We love celebrating gaming anniversaries on GameRanx, and today is a special one to celebrate as we’re showing love to one of the best fighting game franchises ever: Super Smash Bros. The series has celebrated its 26th anniversary in Japan, and because of that, many are wondering what the franchise’s future will be like. The games have come a long way from the Nintendo 64 days, when Masahiro Sakurai and Satoru Iwata were trying to make a full-on original fighting game but then decided to swap those original characters in for Nintendo icons. They didn’t think the game would sell that well, but it became one of Nintendo’s best titles.
The franchise has been on GameCube, Wii, Wii U, and 3DS, and then got its “Ultimate Form” on the Nintendo Switch, which has sold over 35 million units, making it the best-selling fighting game ever. Oh, and it holds multiple spots on the all-time sales chart for fighting games. When Insider Stealth posted about the franchise’s anniversary on Twitter, many fans gave their thoughts in the comments about what might come next, and the opinions absolutely varied.
For example, some just want to see the Switch version get “improvements” like 4K resolution and 60 FPS capabilities alongside some new characters. However, as some pointed out, since the Nintendo Switch 2 will be backward compatible with the Switch games of the last eight years, that would be kind of redundant and likely would disappoint many.
Some feel that because the Switch title was the “Ultimate version of the series,” a smaller “reboot” might be in order, as it would take some pressure off Sakurai’s shoulders. He’s known to work a bit too hard on his games.
There are those who want an entirely new game, obviously, but they also understand that the roster might not be as big as the Switch entry, which is fine so long as the quality holds up. Sakurai himself has said that the next game in the series if there is one, wouldn’t be as big because of the work it took to make this one both fun and balanced.
As for “Will there be another Super Smash Bros title?” The answer is an emphatic “yes.” We’re not saying that to be vain, but rather, as noted, the last game sold 35 million units, and Nintendo knows that this is one of the best franchises it has regarding hype. So, even if it’s a smaller version, Sakurai is likely working on it to some extent right now.
