smashdown, characters will become locked after they've been used once, so you'll need to be well-versed in a number of fighters if you want to win.

Though we've covered nearly every thing that was announced today, it's also worth watching the Direct to see it all in action. We've embedded the VOD of the livestream below so you can watch all of the announcements, so check it out if you have a half-hour to spare.