Masahiro Sakurai Comments On The SUPER SMASH BROS. ULTIMATE Roster Not Being Leaked

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate was announced during this year's E3 on the Nintendo Direct stream, becoming the most talked about game amongst Nintendo fans—especially since the Direct spent a whole 30 minutes on Smash Bros. alone.  

While the fact that the game was going to be shown was no secret at all, the same cannot be said about its roster. Nobody could have anticipated that Super Smash Bros. Ultimate would include every single character that has been in the games since the series' early beginnings, which is why it was such a surprise when it was revealed that this was the case.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate's roster, unlike a bunch of the titles that were leaked before the Direct was streamed, was a complete secret that nobody expected—the reason for this is because only but a few of Nintendo employees knew about it. Super Smash Bros. and Kirby series creator Masahiro Sakurai explained, on this week's issue of Famitsu, how they managed to keep the game's roster a secret.

Thanks to the people over at Siliconera, we now have a translation of the Famitsu column with Sakurai's sayings, starting with the fact that he thinks the reception Super Smash Bros. Ultimate got was amazing.

"I think this is the first time I ever saw such a tremendous reception for just a game promo. The uproar was beyond encouraging", said Sakurai while also adding that he was glad that the roster didn't leak. "If it leaked that 'all characters will be in it', then it wouldn't have gotten the same reception", which can actually be argued since people would've got excited regardless since Smash Bros. is one of Nintendo's most popular franchises—that said, it being a surprise definitely made the presentation even more amazing.

"I really wanted to avoid having the work of several years get smashed by someone who wanted his little moment to brag".

Sakurai also mentions that everything would've been over for them had the words "all characters playable" made it out there, which definitely takes away from the whole presentation since all 25 minutes of it is spent focused on the characters themselves.

"It was a top secret project that many at Nintendo didn't even know about, and that's why you saw cheers even from those involved with Nintendo".

Then he touches on a rather "controversial" topic—at least amongst hardocre fans of the series—by mentioning characters that had be omitted from Super Smash Bros. Wii U/3DS.

"Ice Climbers, Pokémon Trainer, and Wolf received unusually loud cheering not because they're popular characters but because they weren't in the previous entry".

What really does seem like a legitimate concern that Sakurai has is the fact that Super Smash Bros. Ultimate may be too good for the series' own sake.

"I question what we’ll do with the next title, and I feel that having 'all characters playable' (for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate) may have been a Pandora's Box that could ruin possibilities for what's next in the series", said Sakurai by also adding that "however, honestly speaking, I’m not thinking about what’s next!".

"I'm just working hard on the best possible way to offer maximum satisfaction right now. Truth be told, I'm not getting any younger and I don’t think I’ll be able to keep up with such dense workload forever, but the now is more important than later! I heard a lot of 'did you lose weight?', 'did you get thinner?' and 'please take care of yourself' after the presentation, but don't worry, I only lost about 6kg…"

Masahiro Sakurai is the very definition of dedication. The amount of work he puts into Super Smash Bros. games has always been admirable and we just hope that he will keep doing such an amazing job in future entires if he decides to continue doing this. Hats off to you, Mr. Sakurai.

Introducing the newest and most expansive Super Smash Bros. ever! Super Smash Bros. Ultimate arrives December 7, 2018.