25 Years Later, Super Smash Bros. Is Bigger Than Ever. Where Does It Go From Here?

25 years ago, Nintendo changed forever when Mario and Pikachu beat the snot out of each other for the first time. And it wasn’t some imaginative playground game or notebook scribbles, it was a real, official, Nintendo-sanctioned clobbering! Today marks the 25th anniversary of Super Smash Bros. hitting North America on Nintendo 64, launching the franchise that would eventually culminate in the best-selling fighting game of all time. So on Smash’s birthday, let’s celebrate gaming’s biggest crossover, and speculate about where the franchise could possibly go next after the literally “ultimate” last entry.

It still blows my mind that Nintendo approved a game where its most recognizable, family-friendly faces get punched by other company icons, especially considering that Smash 64’s prototype was called Dragon King: The Fighting Game, featuring no Nintendo characters at all. But when series creator Masahiro Sakurai thought the game would be more successful with Nintendo characters, the company surprisingly agreed. The uber-protective Nintendo has a cute explanation for how its all-stars can fight, as Smash 64’s opening cutscene shows plush toys of Mario, DK, and Samus coming to life in a child’s playroom. Super Smash Bros. Melee replaced the plush toys with trophies, which eventually led to Smash for Wii U and 3DS’ amiibo, which led to hundreds of dollars leaving my bank account. But however Nintendo needs to justify it, it’s just awesome the idea got the green light.

I anxiously awaited a green light of my own to get my start with Smash Bros. One of my earliest vivid memories comes from when I was five years old, sitting in a Target parking lot with my mom and sister. I had my heart set on getting Super Smash Bros. Melee for GameCube, but there was a catch: Melee was rated T for Teen, and my kindergarten-age self was a long way away from my teenage years. My mom called my dad to see if he thought it was okay for me to play a T-rated game, and he luckily approved. So thanks, Mom and Dad, because that decision introduced me to one of my favorite series, one that I’m still in love with over 20 years later.

Looking back now, Smash 64’s humble roster of 12 fighters seems miniscule in comparison to modern entries, but as a kid I still remember how incredible it was to play a game with Pikachu, Mario, and Link all in the same place. It felt impossible, and with each new entry, Sakurai and Co. continued to make miracles happen. Melee expanded the lineup significantly, over doubling the number of characters and adding princesses like Peach and Zelda and villains like Bowser and Ganondorf. There were also some great off-the-wall choices in Melee, like Mr. Game & Watch, the Ice Climbers, and a couple of mysterious sword fighters from an unknown Japan-exclusive series called Fire Emblem.

As much as I dislike the floaty physics of Super Smash Bros. Brawl, I still really appreciate the Wii entry for all the big swings it took. From its wildly ambitious Subspace Emissary story mode, to its attempt to introduce online play to the franchise, to crazy third-party inclusions like Solid Snake and Sonic the Hedgehog, Brawl followed in Melee’s footsteps establishing that each new Smash entry was going to be bigger and more bombastic than the last. Smash Bros. never rests on its laurels, and it has deservedly become an event whenever a new Smash Bros. hype cycle kicks off.

Thanks to the rise of the Nintendo Direct and social media, the leadup to Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and 3DS is remembered for extremely hype reveal trailers. Nintendo ramped up the third-party additions with classic gaming icons like Mega Man, Ryu, and Pac-Man, along with the truly unfathomable introduction of Final Fantasy VII’s Cloud Strife. I distinctly remember conversations along the lines of “Where does Smash go from here” starting after Smash 4’s DLC run came to an end, as the roster seemed too big to replicate in a future entry. But of course, we all now know that wasn’t the case.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is one of Nintendo’s crowning achievements. Not only did Ultimate bring every character from franchise history back, but it continued the trend of absolutely wild third-party crossovers. Steve, Banjo & Kazooie, and Sora feel like nothing more than pie-in-the-sky chat forum dreams, but Sakurai and his team at Sora Ltd. and Bandai Namco made them all happen. So now, on Smash’s 25th anniversary, I’m asking the same question we all asked before the Smash team set the bar even higher with Ultimate: What happens next?

Will Sakurai Be Involved?

Every Smash Bros. is Masahiro Sakurai’s last Smash Bros… until the next one. That’s been the pattern for nearly the entire franchise at this point, as it always seems like Sakurai is on his way out the door until Nintendo reels him back in for one more go. But this time, it really seems like it’s worth questioning if Sakurai will continue to lead Smash in the future. And yes, there is a future for Smash. “Ultimate” may be the title of the last entry, but there’s no way Nintendo is going to leave one of its mega franchises on the table with 20 million-plus sales potential. Personally, I don’t think Sakurai is going to be able to help himself the next time Nintendo gives him a call. Last year, the creator said he can’t imagine the series continuing without him.

“The question now is what happens next time?” Sakurai said in a video on his YouTube channel. “I mean whatever comes after Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. One option would be to separate the series from its original creator, but for now, at least, I can’t imagine a Smash Bros. title without me. You might think that’s a natural stance for someone in my role, but I say so speaking objectively.”

Sakurai added that there’s no one right now who he can see taking the reins and leading the next Smash game, and that he’d like to continue working with Nintendo in the future. I wouldn’t be surprised if that phone call has already happened, as Sakurai announced he is ending his short-lived YouTube career later this year, and he squashed rumors of retirement by saying he’s still focused on making games.

Since Sakurai feels there is currently no one prepared to take over the series, I think he will come back for one more entry where he shifts into more of a producer role, so he can take the time to train his replacement during development of the next game. It would be a similar situation to what we’ve seen happen with Super Mario and The Legend of Zelda, where longtime directors like Shigeru Miyamoto and Eiji Aonuma slowly transitioned into producer roles. That way, when Sakurai is ready to step away from Smash, he can rest easier knowing his series is in good hands.

Can ‘Everyone Is Here’ Happen Again?

Even Sakurai himself doesn’t think something the size of Ultimate can happen again.

“As for what comes next for the Smash Bros. series, even I’m not sure,” Sakurai said. “I feel we truly succeeded in making people happy with this game, but now that Smash Bros. has grown to be monstrous in size, I’d say it’s difficult to imagine an increase of this magnitude happening again.

“Every time, we managed to make a game that I had previously thought impossible, so I can’t say for certain there won’t be another, but I do think it would be difficult to push it any further than we have.”

Bringing everyone back for another entry would be even tougher than it was for Ultimate. Besides the sheer number of characters to work on and balance during development, Nintendo would have to get every third-party partner — we’re talking Capcom, Sega, Konami, Square Enix, Microsoft, and even Disney — to sign off on their characters making another Smash appearance. While I don’t doubt that Sakurai and his team could pull it off again, I’m not convinced that’s the route they’d go with a brand-new Smash game.

The one route where I could see “Everyone Is Here” happening again is through a Deluxe port of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Maybe Nintendo would port a game as massive as Smash Ultimate to its next home console, and Sakurai’s team at Bandai Namco could reconvene to make some DLC additions to the roster. It would be a significantly smaller lift for the developers, and Sakurai could take the opportunity to train a new director under much less demanding circumstances than an entirely new Smash Bros. game.

The other route I could see Smash going is to a full reboot of the series. Movesets for Ultimate’s DLC characters were absolutely bonkers, from Hero’s spell menu, to Joker’s Persona, to Terry and Kazuya’s powered-up states, and it started to make characters who have been around since the early days of the series feel simple by comparison. Characters like Mario, Fox, Link, and Samus have barely changed since Smash 64, and it might be time to go back to the drawing board and revamp the movesets for some of Nintendo’s most classic characters. Overhauled movesets for iconic fighters in exchange for a much smaller roster seems like a fair tradeoff to me, and Nintendo would surely grow the roster over time through DLC.

Either way, Nintendo is facing a big challenge for the next Smash Bros. game. This series has always outdone itself, but Ultimate is a very tough game to try and outdo. But if there’s one team I trust to figure out how to make the next entry special, it’s Sakurai and Nintendo, and I can’t wait to see what’s next for this series that always manages to be such a special event.

What do you want to see from the next Smash Bros. game? Let us know in the comments.

Logan Plant is IGN’s Database Manager, Playlist Editor, and frequent Super Ninfriendo on Nintendo Voice Chat. Find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.