Every time I saw another character unveiled. Ryu, Cloud, Minecraft man my mind was blown that they pulled it off. I doubt we'll ever see anything on that scale of cross licensing ever again.

@@VAFranky not to mention Smash Ultimate had every character from past smash games. That must've been a nightmare to establish previous license and contracts all over again

For real the game was an absolute gem.

Smash bros did do very well, even though the last characters they added were none of my favorite I still give the game praise. And I do agree I don't even know how they will ever top Smash bros ultimate and I'm not sure if they will.

@@VAFranky Considering the popularity of films like Who Framed Roger Rabbit?! and Wreck-It Ralph, I'm surprised that more conglomerates haven't collaboratively generated (or, at least, assisted) a project like this. There are a lot of calls from fans for crossover titles (ie DC vs Marvel, Street Fighter vs MK; a TBS/Tactics game, a(nother) jRPG) that allow their favorite characters to interact with/fight each other. If there's a way for Superman to fight Goku or a squad of Autobots and other mecha to take down alien insects (ala Starship Troopers) and other threats, there will be players itching to give the adaptor of those scenarios their money. The (im)possibilities are truly endless. ^_^

Yes, I hope we'll soon have a new smash on Nintendo's next console.

Bro deserves all the rest in the world. Especially how the Japanese workers work to the death and him putting out solid quality for the games.

@@IdentifiantE.Show can you top all characters? This may be the last one

@@dankusmemeus7093I guess a Deluxe version for the next console? It wouldn’t take as much strain from development time or development costs, since they would basically be reusing assets that could be up-ressed and not being using as much resources as it would take to create a completely new game.

@@IdentifiantE.S Even that can wait a bit. Rumors are new console reveal next mid year so, taking that into equation; they can let it cook for a couple years then announce a new Smash. It doesnt need to be a launch title

?

😂😂😂😂😂

Ayo, pause

Ayo 🤨

Ayooo😂😂😂

And then friends and colleagues coming to him like "Yo! You're working on a new Smash Bros!? How long you been keeping this a secret lol"

@@bljack12 Sakurai:.......... There's a REALLY STRICK NDA..... Very exclusive as well apparently 😅

This exact shit happened to Tetsuya Nomrua when they announced final fantasy 7 remake, poor guy...

​@wreday720 Wait, he watched that 2015 trailer completely blind like we all were? But he works at Squeenix, at least Sakurai had the excuse of being a freelance worker!

@@chaoscontroller316 He wasn't expecting to be the one directing it until after the reveal. Its hilarious.

There's always this comment. "it's not just Sakurai, it's the teams as well", yeah, no shit, but that's not the point here. We get it, it was a team effort but Sakurai was the linchpin no doubt.

​@@lethaunticYou just responded to a "no shit" comment with another "no shit" comment...

@@lethaunticyeah, no shit

It different team everytime

@@samreeder5797 there were probably a lot of guys in the teams that were there since 64 and melee tho

At the very least I hope he’s working with Nintendo to get a Ultimate deluxe edition for the new switch.

think about it. on every nintendo console release, we have had a smash game released on it. so the switch 2 is no exception

I personally do not believe it is currently in development. It is very likely that development will begin in secret within a year or two, I imagine.

after seeing mario kart 8 they could just sit on their ass and rerelease ultimate forever, which would be just as sad as smash bros dying tbh. im really hoping they manage to make a new one

@@AMediumSizedKodiak The Switch 2 is reportedly coming late next year, so Smash has to have secretly started by now considering that Nintendo usually aims to have Smash on new systems 1-2 years after the console’s launch.

Supposedly the MH team said no to a playable Hunter in Smash.

@@Neoxon619 Same with Bomberman. When he got announced as an assist during a direct, Sakurai said that he pitched a moveset concept to Konami but they turned it down.

@@Firejoker54 At this point, bad decisions are to be expected from Konami.

​@@shinzero0271Facts

However, here’s something. Sakurai said that if Hero was turned down, he was prepared and willing to make the Slime from Dragon Quest into a fighter. Which shows just how iconic DQ is in Japan.

Why would they need to negotiate again? Why couldnt they have negotiated a long-term/multi-game contract?

​@@toxxicvvastethats not how it works.

@@toxxicvvastenot a lot of companies would do that. It makes more financial sense for them to negotiate per game. For both parties. Company A gets to ensure they receive the appropriate amount they see fit. On the flip side Nintendo doesn’t feel obligated to make games to use these characters. Not to mention a long term deal like that would be way more expensive lol

It's what makes a ton of licensed games or games with licensed characters unable to be re-released over the years. Certain games get the rights tied up and it takes a decade or so to negotiate a port on a later console.

@@michaelm7537 Lmao yeah i'll just believe you, a random guy, about how gaming business works.

Same

Big same. This video odly reminded me of why I love his content

Don't forget Kosuke Yabuki. Min Min's inclusion in the roster more or less came about like so... Yabuki: "Hey, Sakurai, put Min Min in Smash." Sakurai: "Why?" Yabuki: "Because ramen."

​@@h0m3st4rAnd Nintendo can use the "ARMS CHARACTER POLL" as an excuse to fall back on for marketing. Madlads!

​@@h0m3st4r Wasn't the reason that Min-Min was literally the #1 fan favorite? As a poll made by Arms accounts on that matter confirmed?

@@gicrueldad9520 I'm surprised Min-Min was the fan favorite. She certainly seemed to be alongside Ninjara before the game dropped but I figured the new characters split that a bit like Twintalle and Lola Pop. I remember hearing a rumor(?) that she was Yabuki's favorite, though, and that's why she was picked

A recent example of a team being turned down is the Paper Mario devs getting told they had to create original characters and could not use additional Mario universe characters.

I’d actually argue the opposite. The fact that developers were willing to give their IPs to a console-exclusive third-party, even making deals between console developers, is a sign that we’re seeing companies be LESS protective about their IPs. Smash and Fortnite have smashed the door open and allowed companies to be a lot more lenient with cross promotion and crossovers.

Funny enough some characters got in purely because they were friends with sakurai. I'm still baffled that solid snake got in as a third party rep. Like even more so than characters like Cloud and Bayo.

@@redshepherd32I dunno, Cloud was a nightmare both times, even more so than Snake was for Ultimate. If I’m remembering correctly, even Sakurai was genuinely afraid he wouldn’t be able to see his design philosophy for Ultimate come to life because of how much of a nightmare Cloud is as the poster boy protagonist character for Square Enix. Square takes pride in how huge FFVII was for making JRPG’s popular in the west, since we were notorious for how much we simply refused to play Japanese made games, let alone their pride and joy, the Japanese RPG. By exploding JRPG’s in the west, they OWNES the market in that regard and were an icon for it. Ultimate’s insane sales helped a ton for Sephiroth, but Cloud seemingly has always been hell for anyone.

@@hyperstargaming6150 It's mostly music. For some reason Square doesn't even own some of their most iconic tracks even up until FFVIII with Eyes on me

No, $mash REALLY was just a money grubbing waste of a Party Game. :3

Ima keep it a buck, Smash is just a Mugen game that is legal to sell and to distribute. While it is impressive that he was able to license and get all the characters that are in the game and the spectacle that comes with that, the problem occurs when you look at the game for what it is and what you can do in the game. The main single player mode is literally grinding for JPEGs, the online is laggy and barely functional, and core gameplay has general issues (Game Balance is a factor but that is the least of the problems with this game). I think of smash as that one board game you occasionally pull out and play with a group, but more often that not you and the group you hang out with have other games you will play instead and play more often than not.

If people are saying it's a waste for me to spend 20-60 dollars on a game that lasts 50-100 hours. While they spend around 15-25 dollars on Books, Movies, and other Media to spend time on. At most a book is around 20-50 hours to finish. The point is, the people that criticize games as time wasters are also "wasting time" on another hobby.

​@@mikejonesnoreallyyou seem like a boring person with no lasting relationships

​@@lelouchvibritannia2817 when you said it was impressive is all that matters.

Smash bros itself is inevitable at this point, my only concern is that sakurai and his team actually finally take it easy for a while before even thinking about the next one tbh.

I can possibly see Ultimate as laying the groundwork for an even more expansive Smash game but it'll be 10 mountains to climb to get there and I can sympathize with Sakurai not exactly wanting to commit to it right now or at all. Ultimate grabbed a lot of IPs and there's tons of characters they could grab from each and every one but that would require a tooon of negotiations.

The problem is they wouldn't be able to just do a remaster without reworking ALL of the licensing contracts again because while they may have said yes to this version of the game that doesn't mean they'll say yes again like how we almost didn't get cloud back in from Wii U to Ultimate because Square was like "hell no we're not making him core roster, he has to be paid dlc again"

​I'm hoping with Square's new upper management since then, that won't be the case again. Also given the fact that square has already has three dlc characters present out of 11 characters.

Smash never really had a story. If anything it’s meta commentary on the state of the gaming industry itself and gamers alike. Cuz remember it’s a crossover game. Saying smash needs a good story is like saying MvC needs a good story and look how Infinite turned out.

@@justmikoto9880 I would agree that with about Smash, being one of the few fighting games (and that's a lose term for Smash for me) that actually doesn't need to have a deep story mode.

And Waluigi 😎🍻🍺

If the company doesnt like the end result of their char in smash, it would tarnish sakurais reputation with that company. Its a risk he understandably probably doesn't want to take

One of Sakurai's double-edge traits is he is a perfectionist. Sure, Sakurai could take a lesser role, but Smash is essentially his pride, his baby, his legacy. I can definitely see it being hard for Sakurai take a lesser role and stand back while someone else take the lead.

The problem is that these third parties can be INCREDIBLY protective about their IPs even if the company has the cash to secure the license, Sakurai will have to actively be the one supervising everything to make sure that the characters are being represented well, take Sephiroth, you have to make sure everything regarding his reputation is done well, you have to make all of his animations capture the character perfectly, the music he comes with has to be in line with what is previously established and where the lines are, you need to make sure that CG trailer you are sinking thousands upon thousands if not millions STILL has to conform to the expectations that the characters had. All of this is what Sakurai is dealing with to ensure his promises to those companies and creators are being upheld. Japanese companies are also incredibly stubborn and tend to place the people who have been with the company for long amounts of time as the key figurehead for their teams, and as far as other companies are concerned Sakurai is the person for Smash games to talk to and nobody else is.

I mean no offense to Sakurai but like why would he want to do that I can't imagine a focused dedicated creative like Sakurai wanting to be essentials a lawyer

Sakurai needs a underling to take the reigns. I’m shock he never thought that far ahead

Game sells 30 million copies and people think there won’t be another one 😂

@@Blballerboyanother good one*

@@magimoo9371 Melee to Brawl was pretty trash, in terms of gameplay.

@@Blballerboy I bet you there won't be another Smash game

Bro its not the end they're makign another 1

I think the only difference is that Mario and Zelda had people ready to step up into Miyomotos place when he was done. Koizumi had been working on Mario titles alongside Miyomoto for years. Same with Aonuma for Zelda. There isn’t really someone doing that with Sakurai, because he’s completely independent and is only called in to make Smash bros. The team changes constantly too. So I think that makes it tough to compare to Mario and Zelda after Miyomoto. (Not saying there will never be a good smash game of course)

I remember those conversations Satoru Iwata and Sakurai had. Iwata said something interesting about Smash Bros. success. "People who loves games and are really good at games were once, at some point in the past, casual gamers themselves. That is why is so important to make sure that you continue to bring new gamers" "The appeal of Smash Bros. is that anyone can take a controller, readily pick up the fundamentals and, within the spam of ten minutes, a beginner can sit down and get loud with a pro and enjoy some exciting gameplay" Iwata was right!

"Missed the mark with Brawl" yea if you're just looking at it from the niche sweaty FGC perspective yea sure, but single player and just a video game wise perspective? Brawl was a massive success, not even Ultimate surpasses the likes of Subspace Emissary. And even if we're gonna go hard on it for shitty online, not even Ultimate has improved on that front that much... lol

@@islandboy9381 Man, Brawl is a game that just makes me sad. It feels like a clear stance against everything competitive like Nintendo is saying: "Hey guys, Smash is supposed to be a party game for the whole family, not a competitive, super-serious fighting game like so many others out there". Which matches Sakurai's initial stance on why he created Smash Bros. in the first place (the story about ruining a couples fun in KOF I believe). Wave-dashing being fixed, slower game speed, tripping... all of that directly counters what makes Melee a competitive game. Seeing that design philosophy absolutely rejected by the community is just heartbreaking. Sm4sh and Ultimate never hooked me the same way as Melee and Brawl did. I tihnk it came down to Melee's funny voice clips (especially the screams when a character gets heavily launched, I miss those sooo much) and Brawl's single player content as well as the Trophy collection made me love Smash Bros in the first place. All of which... just isn't there in Ultimate. On top of that I disagree with quite a few DLC character choices (both Sm4sh and Ultimate), but that's just an uphill battle, so I'm not gonna bother.

They'd probably not even go for Bamco if anyone at all. Besides Bamco having a massive price, it would be an even more massive loss to Bamco as their biggest titles are primarily sold for the other consoles. For that alone, Sony would do everything in it's power to prevent Nintendo from doing it. Shareholders being the biggest issue however would also be quite opposed to a Nintendo buyout unless Bamco was struggling.

Buying Bamco is impossible cause those guys are a massive corporation that stretches across multiple fields of japan's entertainment industry (Anime, Manga, Arcades, IRL Amusement, Industry).

Nintendo is a huge company, but Bandai Namco is one as well, not just some small 2nd party studio, they can't just buy them like that.

Yea I picked up from this that he is going to develop a new smash bros. I firnly believe he is being coy and is already working on the next one

Nintendo is small compare to Namco they can't even afford them.

Smash community can be toxic

Well said bruv

​@linkmaster5555 smash community from my experience is by far and away one of the most toxic communities I've been around. Couldn't tell you how many times I've been told "KYS" from those custom name plates from smash 4 after smoking someone with ddd. Not to mention all the garbage we all saw regarding events that transpired from within the community and everyone being outed as predators and shit. Talk about an incredible franchise with a shit community weighing it down. Moving on to real fighting games and a fightstick opened my eyes and I never looked back.

Smash community dont shower

So it hasn't ended at all, then. Only people who care about tournaments whine about this, not the vast majority of players who are totally casual and love it.

​@@nachot6592Exactly

thats because the character reveal debates were more fun than the game itself if we're being really honest

I mean the charcter speculation was the most fun part of smash

You can keep enjoying Smash (playing competitively even) If you start not engaging with the fandom at all.

I'd put this more on Nintendo than Sakurai since as Max said, Sakurai simply didn't have the time- it was all work work work for him when he's involved in Smash. It would've been up to Nintendo to not only give him the extra time to direct development AND train a protege, and that clearly hasn't happened.

don't forget proper balancing. but i agree. we don't need a completely new game, but smash ultimate should finally become ultimate in all aspects.

"Better single player content" wtf are you talking about? Every mode in smash can be played in single player?

@@raptros He is talking about the single player content is very lackluster in comparison to Melee and Brawl. No event match, no target smash, stickers are so lame in comparison to trophies, World Of Light is just a glorified Event mode that overstays its welcome way, way, WAY more than SSE ever has, lacks co-op and has no replayability unlike Advendure Mode from Melee . The only real solo content is the shitty online mode with less option than SSB4 or Classic mode

Expecting all of this from Nintendo of all people 😂

@@Shadowsmoke11 I did say want, not expect.

My best bet is the vanilla roster is going to get a gameplay overhaul

Most likely. Sakurai's time as a game developer is done, but his legacy will live on, one way or another.

You didnt listen to Sakurai at all did you??? xD

@@toxxicvvaste You sure didn’t if you didn’t see the part where he said that Nintendo will obviously do another one eventually.

@@Neoxon619 Dummy the part where he said he cant see another Smash being made without him. Oh you're extra mad cuz im killing you in the other comments xD

To be more specific, it was a celebration of Japanese gaming. There wasn’t a lot from the western side of things.

We don’t, but Nintendo does.

No Nintendoesn't. Not ever again. They went to CRAZY lengths to *kill their own game in ANY competitive sense.* It is EVERY bit as valid to say that Nintendo will not make another $mash because of "the scene" and just how gross that all is. "Kids sexually preying on kids" is not a Japanese headline you will ever see twice. @@Neoxon619

Not to mention Smash fan games are still prevalent even with a recent masterpiece like Ultimate. I can see the series living a very long life even outside of the main games.

@@hangry3102 Considering Melee is STILL ALIVE. Smash Ultimate will live for decades. The switch and its successor will have the eshop to preserve the game.

real fans care only about Melee.

A lot of game devs now are either art majors or dedicated programmers, having general geniuses that can work into any discipline is becoming more and more rare...

Genuinely the only other project lead I can think of in the entire industry that is hands-on to the level Sakurai is would be FFXIV's Yoshi-P. Maybe Yoko Taro, too. Like they're the only people where when I think of their series, they're the face of it. They take on a ton of, if not all, of the personal responsibility for it so that their teams can just work under their guidance. Not only that but they're dedicated to it, too. Sakurai has put himself out there for Smash countless times when he's wanted to be done with the series, and Yoshi-P has stated numerous times in the last year that he feels like XIV is his life's work and it would take his death to remove him from the project. It's so crazy admirable.

@@islandboy9381 A lot are hired based on check boxes rather than merit. I doubt that applies to Nintendo, but y'know

Nah that's why they always say from the creators of and it fails

That would require NoA to actually give a shit about voice acting, which they haven’t done in a long time.

On the other hand, that storymode would require even MORE negotiations with various third parties / license holders along the lines of "is this behavior from your character okay", which would drag things out even further. I have a feeling they'd rather not bother with a feature that will cost them a lot of time and isn't guaranteed to boost sales.

Forreal idk how they could top this lol

They should just keep up with dlc.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate: All Stars will be followed by Super Smash Bros Ultimate: Platinum and then Super Smash Bros. Ultimate: Final. Or maybe just start with Ultra Smash Brothers.

Porting to another platform still needs to renew the license.

​@@CraftyMiscreant Not an option man, Ultimate has a hard cap in the roster which if bypassed it crashes the game.

That’s basically what Iwata told Sakurai they would do if he didn’t come on board for Brawl. It speaks volumes about the popularity and love Melee has that 20 years later that’s still a feasible plan if he’s not around for the next Smash. And if it works out they could keep the remakes coming at least for Brawl, I’m sure fans would go nuts over a 2020s-quality CGI recreation of Subspace Emissary.

The man fucked up his wrists working on Kid Icarus. I would figure him tearing himself apart for these games would at least have him setting up someone else to take over.

I think it was in Harada's bar interview but Sakurai said he straight up does not drink water (or at least not as much as he should). Said it makes his stomach upset. He apparently drinks coke zero.

@@originalscreenname44 Yeah, it sure seems that way.

@@SnuggsMcDuff Nothing but coke zero? Yeah, drinking nothing but soda constantly sounds dangerous. It'll destroy the teeth too.

@@SnuggsMcDuff that means he's addicted to soda, even Max pointed this out

Yep, I think a League of Legends approach would be nice, where we can get a new fighter every 4 to 6 months.

I would definitely understand the decision, but Ultimate does have some issues that probably wouldn't have a chance of being addressed without a full successor game.

The foundation of Ultimate was not made with that approach in mind. It has a hard cap of 91 icons on the fighter select screen and if bypassed it crashes the game when you enter it. One of the icons is occupied by the random button and other 86 are taken by the fighters. That leaves only 4 spaces left, that's only a few.

I don't get why they don't just continually add new spirits and their associated AI battles on a conveyor belt. I get why they could and should stop with the new playable characters, but to have no traction of updates at all is a missed opportunity. At least Mario Kart 8 eventually changed its mind

@@lucaantinori4834 fair enough, make a deluxe SSBU that remedies said issue with longevity in mind and some extra candy for Switch 2 release and I’m game

Even porting it to a new console will probably necessitate a bunch of licensing renegotiations, so don't hold your breath.

@@LordBaktor I think those licensing negotiations will be worth the millions of copies it will inevitably sell

I'd also take a more deep cut down on the roster with the full rework on the core (say 16-20) paired with a focus on indie newcomers.

@@QwixLF indies can stay to other platform fighters like Rivals, as much as I'd LOVE something like Tunic or Pizza Tower repped in Smash they'd have a better shot in Rivals 2.

Cutting down the roster would be really unpopular. The general public like big rosters. It was the main selling point of ultimate.

I think this is the only realistic way forward.

@@michaelchen1046 The problem is that any attempt to reproduce anything close to Ultimate roster wise would fall short. As far as roster goes, nothing like Ultimate will happen again with any reasonable effort. Just a port of it would take an enormous legal decathlon that would span the majority of a console's life cycle, to say nothing of potential newcomers. And if any one rights holder says no, that's it for that character appearing again. It would be wiser for Smash 6 to reseat the franchise expectations. Take a new direction, and start a new focus. Expanding rosters has been perfected with Ultimate, and that should be left as is.

It's so hard to be good because it can eat a lot from you while you are expected to be good or better everytime. The Smash fans wanted to make Sora happen despite a very obvious challenge (Disney's monstrous greed, I mean, look what it did to Marvel vs Capcom infinite) and they still delivered even with a blatant compromise. Sakurai and the whole SSB development team and community deserve a milestone recognition.

To be as good as Sakurai and such, you kinda have to be a perfectionist. You need to have the drive already ingrained in you, along with skill, before even getting into the industry and that's a very rare thing. He came from the golden age of gaming. These days, devs get used and abused, their earnestness churned out before they can build a solid foundation and then tossed away for the next batch.

If Sakurai is making the next one there won’t be anything like subspace

Probably not even a port can happen, because of the licensing nightmare that was making Ultimate and it's DLC the first time, doing it again seems extremely unlikely

@@lucaantinori4834if it’s a port, it’s possible without that. If they add content to Ultimate in any capacity through a port though, that’s when the licensing disaster strikes.

@@hyperstargaming6150 I’m pretty sure a port counts as rereleasing a game, and to rerelease a game you would need to renew all the licenses involved in it. What this means is that you have to communicate with every single company again and hope they say yes a second time.

- Great single player content with substance - Actual functional online from rollback netcode and better online matchmaking in general - More customization options like costumes/layouts ect - Proper game balance So yeah there's a lot they can do for the next title to make it better than Ultimate, even if they'll cut out some characters. But of course the only thing that matters nowadays in this Fortnite era is having out of left field guest character or else it's a 0/10 😑 EDIT: oh yeah also actually make new movesets for the legacy characters that improves upon them, some need them desperately *cough* Ganondorf *cough* Sonic

​@@islandboy9381Agreed, ppl are too quick to put this game on a pedestal. Yes there's alot of great things about it but there are just as many improvements or changes that could be made in the future

Prepare to wait 5+ years at the very least then.

@@samy29987 That’d be too much of a financial risk for Nintendo.

@@Neoxon619it won’t. Nintendo have plenty of other franchises under their belts that will draw people in. Zelda probably sells more Nintendo consoles than Smash does, so they can take the time they need to make sure the next game is done right.

@@originalscreenname44 And it’ll be a while before we get another 3D Zelda since we *just* got TotK. Also, Zelda still sells less than Smash does. Only Mario Kart & Animal Crossing surpass it, the latter of which likely won’t begin full development until after Splatoon 3: Side Order drops later this year.

@@Neoxon619 I don’t think that argument holds up. I just Googled and Breath of the Wild has 31 million and Smash has “over 30 million” so they’re probably dead even. Either way, Nintendo can hold out and make a new Zelda for the next console before Smash and still be good. I’ve seen more people who buy Nintendo consoles specifically to play Zelda games or Pokémon than to play Smash. Yes, Smash still gets a lot of sales because it’s a great first party Nintendo game, but it’s not the main franchise most people spend money on a Nintendo console for.

Same. My fondest Smash memories are playing with relatives & friends from work, college & elsewhere. I never played professionally & tho entering a tournament would be fun, Smash is mainly a part of family time. We need Smash Bros to continue.

Time to maintain those relationships by playing Scrabble or something

I mean, the thing you have to understand is that minds like Sakurai aren't grown on trees. I don't think its unreasonable to say that this kind of person happens a couple times a *generation*. You can't "train" a person to think and act like he does, and, like Max said, the respect that comes with his name goes a long ways. You can *say* that this person is Sakurai's protege and has been trained in the ninja arts of Smash Game Creation, but, at the end of the day, they ARE NOT Sakurai.

people like sakura are not readily available in any industry.

@@Talesofaweedsmoker did you not read what I said

@@Starwarsgeek12 you also did not read what I said. Your own logic can be used against you here, you think sakurai just got the job one day because he's good? He was trained, he learned, he had a particular vision. You can pass that down to others and that's not happening

@@TheVentrexian yeah, dudes been in the industry for 30+ years, that shit is not gonna happen anytime soon

Every Smash game in the entire series was lightning in a bottle