The passing of Nintendo's former president, Satoru Iwata was a sudden and tragic event that still remains in the minds of many to this day, even nearly five years after the fact. This is highlighted especially by last year's release of the Japanese book "Iwata-San", which chronicles multiple "Iwata Asks" excerpts and comments from his friends, such as Shigeru Miyamoto. The publisher behind the book, Hobonichi, is led by another one of Iwata's colleagues, Shigesato Itoi, who recently posted an interview regarding the late CEO. In it, Super Smash Bros. director Masahiro Sakurai discusses how he felt when Iwata passed away, and how completing development on Super Smash Bros. Ultimate was "the final mission given to [him] by Iwata". You can see a few highlights from the interview, translated courtesy of Siliconera.

Do you remember how you processed his passing?

Masahiro Sakurai, director: “Before I took the phone call, I felt sluggish for some reason. Like my body felt heavy…

When my grandfather and grandmother passed, I had the same feeling. Like ‘I feel sluggish today’, and then finding out they passed away. Something like that happened, and for some reason, a similar thing occurred. Although I’m not one to talk about spiritual things. I wonder if I had a feeling…

But I decided that either way, I’d finish the Smash Bros. project. That was the best way I could make it up to Iwata-san, I felt.”

Ahh, I see.

Sakurai: “So Super Smash Bros. Ultimate released, right? In fact, that was the final mission given to me by Iwata-san. That game sold that much not just in Japan but overseas as well, and became the highest-selling title in 2018 in Japan. People all around enjoyed the game, and it brought around the best results, and I feel thankful for this.”

So you were talking with Iwata-san up to the Switch version of Smash Bros., I see.

Sakurai: “When I was making Super Smash Bros. for, the topic of making a Switch version of Smash Bros. naturally came up. We’d bring along the same development team, and create a definitive Smash Bros. game that took the best points of the handheld and console titles.”

And so, for your mission after this, will you be deciding that for yourself, Sakurai-san?

Sakurai: “Only god knows. (laughs) The current DLC we’re developing right now already falls outside the mission.”

At the end of the interview, Sakurai is questioned on what his next mission will be, once the upcoming DLC plans for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate are complete, to which Sakurai jokingly replies, "God only knows".

Source

 

[JuanMena]

I do feel that Sakurai is probably tired of Smash, maybe that's why he's working so hard on it.
The man deserves to rest...

UNLESS HE FUCKING ADDS ANOTHER FIRE EMBLEM CHARACTER

 

[Sachka]

He's always tired after finishing a game, I felt Brawl was going to be the last. Same speech (except for the passing of Iwata).

 

[codezer0]

I'm sure it's more customary in Japan, but that kind of workaholic behavior just screams unhealthy to me. Makes me wonder if Sakurai even has a home life, or a hobby outside of his self imposed duties.

For all the joy he's brought to the world with Smash Brothers, I just want the devs involved (Sakurai included) to be able to be happy in turn. To be able to reap the reward for such an amazing product. That shouldn't be too much to ask for, right?

 

[IncredulousP]

This is fine. Series went downhill after Melee, hard to top a Magnum opus. There similarly hasn't been any good Kirby games in over a decade. Guy should just retire and enjoy life.

 

[m_babble]

This is fine. Series went downhill after Melee, hard to top a Magnum opus. There similarly hasn't been any good Kirby games in over a decade. Guy should just retire and enjoy life.

Planet Robobot was great!

 

[Coto]

I'm sure it's more customary in Japan, but that kind of workaholic behavior just screams unhealthy to me. Makes me wonder if Sakurai even has a home life, or a hobby outside of his self imposed duties.

For all the joy he's brought to the world with Smash Brothers, I just want the devs involved (Sakurai included) to be able to be happy in turn. To be able to reap the reward for such an amazing product. That shouldn't be too much to ask for, right?

I second this.


-


You've done quite well Masahiro Sakurai. I can see you really enjoy your work, and remember to take some rest. A well-rested person does much more than someone who doesn't get enough sleep or rest.

I say this because one tends to keep up working straight for days (no sleep) but the lack of sleep toll can affect your life.
in your 20s or maybe mid 30s it doesn't matter, but after that the body takes longer to recover!

Remember that!

 

[x65943]

This is fine. Series went downhill after Melee, hard to top a Magnum opus. There similarly hasn't been any good Kirby games in over a decade. Guy should just retire and enjoy life.

While I agree Melee was the best, I was still happy to play sm4sh and believe the 8 player mechanic actually added something to the game

I think we can all agree Brawl was trash, but it brought us Project M which is one the single best fighting games ever made

 

[Pipistrele]

UNLESS HE FUCKING ADDS ANOTHER FIRE EMBLEM CHARACTER

Dude is a huge fan of the series, adding Fire Emblem characters is an equivalent of rest for him <3

 

[IncredulousP]

While I agree Melee was the best, I was still happy to play sm4sh and believe the 8 player mechanic actually added something to the game

I think we can all agree Brawl was trash, but it brought us Project M which is one the single best fighting games ever made

All valid points.

 

[Anxiety_timmy]

F's in the chat boys, f's in the chat

 

[Ev1l0rd]

I'm sure it's more customary in Japan, but that kind of workaholic behavior just screams unhealthy to me. Makes me wonder if Sakurai even has a home life, or a hobby outside of his self imposed duties.

Japan has the highest worker suicide rate and there's a reason that the concept of the hikkikomori has it's name in Japanese roots (although it's starting to take shape in the west as well under the term NEET).

It's a real issue there that doesn't really get adressed due to cultural concepts.

 

[Panzerfaust]

I think we can all agree Brawl was trash, but it brought us Project M which is one the single best fighting games ever made

I really enjoyed playing subspace emissary coop with a friend. I missed that mode in the following entries. beside the tripping bullshit, I cant find major flaws

 

[x65943]

I really enjoyed playing subspace emissary coop with a friend. I missed that mode in the following entries. besides the tripping bullshit, I cant find major flaws

I do agree SSE was a ton of fun

However, in terms of combat, the characters were balanced horribly and the game was slow and clunky (seriously Meta Knight was way more broken than Fox or Sheik)

I am not gonna act like I didn't put hundreds of hours into the game and enjoy it (at the time) - but I would never pick it up again for a round of smash. I would rather play any other game in the series for casual play including the OG for the N64

 

[MaxiBash]

F's in the chat boys, f's in the chat

Why? Nothing bad has happened, they just talk about Iwata's passing. Is a "F" in that case really worth it?

 

[IncredulousP]

I would rather play any other game in the series for casual play including the OG for the N64

You mean especially the OG for the N64.

 

[LightBeam]

I do agree SSE was a ton of fun

However, in terms of combat, the characters were balanced horribly and the game was slow and clunky (seriously Meta Knight was way more broken than Fox or Sheik)

I am not gonna act like I didn't put hundreds of hours into the game and enjoy it (at the time) - but I would never pick it up again for a round of smash. I would rather play any other game in the series for casual play including the OG for the N64

Fair enough, but I still think that's unfair to call Brawl trash when it had so many qualities. Like damn, the content .... the huge amount of content in this game, was so damn great. So of course now that we are used to the series, we would never pick it up again to fight against somebody. Maybe it's because it's the one game I played when I was a kid (and not melee, tbh I played it way after and I don't like it at all), but even if it was so slow, the characters could slip for no damn reason, there are still so many good things about the game, just calling it trash ain't doing it justice, even if it's the worst smash game released.
No Smash games are trash. (and also the magnum opus is ultimate, can't say it's melee cuz one game got Ridley and K.Rool as playable characters)

 

[Silent_Gunner]

I think the one thing Ultimate lacks is an actual platform beat em' up mode like SSE, like others here. Sure, I'm not the biggest fan of how the game feels to play, but I really wish that we had got something similar for Ultimate.

I never played Smash for the fighting as much as it was the joy of having an offical crossover for what is now more than just Nintendo characters. If I wanted the ultimate crossover, I'd play MUGEN, as that games roster...is whatever you want it to be.

 

[Varia]

This is fine. Series went downhill after Melee, hard to top a Magnum opus. There similarly hasn't been any good Kirby games in over a decade. Guy should just retire and enjoy life.

Sakurai hasn't been working on Kirby for like 15 years or so, so he has nothing to do with it going downhill. If anything, he was the reason it used to be better. I do agree the series hasn't been good for a very long time.

 

[lordelan]

Since Ultimate is that good, I'd be completely fine with just a port of it on the next Nintendo console.