The presentation will be hosted by Smash Bros. boss Masahiro Sakurai, and is due to last 40 minutes. Will it finally be Birdo’s time? Or will a third-party character like Sora or Crash nab the game’s final slot? We can but look on and find out: In the lead-up to today’s announcement, fans have been thanking Sakurai for his work on the series - and in particular the extended development time on Ultimate creating two season passes’ worth of DLC characters. “Gathering all of these games, new and old, and compiling them into a single product is a task that has meant a lot to me,” Sakurai said previously. “Now that I think about it, it’s been close to 10 years since Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and Nintendo 3DS was in development. I’ve been working on this for a long time. You could call it my life’s work.” As a reminder, the highly-praised Ultimate first launched back in December 2018, following three years of development which started shortly after DLC production finished on the series’ 3DS and Wii U entries. Another three years later, Ultimate’s development will finally wrap up with the release of this final character and last set of Mii Fighter costumes. Perhaps then, finally, Sakurai can take a well-deserved break?
