Challenger's Approach

“	A rematch against a fighter you couldn't defeat before. Pull off victory this time!	”
—Description from Ultimate's Mode Guide

Challenger's Approach is a mode in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate where the player can rematch an unlockable character they previously failed to unlock. This mode is available in the Games & More menu after its conditions are met.

When the mode is selected, the Challenger Approaching screen will appear for the unlockable fighter that has been lost to, then the player can choose any available character to rematch the unlockable fighter.

The fights are the same as the usual Challenger Approaching fights, including stage, music, and CPU level.

Mechanics

If the player loses a Challenger Approaching fight, that challenger will reappear under the Challenger's Approach mode after performing approximately 400 in-battle actions. This requirement applies regardless of who the challenger is, how many other characters have been unlocked or challenged, or which method was originally used to issue the Challenger Approaching fight. There is no wait time requirement.

Challenger's Approach can appear after doing anything that would cause a Challenger Approaching fight to appear, such as exiting World of Light. If the conditions for both are met at the same time, a Challenger Approaching fight will take priority over the Challenger's Approach notification.

When the Challenger's Approach mode appears, an in-game screen will notify the player. This screen will reappear each time the mode appears. The player may press Y on this screen to immediately go to the Challenger Approaching screen. If a Challenger's Approach rematch becomes available but the mode is already there (from an earlier challenger that the player hasn't accepted the rematch for yet), the challenger will silently queue up behind the existing challenger(s) and no in-game notification will appear.

If multiple characters become eligible for a rematch at the same time, they will queue up approximately in order by fighter number (for example, Dark Samus will appear first). However, for unknown reasons, Richter appears before Inkling and Simon appears after King K. Rool. If multiple characters queue up (become silently eligible for rematches) one at a time instead of all at once, this order will not apply (instead they will queue up in the order they became eligible).

If the player loses a Challenger's Approach fight, the same mechanics apply as losing any other Challenger Approaching fight: the character will become eligible for another rematch after 400 more in-battle actions. Regardless of if the player won or lost, if any other character(s) remain in the queue, the Challenger's Approach mode will stay available and the player may immediately rematch the next character in the queue. If no other characters remain in the queue, the Challenger's Approach mode will disappear.

If a character in the Challenger's Approach queue is unlocked through the World of Light, that character will silently disappear from the queue and the remaining order will not change. If that was the last character in the queue, the Challenger's Approach mode will silently disappear.

Gallery

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  The notification screen when Challenger's Approach becomes available

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  Challenger's Approach in the Games & More menu

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  The Challenger's Approach icon when not highlighted over

Trivia

• This mode along with Sephiroth Challenge are the only modes in Ultimate that would no longer be available at some point. In this case, Challenger's Approach would no longer be available if the player has unlocked all unlockable characters in the game.
• When the Challenger Approaching screen appears after Classic Mode or a timed encounter, the screen stays up for a few seconds and then the game automatically proceeds to the fight. However, when the Challenger Approaching screen appears for a Challenger's Approach rematch, the player must press A to dismiss the screen and proceed to the character selection menu.