Language: Difference between revisions

''Ultimate'' supports 11 languages regardless of region: Japanese, English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Dutch, Russian, Korean, Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese. Simplified Chinese is available for the first time since the original ''Super Smash Bros.'', and Traditional Chinese is entirely new to the series. However, Portuguese, which was present in ''SSB4'', is no longer available, despite the Nintendo Switch system still having a Portuguese-language option. For the first time since ''Melee'', language selection is available from an in-game menu rather than being automatically selected based on the system's region and language settings. This is due to the [[Nintendo Switch]] not having region locking, necessitating every language to be available on the same physical Switch cartridge.

English, French and Spanish each have two different variants: an NTSC variant (American English, Canadian French and Latin American Spanish) and a PAL variant (Commonwealth English, European French and Castilian Spanish). The difference is affected by the system's region and language. The NTSC variants are used if the system's region is set to "the Americas", "Japan" or "Hong Kong/Taiwan/South Korea", or if the system's language is set to Japanese, Korean or Chinese; the PAL variants are used if the system's region is set to "Europe" or "Australia/New Zealand", or if the system's language is set to German, Dutch, Italian or Russian. In these cases, the system's language takes priority over its region. This effectively gives ''Ultimate'' a total of 14 language choices compared to the 11 selectable in the menu. Players can change the region in the Switch system settings to access these regional variants. In English, unlike in the previous game, only a few regional differences are still present, such as the name "Duck Hunt Duo" for {{SSBU|Duck Hunt}} in PAL languages, the voices of {{SSBU|Wii Fit Trainer}} depending on the region, [[tips]] describing characters' first appearances being accurate to the release date in the region, the [[Super Scope]] item being called the ”Nintendo Scope", some slightly different music track names, [[Find Mii]] being called "StreetPass Quest", some spirit names being different, and games mentioned in the names of certain [[spirit]]s and music tracks being named differently based on the region (such as "Wandering Samurai (Rhythm Heaven Fever)" in the NTSC version differing from "Wandering Samurai (Beat the Beat)" in the PAL version). Other former differences, such as [[Boxing Ring]] character titles, spellings (such as color/colour and armor/armour), move names (such as [[Hammer Flip]] and [[Duck Jump]]), and text differing drastically have been standardized between English regional versions. The two Spanish and French versions, however, continue to exhibit significant text and character name differences, in addition to the Spanish voices for Wii Fit Trainer still differing between regions similarly to the English ones.

Unlike previous games, changing language settings in ''Ultimate'' reboots the game. As such, changing the language can be used as an alternate method (besides closing and reopening the game) to [[Unlockable character|unlock characters]] in [[Versus Mode|Smash]] battles more quickly by bypassing the ten-minute cooldown timer between challengers, particularly when using controllers that lack a [[Home button|HOME button]].