During an award ceremony at the Tokyo Game Show yesterday, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate director Masahiro Sakurai remembered departed friend and co-worker Satoru Iwata. During the same speech, the Smash Bros. producer also reaffirmed that fans shouldn’t expect to see movie and TV characters appearing on the crossover fighter’s roster.
Sakurai was on stage to receive the TGS Grand Award for the Nintendo Switch fighter, one of four awards Super Smash Bros. Ultimate took home in total. Speaking on the series’ crossover appeal, Sakurai said “I get all these kinds of requests from abroad like, ‘Where is my beloved Iron Man?’ or ‘Where is my beloved Goku?’ However, basically (Smash) will only have content from video games in it.”
This isn’t the first time Sakurai has made this statement, as he has noted it previously in interviews as well as his book 2015-19: Thoughts on Masahiro Sakurai’s Games, but given the tenacity of video game fans – and particularly the dedication of Smash players – it seems like he’ll be fighting off similar requests until the day he hangs his hat up. It looks like you might have to finally put that Judge Dredd vs. Jerry Maguire dream match to one side.
Source: Destructoid Masahiro Sakurai offers tribute to Satoru Iwata, reaffirms unlikelihood of movie characters in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate