It’s regrettably over. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has officially been laid to rest today, as director Masahiro Sakurai won’t post any more daily screenshots from the game on his Twitter, something he’s done since December 2019. The final nail has been placed. It’s the end of an era.
It shouldn’t come as any real surprise that Sakurai would stop posting about the 2018 game. While he said Ultimate might not cap the series as a whole, Kingdom Hearts’ Sora did make up the game’s final DLC in October 2021, signaling some sorta end for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as we know it. It was only a matter of time before Sakurai and company pushed the game out to greener pastures, and when you’ve been working on something for seven years, I guess you gotta say goodbye at some point, right? All things come to an end.
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And that’s what Sakurai did, as he announced on Twitter he won’t post any more “daily Smash Ultimate screens” for the foreseeable future. However, he’s been “thinking about starting something new” and will reveal whatever these plans are soon. Since Sakurai’s been posting images of the game since December 2019, making up approximately 800 or so—if not literally thousands more—photos, we figured we’d share some of our fav screens he’s curated as a way to celebrate what seems to be Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s slow burial.
What makes Sakurai no longer posting daily screens a particular bummer is two-fold. One, each image is relatively high quality, easy to nab for press kits and the like. But then two, the framing of each one is pretty unique, with characters posing in ways you wouldn’t normally be able to capture during real matches. It’s something of an art that Sakurai won’t bless us with any more.
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So truly, may Super Smash Bros. Ultimate rest in (digital) peace. I know it’s not dead in the traditional sense. The game will still be playable at home and at tournaments (for as long as Nintendo makes it available). However, Sakurai abruptly ending the daily posts sure feels like an end to me. Cue sobbing emoji.
