It’s the end of an era for Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros. franchise, with the long-running crossover fighting game series now in uncharted territory. Super Smash Bros. first hit the scene on the Nintendo 64 and was a big success, with fans immediately bracing the wild concept of a crossover fighting game starring iconic Nintendo characters. Nintendo followed up the original game with the landmark release that was Super Smash Bros. Melee on the GameCube, a title that many still hold up as one of the absolute best of all time.
Super Smash Bros. Melee remains a fixture of the competitive fighting game scene despite the fact that it was followed by multiple sequels. Super Smash Bros. Brawl was released for the Wii with an astonishing amount of content, an exciting story mode, and, for the first time ever, third-party characters like Sonic the Hedgehog and Solid Snake from Metal Gear Solid. Brawl was succeeded by Super Smash Bros. for the Nintendo 3DS and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, aka Super Smash Bros. 4, and finally, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate on the Switch, which remains the latest game in the series to date.
Fans Have Never Had to Wait This Long for Super Smash Bros.
Super Smash Bros. fans have had to wait varying amounts of time between entries in the series. It was two years between the original and Melee, while it was seven years between Melee and Brawl. The wait from Brawl to Smash 4 was six years, and there were only four years between the 3DS/Wii U titles and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate‘s 2018 launch. December will mark a staggering eight years since the last time a Super Smash Bros. game has released, meaning this is the longest fans have had to wait for a new game, officially marking the end of an era.
Even though it’s been eight years since the last time Nintendo released a Super Smash Bros. game, Ultimate received substantial post-launch support that has given it more longevity than its predecessors. New characters were added to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate for three years after its release, with Sora from Kingdom Hearts being the last DLC fighter when he made his debut all the way back in 2021. With it being five years since the last DLC character was added to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and eight years since the last time a game in the franchise was released, fans are understandably getting anxious to see what the inevitable Switch 2 version will look like.
Unfortunately, there is no official information on Super Smash Bros. 6 at the time of this writing. Some have speculated that since Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has every fighter in series history and then some that Nintendo might just decide to re-release the game as a Switch 2 Edition, but that seems unlikely. Every single Nintendo home console has had a new Super Smash Bros. game since the N64, and it’s unlikely that Nintendo will break from that tradition now. The franchise is simply too lucrative, and so it’s likely just a matter of time before the next one is revealed.
The current leaks and rumors about Nintendo’s upcoming Switch 2 lineup suggest that the holiday 2027 games will be the Generation 10 Pokemon games Winds and Waves and the long-awaited new 3D Super Mario. That doesn’t leave a lot of room for Smash Bros., so fans may have to wait until 2028 or later to see the franchise make its Switch 2 debut. Whenever it does release, one has to wonder if it will retain the massive roster from Ultimate or go in a different direction. Time will tell, but fans will no doubt be keeping their eyes on all upcoming Nintendo Directs just in case there’s a Smash reveal in store.
- Released
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December 7, 2018
- ESRB
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E for Everyone: Cartoon Violence, Comic Mischief, Suggestive Themes
- Publisher(s)
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Nintendo
