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 a rematch becomes available.

Overview

Upon a fresh save file and with no downloadable content purchased, the player only has access to eight playable characters: Mario, Donkey Kong, Link, Samus, Yoshi, Kirby, Fox, and Pikachu. As time passes and certain prerequisites are met, characters appear that the player can challenge. If the battle is won, that character is added to the roster as playable. If the battle is lost, the challenger disappears. However, after a while, a gate icon will appear in the bottom-right corner of the Games & More section. Upon selecting this icon, the challenger can be rematched, with the same stage, music, and CPU level.

Originally, if the player lost an initial challenger fight, that challenger would reappear under the Challenger's Approach mode after performing approximately 400 in-battle actions. This requirement was the same regardless of who the challenger was, how many other characters were unlocked or challenged, or which method was originally used to issue the Challenger Approaching fight. There was no wait time requirement. Challenger's Approach could appear after doing anything that would cause a Challenger Approaching fight to appear, such as exiting World of Light. If the conditions for both were met at the same time, a Challenger Approaching fight would take priority over the Challenger's Approach notification.

Starting in update version 4.0.0, Challenger's Approach now appears immediately after losing to a challenger. As a result, the tutorial page stating that rematches will appear "after a while" no longer appears normally, and can only be seen by manually pressing Y on the Challenger's Approach mode or from the How to Play menu.

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 (e.g. 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.

Prior to the update, if multiple characters became eligible for a rematch at the same time, they would queue up approximately in order by fighter number (for example, Dark Samus would appear first). However, for unknown reasons, Richter appeared before Inkling and Simon appeared after King K. Rool. After the update, it is no longer possible for multiple characters to become rematch-eligible at once. In any version, if multiple characters queue up (become silently eligible for rematches) one at a time instead of all at once, they will just appear in the order they became eligible instead of by fighter number order.

Prior to the update, if the player lost a Challenger's Approach fight, the same mechanics would apply as losing any other Challenger Approaching fight: the character would become eligible for another rematch after 400 more in-battle actions. Regardless of if the player won or lost, if any other character(s) remained in the queue, the Challenger's Approach mode would still be available and the player could immediately rematch the next character in the queue. If no other characters remained in the queue, the Challenger's Approach mode would disappear. After the update, a new Continue menu with a rematch button appears immediately after losing a Challenger's Approach fight, alongside an option to change the player's character and a quit button. Similar to World of Light, this Continue menu also appears if the user tries to quit the match from the Pause menu. If the user chooses the quit button, the current challenger will move to the back of the queue.

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.

Update history

1.2.0

• Adjusted CPU difficulty to be easier overall.

4.0.0

• Characters now immediately appear in Challenger's approach instead of "after a while."
  • It is no longer possible for multiple characters to become rematch-eligible at once.
• A new Continue menu with a rematch button appears immediately after losing a Challenger's Approach fight, alongside an option to change the player's character and a quit button. This Continue menu also appears if the user tries to quit the match from the Pause menu. If the user chooses the quit button, the current challenger will move to the back of the queue.

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 (v2.0.1)

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  Challenger's Approach in the Games & More menu (v13.0.1)

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  The Challenger's Approach icon when not highlighted over

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  The Continue menu added in v4.0.0

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  A How to Play screen that no longer appears normally

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.