Kirby Air Riders, the game project that Masahiro Sakurai had apparently been overseeing since April 2022, was recently released for the Nintendo Switch 2. Bandai Namco was involved with the development process behind Kirby Air Riders alongside Sakurai once again.
For now, it’s unknown what Masahiro Sakurai will be working on next, but a new entry for the Super Smash Bros. series on the Nintendo Switch 2 seems like a strong candidate. The fact that Super Smash Bros. Ultimate for the Switch has sold over 36.55 units worldwide (still at full price) certainly gives the possibility credence.
Early on, Sakurai asserted that Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s “Everyone Is Here” theme is something that could only happen just this one time. However, its massive success may persuade Nintendo to invest more heavily in a new entry.
Regardless, it’s been established at this point that we have the Smash Ballot that was concluded back in October 2015 to thank for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s gigantic roster. It’s crazy to think that it’s been over 10 years since the Smash Ballot was held under the pretense of Super Smash Bros. 4’s DLC suggestions.
Although Bayonetta was initially advertised to be the winner of the Smash Ballot, resulting in her inclusion as one of the last DLC characters for Smash 4, Sakurai later made the declaration that veterans like Snake were actually even more popular than Bayonetta. This was seemingly the inspiration for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
Ridley is a character that Sakurai thought of as being “too big” to be playable in Super Smash Bros., but he eventually relented and made compromises in order to make the character work anyhow since people kept asking for him. This suggests that Ridley also performed extremely well in the Smash Ballot.
Likewise, King K. Rool received a “ton of votes”. Initially, this was only enough to secure King K. Rool Mii costume parts as DLC. Later on, he finally became playable in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
When it was time to begin development on the post-launch content for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Masahiro Sakurai informed fans that DLC slots had already been finalized, so there was no need for a second ballot. We’d later learn that the development team was continuing to reference the Smash Ballot from the Smash 4 era to develop content for Smash Ultimate.
This is what inspired the additions of Banjo-Kazooie and most especially Sora from the Kingdom Hearts series. We now know that Sora was actually the most popular pick of the Smash Ballot.
“I knew that Sora was the most requested fighter,” said Masahiro Sakurai during the Direct presentation that initially revealed Sora as a fighter.
“Six years ago, when Super Smash Bros. for the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U were out, there was a poll called the Smash Bros. Fighter Ballot,” continued Sakurai back then. “The top choice for the most requested new fighter was Sora.”
“Six years ago, when Super Smash Bros. for the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U were out, there was a poll called the Smash Bros. Fighter Ballot. The top choice for the most requested new fighter was Sora.” — Masahiro Sakurai
Initially, Sakurai simply believed that getting Sora would be impossible, so he had only planned for five DLC combatants for the Fighters Pass Vol. 2. However, when he actually got the opportunity to pitch the idea to relevant parties, he went for it for the sake of the fans.
By the time the announcement of the Fighters Pass Vol. 2 rolled around, the deal to secure Sora had not yet been finalized, but Sakurai was confident enough that it was going to happen. If things did not work out, he likely would’ve just had to include someone else that wasn’t planned for.
It’s interesting to note that neither Sakurai nor Nintendo has published the full top results of the Smash Ballot. This leaves open the door that it could be used in reference again someday.
Still, it’s been over 10 years since that poll. Character popularity has changed significantly since then. There’s even been enough time for new character concepts to appear in the gaming space altogether.
Assuming a new Smash Bros. entry is truly being planned for, we’ll likely see a scenario where Sakurai and Nintendo continue to reference the old Smash Ballot for the base roster, but they may be interested in hosting a fresh poll for future DLC.
We’ll just have to wait and see how things unfold from here to find out.