During the last war, I got to finally have a true Ultra loadout. It was in the 120fps limit games. However, eight ten-round magazines and two six-round magazines mean that you have enough darts to last a round. Results were better than expected, since my 2nd Amp shoots straight (the first consistently shoots right), so accuracy wholly depended on the darts and the wind. This is still a matter of debate.
Ultra, you frustrate my heart. I love using different ammo types, but you bring so little to the table besides cost! And maybe some screaming darts. Are you going to get better or will it be too late?
Bad Advertising, And Worse Results
Nerf was just finishing filming the Ultra Championship when I tried Ultra for the first time. (I received an invitation to the launch/afterparty). Although Ultra was advertised as being the most accurate Nerf dart, even that description seemed suspicious. You can see darts hitting targets as you watch the video of us testing the blasters. Are Elites better than Elites? Yes. However, most darts are. Nerf Accustrike darts are far more precise and compatible with existing blasters. At that point, the intentions were clear: hype the new ammo type that Hasbro exclusively makes.
Most people, however, caught on to the difference in marketing and real life. While the flagship Ultra One could spit out darts, it often didnt even have the darts leaving the barrel straight. Modification only exaggerated this effect. I often spammed high-speed darts to suppress the action at games. The Ultra Two saw many other people with misaligned flywheels. For both blasters, the Dart DRM for the genuine ammo was often too sensitive, and would fail to fire even with the correct ammo.
We saw Ultra blasters released out of order and then we finally abandoned the numbering system altogether. Although the spring-powered blasters were able to shoot darts straighter from the barrel, accuracy was still not as high as what marketing would have you believe. The accuracy claims for Elites would eventually be changed to refer only to Elites and then the boxes would cease to exist altogether. With Adventure Force waffles on shelves and being accurate out of regular blasters for far cheaper ( a dart compared to ), the marketing largely became useless. Range claims are still valid, but depending on what sample was provided by any reviewer, it could be 120 miles. But hitting something that far away was unlikely unless your target was the side of your house.
In the end, we had more expensive blasters, more expensive ammo, and quite the community backlash to the new system. It was the accuracy that wasn’t better than what was already available.
Magazines Are Good! Lets Try Those!
We now have the Ultra blasters gone, and we have the Amp and the Pharaoh, which both take magazines. Although extra magazines can cost up to, depending on the retailer, they make it possible to load out. You can see the results for yourself.
They at least make Ultra viable for games due to being able to sustain fire. Despite this, accuracy at distance is still a problem. It’s safer to stand still than with wind, especially if you have wind.
Although it doesn’t bring anything new, it is at least entertaining and less tedious than a chore to use in battle. You should not use it in regular battle. I’m not going to recommend Ultra against a Nexus pro!
My Take: This Year Is Do Or Die
Ultra is plagued by marketing issues and technical issues alike. And due to the pandemic of the past year and the subsequent lack of trade shows, product information is scarce beyond what Hasbro decides to put out there. We don’t know how many blasters are out there. In the end, it comes down to a dart that doesnt quite fit in anywhere, being larger and more expensive but not truly adding anything new (at least Walmart got the ones that make noise). Although the full loadouts can be fun, I don’t see the Ultra dart being able to live up to its initial promises. Outside of modifying them to fire other darts, that is.
In the meantime, Ill try to at least enjoy it as much as other ammo types, because Im strange like that.
