Reggie Fils-Aime Talks ‘Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’ Being a Hit On Nintendo Switch

Nintendo has been talking up a storm lately...but can you blame them? The Nintendo Switch dominated the Black Friday sales season; and there's a lot of chatter about the third-party games and Wii U ports that do well for the hardware, with big potential on what's to come.

As part of his recent interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Nintendo president Reggie Fils-Aime found time to discuss Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, which is set to become one of this holiday season's biggest sellers based on early estimates.

The interviewer talked about Ultimate's unbelievably stacked amount of content and was wondering how Nintendo made it possible. "I've had the good fortune to meet me Mr. (Masahiro)Sakurai, the key developer, many times, and Mr. Sakurai is a student of video games- and what I mean by that is he not only loves and plays Nintendo content, he loves and plays content from all game developers, all platforms, all systems," he explained.

"So, Super Smash Bros. emanates from that love for video games and video game history. (Sakurai) and his team are so skilled to be able to create this experience and really to make it fun."

That's not always easy, particularly with this genre. "Often times, fighting games, maybe because the balance between characters isn't quite right, can end up being not a lot of fun. But he's a master of making this type of experience fun, compelling, introducing different modes and different elements. The spirit component (collectible cutout caricatures of video game characters that lend bonuses to the player's fighter) that's been added in is a wonderful feature. It's almost a way as a player to hack the game, by adding spirits and adding different abilities, changing the nature of a particular character and how they play.

"It is due to (Sakurai) and his skill that Super Smash Bros. as a franchise and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, in particular, is as compelling an experience as it is."

He also brought up the game's DLC, with the first fighter, Persona 5's Joker, set to join the game early next year. "The reason it was so important to showcase Joker was really to help the player understand that the net has been cast very wide for the different new fighters who will enter Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. From that perspective, it's going to be very exciting. As it gets closer to the launch of the next fighter we'll reveal that, so stay tuned for that."

Nintendo has noted that the DLC will be reserved for surprise debuts in the series, so fingers crossed we get some true gems along the same lines as Joker. (Fingers crossed, Waluigi fans.)

We'll see what comes to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate in the future. You can pick it up either physically and digitally on Nintendo Switch.

(Hat tip to the Hollywood Reporter for the scoop!)