Sakurai explains how a Smash Ultimate sequel will be radically different

Super Smash Bros creator Masahiro Sakurai has teased the next installment of Nintendo’s flagship fighter and how it could be a completely different experience than the one fans have come to expect.

Smash Ultimate is easily one of, if not the biggest, gaming crossover in history, with fighters from an assortment of wildly different franchises, universes, and genres. There is no other world where Mario can fight Cloud, Solid Snake, and Sora from Kingdom Hearts in a Minecraft stage.

As such, Smash has become a global phenomenon, with Sakurai leading the charge every step of the way. However, the future of the series remains in doubt, with the director contemplating retirement after such a long project.

Now, the Smash boss has teased what the next entry could be like, and what fans should expect if it ever goes into production.

Sakurai teases next Smash game, fighters and new content

In an interview with The Verge, Sakurai stressed that after Ultimate, the limit had been reached, and there would need to be some cutbacks.

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“I think we’ve reached the limit, at least in terms of volume of content and fighters,” he said. “Basically, if I were to have the opportunity to work on another Super Smash Bros. game, that means we would have to shrink the roster, but we need to think about whether fans would be pleased about that.”

Furthermore, he noted how Smash has too much of his own personality built-in, so going forward, a future game would need to expand beyond just his vision.

“Of course, this is the way it is now because we weren’t successful in splitting the vision between multiple people before,” he explained. “This would be a challenge for the future and something that needs to be discussed with Nintendo, if there were to be a next installment in the Super Smash Bros. series.”

This said, it’s also possible that there isn’t another Smash game after Ultimate. Speaking to IGN, Sakurai noted that there are no plans at the moment and fans would be best to assume one isn’t coming.

Whatever ends up happening, it will be interesting to see what role Sakurai takes, and just how different the next game is compared to what players have come to expect with Ultimate.