It Was Always You, Sora
So that was…eventful.
From its reveal in early 2018 to its final DLC announcement two days ago, October 5th, Super Smash Bros Ultimate has consistently remained one of gaming’s premier events. Even when the industry hit its slow periods, Smash has been remarkably dependable with new fighters on hand to keep things interesting. Though it could have gone on forever, the developers chose to close the stream of endless content with their second wave of DLC, fighters from a diverse array of games (and Fire Emblem) who came ready made with skins, stages, and music for players to enjoy.
And who brought an era of speculation to an end? Who killed the endless theories once and for all? None other than Disney and Square Enix’s mutual son Sora from Kingdom Hearts, finishing out the roster with yet another anime giant key fighter.
You could still hear the distant moans of folks who’d had their hearts set on Waluigi, or Crash Bandicoot, or a miraculous appearance from Master Chief (that one always seemed like a long shot, guys, but I’m sorry for your loss regardless) through Sakurai’s windup, as you might after any fighter reveal, but they all seemed to fade as he presented an image many Smash fans hadn’t thought about for six years, when Bayonetta’s reveal seemed to close the door on its relevance: the Smash Fighter Ballot.
The poll was intended to give fans all across the globe the opportunity to vouch for their favorite video game fighter to join the cast of Super Smash Bros WiiU/3DS, no matter how seemingly impossible their inclusion might be - some used their votes to lobby for the return of characters who had been absent since Melee, others threw their dream fighters into the arena with nothing to lose, and the rest wasted their vote on memes, because of course they did. Even at the time, they conceded that Bayonetta wasn’t exactly the runaway victor of the poll: she was the number one choice in Europe and in America’s top five, but it seemed that she was chosen for being the most popular choice that was actually attainable.
The reason for that, as Sakurai revealed yesterday, was because Sora had actually topped the Fighter Ballot all those years ago. And that presented a huge problem.
Disney, contrary to their chummy public image, is notoriously hard to please. Not only that, but they’ve never really been able to get a handle on this whole “video games” thing. One only has to look at their longtime partnership with industry punching bag Electronic Arts or their absolutely bizarre choice to put a crucial plot point from The Rise of Skywalker in a Fortnite event to ascertain that maybe they aren’t as “with it” as they like to present themselves. Outside of a few beloved titles from the Super Nintendo era, Kingdom Hearts is their only real mark on the medium, and even much of that is owed to developer Square Enix. Square, like many of the developers whose characters have been featured in Smash, seems for the most part happy to play nice for the sake of being included in a celebration of gaming history: Disney, on the other hand, is not so accommodating, not even when Mario himself comes calling. They barely let Square Enix themselves use the character they co-created - why would anyone hope they’d loosen the leash for Nintendo?
Even the fans who put his name in likely knew it was a long shot. There was no way Disney would settle, but god damn, what was there to lose from trying? Those suspicions were confirmed at the time, of course - Bayonetta took the last DLC slot as the de facto winner, and everyone figured that was it. “Maybe next time.”
“Maybe next time” - and yet, how quickly next time came.
And when you look back at the new characters introduced in Ultimate, across fighters, Mii costumes, and assists, you notice a few interesting inclusions: namely, a handful of characters from western developers. Indie darlings such as Cuphead, Shovel Knight, and even Sans Undertale himself were granted nods alongside the big dogs, an exciting change of pace into previously untapped territory for Smash. Those entries, however, don’t require as much of a corporate to-do as full fledged fighters; in some cases, it can be as easy as going to a developer’s house and losing to them at the game you spent the better part of your life creating.
Banjo and Kazooie, despite being owned by Microsoft, would hardly be considered a difficult get: by all accounts, everyone involved in the decision to include them was pretty enthusiastic to make it happen from the jump. It was, frankly, as much a favor to Microsoft as it was to the fans desperate for the pair’s inclusion. On the other hand, Minecraft is still a pretty big deal. Love or hate Steve’s busted, busted, busted moveset, the process of getting him on the roster started as early as five years ago, and only came to fruition last year, at the top of the second Fighter’s Pass DLC. If they had been negotiating with Microsoft, a company with whom they already have a functional working relationship, for five years to get Minecraft in Smash, how long did it take to convince Disney that Sora’s inclusion was worth it? How much work truly went into courting Disney’s goodwill for the sake of one fighter?
Neither Nintendo nor Disney, obviously, may be forthcoming about what the process actually entailed. It was clearly a difficult road to get Sora in Smash, as any references to Disney characters - even Donald and Goofy, Sora’s primary party members and best pals - have been thoroughly scrubbed from his DLC, save the Mickey Mouse keychain at the end of his Keyblade (and a mention of Maleficent’s brief stay in Hollow Bastion, which I was certain would end in a little red dot dancing around poor Masahiro “Two More Days Until Retirement” Sakurai’s forehead). It would be as ugly to hear about as it likely was to endure, which makes one wonder why anyone would willingly subject themselves to dealing with Disney’s lawyers when fan favorites like Crash Bandicoot wouldn’t be half as hard to nail down.
But then, even after all the questions Sora’s inclusion raises about the “how” and the “no, seriously, how,” you recall what Sakurai says directly after he reveals that Sora won the Fighter Ballot: that he and the late Satoru Iwata, Nintendo’s previous CEO, chose to keep that fact a secret until they knew they could get him in.
Since his tragic death in 2015, Iwata’s name has never been taken lightly by those at Nintendo he left behind: his NES game Golf was originally hidden in the code of every Switch, his name immortalized in Breath of the Wild as both a glowing mountain and the nature god who dwells there. Sakurai himself called Super Smash Bros Ultimate “the final mission” given to him by Iwata, a project he has seen through tirelessly to the end. It almost feels from time to time that he isn’t even gone; still their peer and mentor, but in spirit rather than title.
That’s when it all clicks into place. Why Sora had to be the last fighter. Why he’s summoned from the last embers of the burning Smash logo, lit like the Olympic torch back in 2018. Why he doesn’t come out swinging his Keyblade, ready to beat the hell out of Mario, but instead flying cheerfully over the entire roster, pixie dust at his heels and a smile on his face.
Sora is Iwata’s last great reveal, a promise he and Sakurai resolved to keep together years ago no matter the difficulty; a seemingly impossible gift to the fans they loved so much for all their time and passion. It explains why the final trailer for Ultimate is such a somber affair, in comparison to the playfully raunchy Bayonetta reveal that closed out the WiiU era: Smash, at least for now, is over. Sakurai’s final mission is complete. Everyone is finally, finally here, but they can’t stay forever. No matter how many video game heavies join Smash’s ranks, eventually everyone will return to being trophies on a shelf.
But deep down - even at the definitive, conclusive end - there’s a light that never goes out. Or something like that, at least.
