One of the biggest questions following Nintendo’s announcement of Super Smash Bros Ultimate during Tuesday morning’s Nintendo Direct presentation at E3 2018, was whether or not the gameplay stayed close to the Wii U version from four years ago, or if they would try to bridge the gap between the modern era of the franchise, and those who prefer the faster, tournament-friendly gameplay of 2001’s Super Smash Bros Melee for the Gamecube.

While Nintendo did announce that Super Smash Bros Ultimate would feature every character ever seen throughout the history of the franchise, as well as a number of gameplay enhancements, we hadn’t yet gotten an idea of how those enhancements would impact the flow of this latest title.

We now have an answer thanks to the Super Smash Bros Melee EVO 2016 champion, Liquid Hungry Box.

In a tweet sent out after hands-on time with the game, Hungry Box declared Super Smash Bros Ultimate to be a “Wii U 4.5”

Got to play the new Smash for a bit. CURRENT VERDICT:

-Basically Smash 4.5
-Most moves have huge knockback, realllllly far into the bubble blast zone to die
-Bayo worse but still has her combos
-Ness good, Snake busted
-Ridley busted
-“wave dash landing”
-no Mario dthrow utilt

— hungrybox (@LiquidHbox) June 12, 2018

Nintendo devoted over half of their E3 2018 presentation to promoting the latest Smash title, which will be released for the Nintendo Switch on December 7th, 2018.

You can watch the full section devoted to Super Smash Bros Ultimate in the video down below.

We will get a much better look at a high level of play later this evening, when top Smash players from around the world gather to compete in the Super Smash Bros Invitational, which will be simulcast live on Nerdbacon’s Twitch channel Tuesday evening at Twitch.tv/nerdbacon.

What are your thoughts on Super Smash Bros Ultimate? Are you excited for the ultimate celebration of everything the series has been? Or were you hoping for the series to take bolder steps forward? Let us know in the comments section below.

Be sure to stay on top of all of NerdBacon’s E3 2018 coverage right here!