Considering Melee is still getting played at tournaments, the online port of the game might actually be really popular in that parallel universe and taken over the world. Iwata may be looking like an even bigger genius along with the sales success of the Wii and DS in that universe. Ain't gonna feel too bad for them.
Tournament players are a relatively small subset of the overall fanbase though Nintendo has been paying them more attention probably for the marketing potential. Melee Online may have been popular, but I wouldn’t want to live in a universe without a true follow up. We finally got third party characters with Snake and Sonic. Earth 2 gets what, laggy bullshit Nintendo WiFi added to an unbalanced, rushed game. No one wants that. How can you be so heartless, Linkle Link?
Sakurai announced very early after Bayonetta released that the next project was decided. Here it is.
If you want to believe that, you also have to believe that Sakurai, who resigned from a company he spent nearly a decade and a half with then stated, “It was tough for me to see that every time I made a new game, people automatically assumed that a sequel was coming,” and “Even if it's a sequel, lots of people have to give their all to make a game, but some people think the sequel process happens naturally,” on record, decided to make a sequel immediately after completing a sequel. Not saying it’s impossible, just less likely.
No offense, but the rest of what you (and Luigi Dude) are saying is straight up confirmation bias. Maybe it happens? I don’t know or care, really. I’m still not sure why any of this matters. A lot of digital ink is being split over something so inconsequential. Would you not buy the game if it’s an enhanced port? I have a hard time believing anyone would because Lord Sakurai didn’t bless us with a new game.
Enough of that though. Maybe this doesn’t matter to other people, but one thing I really want from this game is a simpler interface. The menus in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U/3DS are a colossal mess. Training is buried under 37 submenus.
No offense taken. Now then I've been on the Smash 5 went into production immediately after Bayonetta wrapped since the Smash 6 job listing appeared before the Wii U game even released. If that could possibly make any sense to anyone but me.
The quote you brought up, from which game was that referring to? Or rather what Smash game was in development during that time? What ever the case I constantly see the narrative floating around that this is it for Sakurai, his body can't handle it, he's had enough of smash, he's said he was done with Smash after Melee, Brawl, and Smash 3DU, etc.
For one I distinctly remember Sakurai talking about the development of 64, Melee and Brawl as if they were going to be the last in the franchise. He made them not planning for a sequel and gave it his all in case there would never be another. That is very very different from the idea that people push around that Sakurai has had enough and wanted to be done with the franchise.
Sakurai had constantly talked about the strains Smash development put on his life and physical health but when you read the interviews that constantly went up during Smash 3DU's development you could just feel the happiness inside of him. I know this is purely conjecture on my part but there was something very different about the way Sakurai talked about Smash during the last games development. Just look at how open he was about characters that he considered for playable status. Ridley, Geno and Takamaru come to mind. During the Brawl days that kind of thing was very very rare. We heard about Dixie kong on the record but that was it. During early development he mentioned how he was very careful with what he posted on twitter or say in an interview because people would pile on him assuming it always had to do with Smash. But in the last few years he has been far more open about things that ended up on the cutting room floor. I bring this up only to say I feel like he has darn near fully embraced what Smash brings to his life and has stopped worrying so much. He mentioned several times that he doesn't know if a team could handle Smash without him. Smash is his baby and he wants to be there all day every day, consequences of his tendonitis be danged.
This is all just educated guessing on my part.
1 - Nothing was saving the Wii U, not even Smash. Before the game released Iwata requested that the Switch come out swinging with Smash early.
2 - Smash Wii U isn't even released and it's decided a new one needs to be ready early. So a job listing goes up for Smash 6. This is real by the way.
3 - Might have been an enhanced port like a bunch of other games but once everyone realized what a break away hit Zelda was and also carried the system things changed. Like that Pokemon Stars rumor.
4 - Even if it started as an enhanced port we know Sakurai's work ethic. He goes balls to the wall every single time he does absolutely anything. There was no way this was going to feel like anything other than a full on sequel.
5 - Samsh Wii U releases September of 2014. Bayonetta is released Feb 3rd, 2016 and Sakurai says he and the team take a vacation.
6 - A month or two later Sakurai publicly talks about the next project being decided. That was early 2016.
7 - It's been roughly 2 full years(or will be), the typical Smash development time.
8 - Oh and the ballot that resulted in only Bayonetta? Pu-lease! That data was being collected for a future game that was happening yesterday.
I am so certain that this is a new game and I've been predicting it for a long long time. I said if Smash comes at the Switch's launch it will be an enhanced port. If time goes on and we hear nothing it's going to end up as a full on sequel.
The music, the logo, and Link's new look are all I really need to see to convince me it's a new game.
I know a ton of what I said is based off of tin foil hat predictions but darn it, I know how these things work!