There’s a wild rumor out now regarding Masahiro Sakurai, Kirby Air Riders, Nintendo, and Super Smash Bros.
This was originally shared on the GamingLeaksAndRumours subreddit by user DrAwesomeX, but the source is Reece Reilly, host of the Kiwi Talkz podcast and often known himself as his online handle, Kiwi Talkz.
Reilly shared this initial claim on Twitter, quoting another tweet talking about Kirby Air Riders:
This game is Sakurai’s passion project. He was burned out from working on Smash Bros constantly since 2012 so as a negotiating tactic offered to do another Smash if he could do Kirby Air Riders first. Nintendo are in a bind with Smash Bros as Sakurai is irreplaceable currently.
When prodded further if this is a rumor with a source or speculation, he said this:
Yeah I get it, thats valid, the line can seem blurry. The only thing that was speculation was “Prime 4 blowing everything out of the water” because Metroid is my number 1 franchise and I got caught up in the hype and gave a prediction.
He also clarified further what he could vouch from his source:
Some of my stuff is already being misconstrued and the line between fact/speculation is blurring. Everything in regards to the negotiation from Sakurai and Nintendo is a source. Everything else is speculation, I have no idea if Smash is in pre-production by Bandai Namco or not.
Finally, Reilly shared his opinion on if he thinks Nintendo or Masahiro Sakurai is working on a new Super Smash Bros. game at all:
I doubt it, maybe Bandai Namco could be doing pre-production on it, but unlikely. Sakurai is so instrumental to planning these out (especially on the third party negotiations.) The level of respect and clout he has in the industry can’t be underestimated.
I just dont see how he could direct both Kirby Air Riders and Smash Bros at the same time.
While we can’t vouch for Reese Reilly’s veracity or the credibility of his source, we at least know this is a credible story. Sakurai has spoken before about his weariness and hesitation in making a new Super Smash Bros. game. The bind Nintendo has on their end is that both they and Sakurai didn’t make arrangements for another game designer in Nintendo to learn how to make the game from Sakurai and become a suitable successor.
We believe that if Sakurai is involved in a new Super Smash Bros. game, he and Nintendo will finally make arrangements to get him a suitable successor, probably entirely arranged by Nintendo. While Nintendo could choose to make a new game with no involvement from Masahiro Sakurai completely, you know no one in the company wants to be known as the developer who failed to follow up on Sakurai’s generational legacy. That may also mean that we will wait even longer for that Super Smash Bros. game, perhaps near the end of the Switch 2’s lifetime. But we’re sure everyone will say that the wait for it will be worth it.
