Resident Evil Spirits In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Welcome to the world of Survival Horror but with cartoon violence and stuff

A whiiile ago now, four spirits from the Resident Evil series were added to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate for the Nintendo Switch to coincide with all the Resident Evil games coming out for the platform and this post is an appreciation that that even happened at all. When Smash Bros. Ultimate came out, a lot of fans of the series weren't convinced by the 'storyline' content, the world of light and the single player challenges represented by the Spirit Board. Spirits, in this game are the essences of video game characters, items and places and in order to earn the spirits you have to best them in a fight. What we absolutely loved about battling spirits is that each fight re-imagined the essence, theme and tropes of the wide field of inspiration from across pretty much all of video games as it would be told through the main Smash cast and items. To reuse a well worn cliche, each one is a love letter to the games the spirits are from.

That Resident Evil is even represented in Smash is awesome to us if you'd told a younger us just quite how many of our favourite characters and franchises would be smushed together in this game we would have been incredulous. So here's a little look at how the world of Resident Evil has been re-imagined in the spirit of the Smash Universe (see wot we did there?). The four characters put in are series' mainstays Chris Redfield, Jill Valentine, Albert Wesker and Leon S. Kennedy.

Chris

Resident Evil's bearded buff boy, Chris is represented by his Resident Evil 6 version and snake is the perfect choice to represent Chris and his arsenal of weapons. Part way through the battle, he's joined by Richter representing Resident Evil 6's walking Rich tea biscuit Piers Nivans. They both hop about like loons throwing grenades, firing RPGs and laying mines. The stage setting of Earthbound's Fourside perfectly reflects the gold, black and orange palette of Chris and Piers' levels from RE6. 

Once earned, Chris' spirit is a two star primary which boosts shooting item power in line with his one man tank energy in the recent action focused Resident Evil games.

Jill

Jill's probably our favourite of the homaged RE characters, Wii Fit trainer perfectly represents her 'blueness' in both Resident Evil and Resident Evil 3 and Luigi's Mansion a fitting send up of the Spencer Mansion. Even better, a fat red headed guy turns up as a reinforcement and who makes for a better Barry Burton than a giant-sized Ganondorf?

Jill's spirit is a support spirit that grants lightweight, increasing jump and move speed at the cost of higher launchability because she's a skinny minny I guess? Not too sure about that one given the old bird hasn't been able to jump on demand in any of her Resident Evil appearances. 

Leon

Leon's here in his Resident Evil 4 guise and a nippy shooty Fox in his dark outfit is a fairly good pastiche of Leon's combat leather-lite fetish wear. Gerudo Valley matches Resident Evil 4's beige heavy colour scheme as you try to eat Leon with a horde of demented villagers constantly trying to capture you, which is pretty spot on actually. 

Leon's spirit is another two star primary spirit which improves item throwing? I guess he throws a lot of grenades and stuff?

Wesker 

The last and highest powered spirit is the series' long time infected mutant, laser, robot antagonist Albert Wesker. Wesker's spirit battle is a stamina battle based on SPOILERS the finale of Resident Evil 5. The part of Wesker is played by Capt. Falcon superficially not much resemblance but his punchy shit is perfect for the part and he goes through an invincible and metal phase aping the boss battle from the game. Norfair makes for the fiery volcano setting into which Wesker eventually meets his end. Or does he. Again. 

His spirit is three star and ups fist attack once again, perfectly encapturing his annoying fucking punchy shit in some of the best boss battles in the series from Resident Evil 5. 

These spirits were initially only available to collect from a time limited event but once acquired would appear in the spirit board rotation. However, THANKFULLY, they do seem to get added with content and game updates so hopefully, if you missed the original release you'll be able to find them in your game at anytime! 

Honestly, what a delight it is to even have some Resident Evil cross over in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and the team made quite some effort to 'borrow' elements and themes from some of the greatest games in the series and Resident Evil 6. Could another Capcom character on the cards for the Fighter's Pass Season 2? Could that character be a Resident Evil one?