Five new characters have been added to the roster, three of which will be Echo Fighters.

4e. Dark Samus

25e. Chrom

66. Simon Belmont

66.e Richter Belmont

67. King K. Rool

There will be 103 stages, not including all omega and Battlefield versions in Smash Ultimate. The highest amount of stages in the series by far. All stages will be playable with 8 players, and all will be available straight away without the need of unlocking. Stage Hazards can be turned on or off. There's also Stage Morph, where you can play on two stages in one match, with the stages changing over to each other during play (similar to the Castle Siege stage in Brawl). There's roughly 900 soundtracks to choose from, with all music from one series being available on every stage under that series.

The following were featured in the Direct:

Rules selection now becomes the first thing you set out for matches. You can use previously used rule sets for quick access into a game. Stamina Mode is now a standard Smash mode, like stock and time. Similarly to stock where you can include time, stamina can be chosen as well. Stage selection will become before selecting characters. Sudden Death zooms in as well as the 300% starting life. There's a new Final Smash Meter option. If turned on, the meter charges during play and once full, you can use a less powerful Final Smash. However, multiple Final Smashes will not happen simultaneously.

Squad Strike is a new game mode. This is a 3-on-3 or 5-on-5 elimination team battle. This can be played with one player controlling one side, or multiple players on one squad.

Tourney Mode returns, where up to 32 players or CPUs can compete in a bracket style tournament.

Smashdown is a new Smash mode. The idea is to play through matches, where any selected fighter who was used previously cannot be chosen again for any more subsequent match. Even if it wasn't you who selected that character. See how many games you can win with different fighters.

Training Mode has it's own exclusive stage. The background is a grid, which helps measure distance and height. That includes how far opponents are launched from moves and at different percentages.

Classic Mode is back as the familiar 1-player mode. As usual, you advance through rounds against the CPU. Each fighter will have a specific sets of opponents to face.

The game menu was shown, but a green panel under Smash was blurred out to keep the mystery hidden, which will be talked about another time. The ZR button will bring up a dashboard on the main menu.

More Assist Trophies have been revealed, including Knuckles and Krystal who were announced earlier on the Smash Ultimate site.