With 89 playable characters from over 40 different franchises, there is no doubt that Super Smash Bros Ultimate is the biggest celebration of the video game industry that we have had the honor of experiencing. It is truly impressive that Nintendo and Bandai Namco have managed to bring together so many characters that belong to other companies in one game. And of course, it was not easy. At least that’s what the game’s director (and of all Smash Bros) Masahiro Sakurai confirmed in his latest YouTube video, where he told everything about the development of Ultimate, the difficulties his team faced and the possible future of the franchise.
Where will Super Smash Bros go after Ultimate?
When the hard development of Super Smash Bros Ultimate (and its inevitable DLC) came to an end, the director Masahiro Sakurai temporarily retired from the industry to open his YouTube channel called Masahiro Sakurai on Creating Games, where he shares details and secrets of his entire career. In his most recent video, he told everything about the latest installment of his popular franchise. He explained that he fought very hard to achieve his idea of “Everyone is here!”, with which he wanted to bring back all the characters that had ever been playable in the history of the franchise.
Luckily for Sakurai, since Super Smash Bros 4 and Ultimate were developed by Bandai Namco, he could reuse the same team and many character models. This allowed him to bring everyone back as he had promised, but he also clarifies that it was not easy because they had to invest a lot of time and money in licensing the characters from other companies. Sakurai also confirmed that he took into account the suggestions of the Smash Bros Fighter Ballot that had taken place in 2015, which led to the inclusion of characters such as Banjo-Kazooie, King K. Rool, Ridley, among others.
The development of Ultimate was full of compromises: He was forced to eliminate classic elements of the franchise, such as Trophies or Adventure Mode, to ensure bringing all the characters and being able to release the game on time without wasting resources. That’s why Sakurai came up with the idea of Spirits, which could make use of those additional characters that were not playable, along with the Mode “World of Light” that makes good use of this new mechanic.
Although Super Smash Bros Ultimate was released in December 2018 and became a huge success, Sakurai’s work was not over, as he and his team began working on downloadable characters immediately. The worst part was the unexpected arrival of the quarantine caused by COVID-19, which complicated development because they were forced to work remotely. However, they managed to release 13 downloadable characters, concluding with the addition of Sora, from Kingdom Hearts.
Masahiro Sakurai is very proud of Super Smash Bros Ultimate, despite the complications that its development presented. At the end of the video, he answers the question: What will be the future of his franchise?. Although he thought it was impossible to make a game of this scope, he is impressed with the final product. But he also stated that he does not think they can do something so big again, with so many characters, levels, Spirits, Bosses, etc. Considering that it is unlikely that Sakurai will direct another installment of Smash Bros, we wonder what Nintendo has planned to surpass the huge achievement that was Smash Bros Ultimate.
© 2018 Nintendo Original Game: © Nintendo / HAL Laboratory, Inc. / Super Smash Bros. Ultimate