We’ve been wondering where the Super Smash Bros series could possibly go for a while now. It feels like Ultimate was the ultimate version of the game, and that the only thing developers could do was to add more characters. Where do you go from bringing such an epic series to what feels like could be its conclusion? Well, Masahiro Sakurai has revealed in a video on YouTube that he’s been working on a mysterious new game for 2 years now which has instantly piqued our interest.
Sakurai has worked on all 5 Super Smash Bros titles from 1999 to 2018, using his talents to create one of the most beloved Nintendo series of all time. In 2023 he announced that he had semi-retired from the games industry and has spent the past two years working on a series for his YouTube channel. It was the last video in the series which he posted on October 22nd which alluded to his recent game dabbling, a series which has cost a whopping 90 million yen or $600,000 to make and film and which is intended as a means of making an archive of all his knowledge on game development for future generations to learn from, which I think we can all agree is a great move when it comes to preserving gaming history and also to counteract the lazy use of AI in the future.
The video tells us that Sakurai was approached about a new game and that the team was aiming for an April 2022 start date, which means there was only a short time between the end of his work on Ultimate with Sora dropping in October 2021 and starting this new game – around seven months, in fact. He spent a month writing the scripts for every episode and by all accounts filmed most of them before beginning development on the game over two years ago, gaining permission from Nintendo to use and essentially archive official footage. He started editing and releasing episodes back in 2022 with over 520 being released on his channel since (260 in Japanese and then another 260 in English).
When it comes to finding out more about the game, however, it seems Sakurai is making us wait until something more concrete comes out. “I’m sorry I can’t share more about this project,” he explains, “but assuming we’re able to get it made, it should be announced sooner or later.”
So, what could that possibly mean? If the game had been cancelled, Sakurai would have told us all that ‘he was working on a game that no longer is in development,’ or maybe even told us what the game might have been. As it is, however, he’s stated that it should be announced ‘sooner or later’, which makes me think that it’s still in active development.
Sooner or later – could that mean that he’s working on a title for the Switch’s successor? Could we in fact be getting a new Super Smash Bros game or perhaps a fighting game of some shape for the new console? Could he be working on a last hurrah for the Switch? There are so many questions and possibilities to consider now that we’ve been given this little teaser, but at least we can take one thing away from this – if Sakurai is at the helm of the new game, then it’s going to be pure genius. I’ll let you know any more news on this mysterious game as and when we get it, but for now, it’s time to slip into a world of conjecture as we wonder what surprises he and his team have in store for us!
