
As you might recall, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate was the "final mission" assigned to Masahiro Sakurai by the late Satoru Iwata.
The Switch entry went on to become a huge success and has now sold over 25 million copies worldwide. After the game shipped, Sakurai's "next mission" was to release all of the DLC, and he's now also done that.
Has the mission finally been completed then? In an email interview with IGN from earlier this month, Sakurai confirmed he had completed Iwata's assignment:
"Yes, I believe I was able to fully complete this mission."
As for what's next, Sakurai's still not entirely sure about his future. In the same interview, he reiterated how if Nintendo asked him to make another Smash game, he would have to think about it.
At the same time, he "may not necessarily continue" down the path of creating more games, but could still stay within the games industry. He wants to "keep an open mind" and consider all the possibilities of what could come next.
At least now Sakurai has completed this "final mission" and we're sure Iwata would be proud.
[source ign.com, via eventhubs.com]
Comments 38
Removed - offensive remarks
I think the DQ Heroes were the final request that Iwata asked for.
*pours one out *
This is definitely old news that I read weeks if not a couple months ago, so I'm not sure why it's being reported now.
I don't want to sound all negative in an article about Iwata though, so I'll reiterate what I've said many times before in that I consider him a great role model. Ask Iwata is a fantastic read that I would recommend to not only Nintendo fans, but I genuinely think it's something that should be taught in business ethics classes. While my affection for Iwata is unrivaled, Sakurai is the best developer in the biz. I think very highly of his work ethic and passion for what he does and sympathize with his perfectionistic tendencies. They're absolutely two of the greats.
Frankly, he deserves a break from game development. The poor guy pushes himself too hard.
But if he still wants to stay in the games industry, looking at his SSBU videos, why not make a gaming podcast, or a Let's Play channel on YouTube?
I'd kind of like to see him play games that he likes, from Nintendo, to Sega, to PlayStation, to Xbox, and other platforms.
That pic of Iwata though....
This is Pretty tear jerking if you ask me!
You could say it was his Final Destination.
Thank you Sakurai for spending all this time on this game, you deserve a break. And rest in peace Iwata, you were the heart of Nintendo during the time you were president of Nintendo.
@RubyDevilNine I swear I see this kind of comment all the time. Us commenters are running out of original things to say quicker than Nintendo Life is running out of topics, which btw is impossible since news isn't something that stops suddenly, there's always more gaming news everyday, with some days bigger than others..
Japan is so different, they call jobs 'missions'. Surprised it wasn't his final quest instead though.
This makes my heart hurt. Sakurai busted his butt on Smash Bros for years because not only was it his baby, but he wanted to do Iwata proud. Sakurai did damn good, and he really needs to give himself a break.
I have a very strange relationship with Smash Ultimate, In terms it has a great roster and stage selection which make it a great game but it also lacks the modes and other details that previous Smash games did which prevents Ultimate from being a great Smash bros game.
If he does develop another game, I'd like to see something completely original or a Kid Icarus Uprising sequel on the next Nintendo console.
@Marioracer you really miss break the targets? The only halfway legit complaint is that you wanted us space emissary two. If that’s true, then yes, it’s lacking.
But I think World of Light did a great job of giving us cut scenes that let you make up a story in your mind, and then letting you fill in the rest.
@Marioracer It's perfectly great without that mini game.
I wished Sakurai would just let Bandai Namco continue to handle the Smash series so he can work on something else for a while. Like, a smaller game or something...Air Ride or Meteos sequel?...Uprising HD port? Something new entirely? I dunno...lol
So that's why it's called Super Smash Bros Ultimate, it's an ultimatum from Iwata.
Iwata: "Sakurai san, you are entrusted to make the best Smash Bros the world has ever seen, include as many characters as you can - but remember to leave Waluigi out!"
@aaronsullivan the hope for Kid Icarus 4 is something I dream about all the time!
@DavidMac World of Light was a tedious grind woth a few enjoyable bossfights. SSBU is great as a multiplayer experience but it really lacks some good single olayer content that other entries did have.
@RubyDevilNine @Not_Soos The source is an email interview with IGN from December 8th, 2021. He may well have said something similar things in the past, but this is a new interview.
@Damo In my comment, I said I remembered reading this "weeks if not months" ago. That's still about three weeks, which in the world of journalism I feel is an awfully long time to just now cover it. I'm not one to complain about random articles and "slow news days," it doesn't matter to me what you guys cover as long as you're covering all the important stuff too. But sometimes I do wish Nintendo Life were more punctual instead of letting something like this go under the radar for weeks before covering it. I understand NL is probably a relatively small team though, and I appreciate all the hard work you and the other editors put into maintaining this free site. Just a bit of constructive criticism, but I know people are more likely to be negative on the internet than positive, so I just wanna balance it out by thanking your team for what they do.
@Not_Soos It's Christmas and most of our staff are on holiday, which should explain why this didn't get covered immediately.
I definitely think he and his team succeeded at creating an amazing game. They created an impressive balance between being a party fighting game aswell as a competitive fighting game. The overall balance is also impressive considering the large roster size. My only gripe is the somewhat lackluster singleplayer content but it's hard to be mad about that when there is so much on offer. This is probably the game that deserves "Ultimate" in its title the most.
@RubyDevilNine You've uncovered their nefarious scheme! They deliberately didn't report on this to... um... annoy you personally, I guess? Because by reporting things late they... benefit... somehow..? HEY WAIT A MINUTE, THIS MAKES NO SENSE.
@Marioracer
You certainly aren't alone. As the "Ultimate" game in the Super Smash Bros series, it could've been a cumulative game. After seeing Stage Builder and Home Run Contest return, I really wanted to see new and improved iterations of content such as Smash Run, Smash Tour, and most famously, Targets.
But World of Light may be the one that was the biggest letdown. It barely had a story to begin with after the deceivingly amazing opening cutscene and it just felt... unnecessary looking back at it. It was just an overglorified Spirit Board. I think World of Light was the reason why SSBU did not win Game of the Year in 2019, not to mention the HUGE missed opportunities for adding story content through the DLCs.
I also think some of the representation in the game wasn't treated fairly. The Zelda Fighters all got completely overhauled which was fine, but they could've at least kept one Echo of Link that held his classic moveset and stats from Melee; Young Link barely counts at this point. I say this because Marth has Roy, Lucina, and Chrom as clones, so why not let other Fighters get the same number? I've got other minor nitpicks, like how Octolings could've easily been Inkling echoes or how the Agent 3 skin on the Inklings don't refer to her as "Agent 3" in that sense, or really just the idea of Echo Fighters not being added post-launch. Ninjara could've been an Echo of Min Min, as an example. I also have to mention how much of the representation was geared towards Japanese audiences with the odd one out. Most of the western audiences got stuff in the form of Mii costumes, which isn't entirely bad, but none of the voices or the movesets entirely represent some Mii Fighters.
There's also stuff like music, which while done already well, there was that missed opportunity to add more music through updates. We're stuck hearing music from 2018 and before, but we don't get that chance to hear any newer music aside from few DLC picks and this is an especially missed opportunity for games like Age of Calamity, Paper Mario: The Origami King, and Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition. Stuff that brought in much better music than we've heard before and is appropriate for SSBU. I want to say the same for stages, but those need more time to design.
Then there's...the online side of things. I've got little to say other than how difficult it is to play.
Overall, while the concept and marketing of SSBU was absolutely amazing, there's still so much left to be desired. When Nintendo announced that they won't be doing any more major Fighter patches, I felt disappointed. The game is fun, but it still isn't very balanced especially with the likes of Kazuya or Pyra dealing absurd amounts of damage in relation to their weight and movesets.
@RubyDevilNine Er, its a small site, with a small team of writers, On break.
I really want to see Sakurai work on something different. I feel like he is being wasted working on Smash. I love the game, but I feel like the core of it is mostly set in stone now, other people should be able to take over and even bring fresh ideas.
A new IP by Sakurai or a revive of a dormant one would be great. I would not mind seeing him work on a new gen game as well, he is a 3rd party developer after all.
@NoTinderLife Super Smash Brothers Ultimate is the localized name, it's Super Smash Brothers Special in Japan!
Sakurai could be Nintendo's next president.
Iwata and Sakurai make me proud to be a Nintendo fan. My wife got me the Iwata Asks book for Christmas. Can't wait to dive in.
@dBackLash clearly you have never played 64. It literally just had you fight the roster then Master Hand as the story mode. Melee had a story mode as did Brawl. That said have you gone back and played either lately? Fighting random geometry pieces really isn’t that fun. And unfortunately YouTube makes all the work done on the cinematics worthless as they’ll all get spoiled right away. So Nintendo just poured the money for that into the reveal trailers.
@RubyDevilNine But are you working on these articles? do you know what they are currently writing and what they are not?
I get having you doubts, but saying there lying with no proof is a little messed up don't you think?
@RubyDevilNine @Damo never said it was impossible, they never even said it was Hard, they said "It's Christmas and most of our staff are on holiday, which should explain why this didn't get covered immediately"
They said covered immediately, so it probably mean they had it in writing, but they just had other Christmas articles to write, makes sense to me if you ask me.
But maybe you should ask them how it works? if they told you it would clear up your doubts.
@RubyDevilNine Ya, Just ask one of the writers, they might respond, or make a thread on it.
@RubyDevilNine As I said, the majority of our staff are on holiday because it's Christmas, so it didn't get covered right away - there really isn't any more to it than that.
@RubyDevilNine We cover interesting stories as and when we're able, depending on a variety of factors (staffing and priority of other articles, for example). If a story isn't particularly time sensitive, we may well put it to one side and cover it at a later date. That's it, that's the 'inside scoop'.
We try to cover as much as possible in a timely manner, but there's only so many hours in the day. If you've read about something before, you're not obliged to read our reporting! The headline clearly communicates the content, so feel free to skip if that's the case. Plenty of other articles to read.
@Not_Soos well said! I loved the book and he's a fantastic guy to learn from.
I ve read a lot of business books that I don't entirely agree with, and it's so great to see validation that you don't have to be a huge ***** and hide behind "it's just business" to be successful.
Wow I really wish I was able to read about this within minutes of when he'd actually said it, my life would be so much better right now in almost every imaginable way, but no, you posted it late, because you wanted us to suffer. God only knows what other things he's said that you're keeping from us, laughing with each other about how you and you alone own such treasured information that could transform the world if only we peasants could catch a mere glimpse of the sacred text. This is made all the worse by the fact that if you rearrange the letters in "Nintendo Life" you get "Literally Devils". Your satanic powers know no equal and your immeasurable darkness overcomes any flicker of light left fading from this miserable earth. Basically you're jerks. Thanks for nothing.
@dartmonkey Thank you for clearing that up!
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