The Ultimate Party Game

[Bowser II]

When I play Smash with my friends, the matches usually end up all the same. We all either play as our mains, or we all pick random. That gets pretty boring, so I came up with a fun game to keep that from happening:

ULTIMATE PARTY

Want to mix up your Smash matchups with your friends? Below is a list of character themes. Randomly pick a number 1-30 and follow the guidelines provided.

Some ground rules:

• Two people can't play as the same character unless the theme calls for it.
• Any alt can be picked as long as it follows the theme (unless the theme specifically states otherwise).
• Items and stage hazards can be on or off, you pick.
• Play a new character every round. The purpose of this is to shake things up a bit, so try to be as many different characters as possible!

.

1. Random
Everyone picks random.

• Random stage

2. Mario Party
Everyone must play as a Mario character.

• If you want, Yoshi, Wario, Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, and King K. Rool are all allowed, despite being listed under different franchises (let's be real here, they're all in the same universe)
• Must play at a Mario stage

3. The Legend of Smash
Everyone must play as a Legend of Zelda character.

• Must play at a Legend of Zelda stage
• If there are more than 6 players, doubles are allowed

4. Gotta Catch 'Em All
Everyone must play as a Pokémon.

• Must play at a Pokémon stage

5. Smash Emblem
Everyone must play as someone from Fire Emblem.

• Must play at a Fire Emblem stage
• If there are 8 players, the extra must be the other gender variant of either Robin or Corrin

6. Blue Da Ba Dee
Everyone must play as someone whose primary color scheme is blue.

• Must play at Big Blue
• No alts are allowed due to how many blue characters there are

7. Hoomans
Everyone must play as a human.

• Must play at Tomodachi Life

8. OG 12
Everyone must play as a character that appeared in Smash 64.

• Must play at a stage from Smash 64

9. EVERYONE IS [ _ ]
Everyone must play as the same character.

• Must play at a stage from the same franchise as the character
• Can be selected from a randomizer or by group selection

10. Royal Rumble
Everyone must play as a character with a royal title.

• Must play at a castle stage

11. Firefight
Everyone must play as a character that can inflict damage with fire.

• Must play at a fiery stage

12. Gunfight
Everyone must play as a character that wields a gun.

• Must play at Duck Hunt

13. Swordfight
Everyone must play as a character that wields a sword.

• Must play at Coliseum

14. Recess
Everyone must play as a child or teen.

• Must play at Onett

15. Melee Newcomers
Everyone must play as a character who debuted in Melee.

• Must play at a stage from Melee

16. Brawl Newcomers
Everyone must play as a character who debuted in Brawl.

• Must play at a stage from Brawl

17. Smash 4 Newcomers
Everyone must play as a character who debuted in Smash 4.

• Must play at a stage from Smash 4

18. Ultimate Newcomers
Everyone must play as a character who debuted in Ultimate.

• Must play at a stage new to Ultimate

19. Ends In _
Randomly select a digit [0-9] from a number picker. Everyone must play as a character whose fighter number ends in that digit.

• Must play at a random stage

20. Top Tier Gods
Everyone must play as a character that is considered to be top tier (based on current tier lists).

• Must play at a battlefield variant
• Use whatever tier list you want it's not like this is serious

21. Bottom Tier Garbage
Everyone must play as a character that is considered to be bottom tier (based on current tier lists).

• Must play at a battlefield variant
• Use whatever tier list you want this is literally just a party game

22. Solo Reps
Everyone must play as a character that is the only character from their franchise.

• Must play at a stage from a franchise that does not have a fighter to represent it

23. Poster Boys
Everyone must play as the main hero of a franchise.

• In the case of multiple heroes from different games, play whichever one came first
• Must play at Castle Siege

24. Bad Boyz
Everyone must play as someone who is primarily a villain.

• Must play at a dark stage

25. Echo Canyon
Everyone must play as an echo fighter.

• In the event of 8 players, the eighth player must play as Dr. Mario or Pichu
• Must play at Gerudo Valley

26. Alphabet Soup
Randomly select 3 letters from a letter picker. Everyone must play as a character whose name begins with one of those letters.

• Must play at a stage that begins with one of those letters
• Doubles are allowed only if needed
• The following letters cannot be used: E, Q, U, V, X. There are no fighters to represent them
• Use the first letter of the name as it appears. Dedede only counts for K because his name appears as "King Dedede" in the game. This also applies to alts. Even if they represent different characters, they must actually be named differently in the game to count for that letter

27. XY
Everyone must play as a male character.

• Ice Climbers, Banjo & Kazooie, and any other characters with ambiguous gender cannot be played
• Must pick a random stage

28. XX
Everyone must play as a female character.

• Ice Climbers and any other characters with ambiguous gender cannot be played
• Must pick a random stage

29. Holy Sh*rt
Everyone must play as a character wearing a shirt.

• IT MUST BE A SHIRT! Other types of clothes that cover the torso DO NOT count
• Must play at a stage in some kind of town or city

30. Free Space
Play as whoever you want on whatever stage your group decides on. BUT… there is one rule.

• You cannot play as a character you have previously played as during this session
• Doubles are allowed this time

These are just 30 ideas for battle themes. Post ideas for new themes or suggestions for existing ones below. Obviously this is just for fun, so technically none of the themes or rules have to be followed if you don't want to follow them. But then what's the point? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[Ray Trace]

For some of your themes, you should include items in the switch too, if they are to be turned on; like your Mario theme suggestion, should also have only Mario items available, such as Bob-ombs, Green Shells, Super Mushrooms, etc.

Another idea I had was to have only Pokeballs (and Master Balls) on for a fun little match involving only Pokemon (or Assist Trophies if you like). If only there was an official way to toggle which Pokemon appears in Poke Balls. You can do that with mods, and it's extremely fun to have only legendaries (with select exceptions) spawn out of them and wreck havoc on the stage.

 

[Bowser II]

Hmm, maybe unique rulesets should be made for some of these beforehand so you don't have to go into settings every time to change the available items. In that case, other rules could be changed as well...

Balloon Battle
Everyone must select a character from the 10 lightest fighters.

• In order, those fighters are: Pichu, Jigglypuff, Squirtle, Mr. Game & Watch, Fox, Mewtwo, Sheik, Olimar, Pikachu, and Kirby
• Must play at Balloon Fight
• Launch rate must be set at at least 1.2x

Some good items to use for that one are the Bunny Hood, Rocket Belt, Gust Bellows, Ore Club, and anything else related to air or jump height. Although with the increased launch rate, the number of stocks may have to be adjusted as well to keep the game from being way too short.

A heavyweight variant could be made as well.