Super Smash Bros. Ultimate's Theme Has Lyrics, And They're Weird

At the end of the latest Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Direct event, Nintendo debuted a new cinematic trailer that provided a little tease of its Adventure mode story, known as World of Light. This time around, the excuse for having everyone literally kick and punch each other into outer-space revolves around Spirits, which are characters that have been separated from their physical forms by a mysterious force. It all happened on one fateful day, and the Smash Ultimate will explore exactly how and why, as well as who is responsible.

Accompanying the cinematic was perhaps the biggest surprise of the Direct--a Smash Bros. Ultimate theme song with vocal lyrics. Now, putting lyrics to songs in video games is a tricky endeavour. Sometimes it can go really well, like with Portal's Still Alive, Persona 5's Wake Up, Get Up, Get Out There, Metal Gear Solid 3's Snake Eater and, of course, the single greatest video game theme tune of all time, Daytona USA's Let's Go Away (better known as Do-da do-da do-do-do-do do-do-do).

Other times you can get turds like the heavy metal Chocobo theme from Final Fantasy X-2, Eternity from Blue Dragon--which is bad despite the fact that it was sung by Deep Purple's Ian Gillan--or that vocal version of Ryu's theme that is jaw-droppingly bad.

Nintendo has a decent track record, most notably Jump Up! Super Star, the jazzy little ditty that was in Super Mario Odyssey. It absolutely knocked it out of the park with that one, and was no doubt given confidence to take another crack at it by the universal praise it got. The Smash Bros. Ultimate theme, however, doesn't seem like another [pause for impact] smash hit.

While the orchestral arrangement is appropriately epic, the actual lyrics are a bit on the nose--and not in the cheesy but catchy way Snake Eater does it. It sounds like a direct translation of a song that probably sounded way better in Japanese. Take a look at the lyrics (which we've transcribed to the best of our abilities) and listen to the song below for yourself.

Colours weave into a spire of flame,

Distant sparks call to a past still unnamed,

Bear this torch against the cold of the night,

Search your soul and reawaken the undying light,

On that day, when the sky fell away,

Our world came to an end,

In our eyes, did a fading sunrise in the dark, glimmer shadows

Silence grows, in the spaces between,

Stretching out beyond time,

Rising up, as a chorus of souls finds a [voice?],

Flickering through the void,

These little sparks,

Cling onto life, everyone caught in the struggle,

And then the storms of change, they fan the flames scattering ashes to the wind,

Every soul contains a whisper of light, gleaming faint beyond the dwindle from [sight?]

No escape no greater fate to be made,

in the end the chains of time will not break,

Colours weave into a spire of flame,

Distant sparks call to a past still unnamed,

Bear this torch against the cold of the night,

Search your soul and reawaken the undying light

Of course, musical tastes are subjective, so maybe the theme totally rocks your eardrums, in which case, great! Also while you're here why not watch the misheard lyrics video for Super Smash Bros. Brawl's theme, which is a classic.

In related Smash Bros. Ultimate news, two new characters have been revealed for the game: Ken and Inceneroar. Nintendo has also provided a wealth of information on how Spirits work in the game. Inn addition to being a part of the story, they factor into the gameplay in a big way. Although the core character roster is now complete, more characters will also be added to Smash Bros. Ultimate via paid DLC.