Fun Super Smash Bros. Ultimate details you might have missed

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate contains a ridiculous amount of stuff, from the impressive amount of playable characters to the hundreds of songs that make up its soundtrack. The work that went into creating a cohesive game while staying true to all these original characters and locations is inspiring; Nintendo didn’t just throw all this content into a blender, hoping for a tasty sludge.

Nintendo filled Super Smash Bros. Ultimate with so many tiny details and one-off jokes and gags that most players will probably miss at least some of them, no matter how often they play. The team behind Ultimate filled the game with jokes and references that are sometimes obvious and sometimes obscure, but each one feels like a treat for the players who are truly paying attention.

Here are the secrets, jokes and Easter eggs that you might have missed while playing Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, in no particular order. And this is by no means all of them. Share your own favorites in the comments if we missed them, and take a moment to appreciate the amount of time and love that was poured into every corner of this game.

Richter dreams of Dracula

Every character in Ultimate has a number of vocal reactions and taunts that they say depending on what’s going on in the match, and that includes how they handle being put to sleep by Jigglypuff.

Richter Belmont, from the Castlevania series, dreams of Dracula.

Wait, Solid Snake is Ness’ father?

This joke is the sort of thing that requires a lot of background knowledge to catch, but it’s a pretty neat joke. Ness’ father doesn’t appear in Earthbound, although you talk to him on the phone. So his spirit in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is ... a phone. That you can only collect after you defeat Solid Snake, who is invisible. Because Ness’ father wasn’t actually there for him.

That’s bleak, but if you want an in-universe joke that’s even darker ...

Here’s a free bomb — there’s no tragic backstory or anything

Metal Gear Solid 5’s Paz Ortega Andrade is another spirit you can unlock in Ultimate’s spirits mode, and she’ll give you a Bob-omb at the beginning every match when you have her spirit equipped. It’s a useful bonus, until you remember how she died in the Metal Gear series.

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The Game and Watch level makes everything flat

You can pause Super Smash Bros. Ultimate at any time and mess with the in-game camera to see things that wouldn’t normally be shown during battle, and you’ll find all sorts of neat details while doing so. My favorite? Everyone becomes flat when battling on the Game and Watch stage. You can also zoom all the way out to see the entire “Super Smash Bros.” Game and Watch portable.

This isn’t the only level that flattens characters, however:

Characters don’t have a good time inside Wario’s mouth

Ultimate’s character models become a bit deformed when they’re swallowed by Wario. No one looks like they’re enjoying themselves.

Paint and metal effects were added with care

Characters in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate can turn into metal versions of themselves or get splashed by paint. But each character model is still treated as if it were a real object, with different parts. The Inkling, for instance, gains a metal sheen and the liquid inside their tank turns metal, but the glass on the tank does not.

So Olimar turns metal, but the effect is limited to the character itself.

Paint effects are treated in almost the opposite way: The helmet gets splashed, but Olimar himself does not.

Pit is not doing OK

Kid Icarus character Palutena will show up during matches to give Pit background information about the characters he’s about to battle if you use the taunt command, and the dialogue is filled with jokes and references to past games.

Pit has some issues dealing with the idea of multiple timelines.

Nintendo via Nintendo Unity

The clock tower will tell you what time it is

Bayonetta’s stage has a clock tower, naturally. And it actually functions, showing whatever time your Nintendo Switch says it is. Helpful!

There’s a dog hidden in the first image of this article

She’s hard to see at first, but she’s there! It helps if you relax your eyes and try to look through the screen.