The five-year-long development cycle of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is coming to a close. Tomorrow, series creator Masahiro Sakurai will hold the final Mr. Sakurai Presents, a sort of fireside chat where the game’s director talks through the ins and outs of the new characters coming to the all-star brawler.
Super Smash Bros Ultimate was already a huge undertaking—bringing every previous character to the game’s roster as well as introducing new fighters like the Splatoon squids—yet even after Ultimate’s release, Sakurai and Bandai Namco Studios kept busy releasing DLC fighters through 2019 and 2021.
Originally planned to receive five additional fighters (Joker, Hero, Banjo & Kazooie, Terry, and Byleth), a second run of six DLC fighters was announced alongside Byleth’s reveal in January. Since then, Min Min, Steve, Sephiroth, Pyra & Mythra, and Kazuya have been announced and added to the game.
While Mr. Sakurai Presents are usually held separately from reveals, Nintendo chose instead to move the final announcement to the presentation instead of their Nintendo Direct last month. As such, hype has built around the impending news, with fans sharing their hopes, dreams, wishes, and increasingly nonsensical ideas online.
Among the fan-favorite hopefuls are Sora from Kingdom Hearts, Master Chief from Halo, Kris from Deltarune, and Doomguy from DOOM. There’s not much suggesting any of these characters are more or less likely than the thousands of other potential video game characters the dev team could pick from.
It’s worth noting, however, that Microsoft and Nintendo have fostered a more cooperative relationship in recent years, which did see the addition of the newly Microsoft-owned Banjo & Kazooie IP in Smash, but there’s nothing to say whether that will extend to 343 or Bethesda’s shooters. Meanwhile, Undertale has a presence in the game via spirits and Mii costumes, so Kris may make for a less-than newsworthy final announcement. And Kingdom Hearts is perhaps a notable absence, but none more so than the other games not represented in the roster.
Here’s what fans are saying
Predictions:
Fake leaks:
What ifs:
What do we think, you ask?
It may be appropriate for the last Super Smash Bros. character announcement in who knows how long to have a more sentimental meaning to Sakurai than what fans just now playing Deltarune Chapter 2 and awaiting Halo Infinite are excited for. Perhaps it will be a favorite character of Sakurai or his long-time collaborator and wife Michiko Sakurai, who have both worked on Kirby and Kid Icarus. Perhaps it will be a nod to the late Nintendo president Satoru Iwata. Whatever the answer really is, the announcement will surely shock and surprise fans vying for their favorites.