This article was originally written for TheNintendoVillage.com, a website I founded and ran from 2018 to 2021.

There are currently a scarcely believable 81 fighters in Super Smash Bros Ultimate, not including the forthcoming Terry Bogard. Once he and the final character from the fighter’s pass are added, that number will stretch to 83, with even more DLC planned further down the line.

It’s not the biggest surprise in the world then, to learn that series director Masahiro Sakurai thinks that there’s no chance future Smash Bros games will feature this many combatants.

In his column for Japanese gaming mag Famitsu (translated on Twitter by PushDustIn and Nokolo), Sakurai describes Super Smash Bros Ultimate as the, well, ultimate, crossover:

“By having every veteran fighter, and by having a number of collaborations with various games in Spirits mode and countless songs, Smash Ultimate is the ultimate collaboration title. This kind of game is definitely unprecedented.”

He’s not wrong! Despite that though, us pesky Smash fans just can’t get enough, with Sakurai acknowledging that “there are still requests from all over the world for new fighters in Smash.” If there’s one Smash game that’s going to get them though, it will be Ultimate.

Reiterating that while he has the final decision on whether or not a fighter makes it in, Nintendo ultimately decides who the DLC characters are going to be, Sakurai makes the point that this kind of roster cannot be replicated in any subsequent games: “If Smash Bros. continues in the future, then there’s no way this many fighters and series can be represented again.”

To be honest, when the likes of Cloud and Ryu were added to the Wii U game, we didn’t think that roster was ever going to be bettered. Needless to say, Ultimate catches it unaware with a fully-charged swing of the home-run bat.

We cannot wait to see what extra fighters make it into the game, now that even more DLC has been annouunced.

Source: Twitter