Masahiro Sakurai has revealed he’s been developing a new game since 2022, raising hopes of a new Smash Bros. for the Nintendo Switch 2 launch.
It’s best not to take anything for granted with Nintendo, but at this point it’d be a surprise if their next console didn’t look largely the same as the Nintendo Switch – especially after recent leaks suggested exactly that.
It’d also be a surprise if the main launch game wasn’t a Super Mario title, since there hasn’t been one for ages and multiple leaks have hinted at some kind of Donkey Kong themed crossover.
Beyond that though (and the weird online game they’re currently testing for the original Switch) absolutely nothing is known about the new console… except there’s now a reasonable chance it will play host to a new Masahiro Sakurai game.
There’s no beating around the bush, Masahiro Sakurai is a strange guy. He’s 54 but looks about 24 and was so committed to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate that he ended up going into work with an IV drip attached to his arm.
Despite being a workaholic he’s constantly talking about retiring and has described almost every Super Smash Bros. game as the last one, with no chance of another.
He’s seemed to have been in a state of semi-retirement ever since work ended on Ultimate in late 2021, but he’s now revealed that he started work on a new game almost straight away.
Sakurai made the announcement just as he finished his long-running YouTube series about game development, stating that he worked up a game proposal in 2021, for Nintendo, which was quickly greenlit.
He apparently started doing the YouTube channel (which he spent almost half a million pounds of his own money on) in the interim, because it took a long time to put together the development team he needed.
‘I’m sorry I can’t share more about this project, but assuming we’re able to get it made, it should be announced sooner or later,’ he said.
Naturally, most fans are assuming that it’s a new Super Smash Bros. game but if you take Sakurai’s comments at face value it really doesn’t sound like that.
Nintendo would be the ones begging him to make a new one, not him having to convince them with a written proposal. Also, you’d assume he already knew the people he’d need to make another one, whereas he’s implying that his new game needs more unfamiliar talent.
It’s probably best not to read too much into his purposefully ambiguous comments but if it’s not Smash Bros. it could be literally anything.
He’s worked on a lot of Kirby spin-off games earlier in his career, as well as puzzle game Meteos and 3DS title Kid Icarus: Uprising (for which there’s been occasional whispers of a remaster), but nothing that makes it obvious what his next move would be.
Which means we’re right back to knowing virtually nothing about the Nintendo Switch 2 or its games…
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