For me, the "Ultimate" Miss Fortune skin just doesn't pack the punch the other ultimates had.

The unveiling of an ultimate skin has always been an exciting time in League of Legends. Not only were the first couple insane quality when they released, they completely surpassed everyone's expectations of what could happen in League of Legends. The most recent skin, Gun Goddess Miss Fortune however, has a lot of people raising their eyebrows and I think for good reason. In the past Riot has said there likely won't be an ultimate skin per year because they don't want to push out low quality products when this is THE purchase to be made in their game. They wanted the concepts to be great, the art and sound to be incredible, the animations to be clean, and of course they wanted to completely reinvent the wheel with these skins and throw new tech in. I'll go through what every skin did uniquely when it released, and how Miss Fortune's skin is a sad regression in the Ultimate skin saga.

-Pulsefire Ezreal, the first ever Ultimate skin. It got an update when the Caitlyn skin released but many of the effects and concepts are largely the same. It was the first skin to come with a custom profile page, the first skin to evolve over the course of the game (based on level), the first skin to have custom kill animations on creeps and champions, and overall was arguably the best skin from an art perspective at the time.

-Spirit Guard Udyr, this skin was the first to have multiple models with their own custom VO, multiple evolutions players could pick (based on skill points), it also had kill effects colored for each form like the Ezreal skin, and it came with four profile banners. It did a lot of new things and improved on the idea the Ezreal skin set out for, and I think it still holds up today.

-DJ Sona, I don't think I even need to start with this skin. While it wasn't the first skin to let you change models in game, it was the first skin to have separate models with all 5 spell animations being changed. It was also, of course, the first skin that changed your music in game (and still is unique in that regard, if you don't count the Star Guardian skins playing the theme at the start of the game) and it was also the first skin that allowed your teammates to listen in too. As you used abilities, the music changed around. It was insane quality, and is arguably still the best skin in the entire game. There is one regression in this skin though, the custom kill effects are gone. Not a big deal when you look at how amazing everything else is.

-Elementalist Lux, released around a year and a half ago and is the most recent Ultimate. It was the first skin to allow branching evolution paths, the first skin with an in-game selection UI, the first skin with an accompanying ward that evolves as you do, and the fact that it is basically 10 legendary skins in one is also worth noting as a major first. Still no on hit kill effects, but it did change the landscape of skins in a meaningful way. The UI tech made with it was later used for my favorite champion of all time, Kayn, and will probably make appearances in future skins and champions (it's on GG MF too). The scope of this skin was insane, I remember people freaking out when only 4 or 5 elements were revealed, and then they went and doubled that with the second evolutions. It was insane.

So here we are and Gun Goddess Miss Fortune is being released. What does it do new? Not being sarcastic, I think the only new thing it does is in each form she holds a different pose when ulting. Now all the other skins with different forms have different VFX on their ults, but do the models hold a different pose? I don't think so, although DJ Sona does have different walking and idling animations so I really don't think that counts.

Here's a list of all the ways it regresses: No on kill animation for minions and champs, her ward skin doesn't change when she changes, she doesn't "evolve" over the course of the game so lots of people will just stick to one form basically making it a Legendary skin, no music obviously, no new animations or models when you put points into her spells, and the total number of skins is down to 4 from Lux's max which is 10. You also have to swap forms in fountain like Kayn, unlike the Lux and Sona skins (not counting Udyr because you kinda need to use his spells). She has no unique music obviously, and it could be argued that without VFX her other forms are just chromas whereas the Lux, Sona, and Udyr skins have significant model and animation changes.

Now obviously it is better from an objective how much art is packed in standpoint compared to SG Udyr and PF Ezreal, although the specific art direction could make you like one over the other, but those skins came out half a decade ago. Maybe Riot has just hit the upper limit of how much tech they're willing to put into a skin, but in that case I'd want the skin to at least match the quality of the more recent skins. I'm sure MF mains will be happy to finally have a Legendary plus some, but honestly it seems like this skin was made more for just a cash grab on a popular champion than to push the boundaries of the game like the other ultimate skins. I think Riot knows it too. The skin is discounted on release unlike the Lux skin, and is barely more expensive than the usual cost of 3150 if you buy the bundle with all the extra stuff like borders and wards, at 3500. I literally play Udyr, Lux, and Sona just because of their ultimate skins and dip into Ezreal from time to time despite him not being my playstyle, but I only really feel the slightest tug from GG MF. It's still an amazing skin if you're into MF but I guess I was just hoping for a little more.