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Masahiro Sakurai to Send Daily Super Smash Bros. Pictures Less in 2021

Josh TolentinoBy
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Super Smash Bros.

It’s not usually big news when a game developer updates their social media feed, but when you’re Super Smash Bros. Director Masahiro Sakurai, people take notice when you adjust your Twitter. That’s what happened on December 27th, 2020, when Sakurai reached the one-year mark of posting daily photos from the development of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

In 2019, the saga began when Sakurai announced that once per day, he’d post an image that he used during the Super Smash Bros. team’s daily internal meetings on his Twitter feed. The move seemed a bit like a “365 project,” an exercise common among photographers and artists to create or produce a photo or work on a daily basis for a year. This was the first picture he used:

Since then, barring holidays, Sakurai has dutifully uploaded new screens. The pictures, taken in “photo mode” style and enabled by Super Smash Bros. Ultimate‘s debug mode and development tools, featured a wide range of subjects and compositions. And now that rhythm is going to change slightly. In the latest tweet, Sakurai announced that after the holiday break, he’d be moving to a five-day-a-week schedule. In a follow-up tweet, Sakurai reasoned that the change was partly due to a dwindling stock of usable photos. Not every in-development shot is suitable for public consumption, though he still has at more than 100 worth putting up.

To commemorate this frankly quite minor ripple in the ongoing life of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, we’ve trawled through the feed over the past year and selected a few of our favorite posts for your enjoyment.

Some were anodyne development tests for the game, such as this lineup of Joker’s various color options.

Some were more artfully presented, like this shot of the Dragon Quest characters raising their weapons together.

Others were funny or clever references, such as this parody of Daigo parrying Justin at EVO 2004.

Or this celebration of Yoshi’s Island‘s 1995 release anniversary.

Still others were just surreal compositions made in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, like this haunting two-picture post from February.

Some were real flexes, showing off stage or character details from the game that would otherwise be invisible to the players.

Whatever the case, the shots showed off Super Smash Bros. Ultimate in its best light, treating onlookers to a glimpse of just how much content is in the game, and engaging fans as well.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is immediately available on the Nintendo Switch. Nintendo announced the addition of Final Fantasy VII‘s Sephiroth to the roster at the 2020 Game Awards.

Josh Tolentino
Josh Tolentino helped run Japanator as Managing Editor since 2012, before it and Siliconera teamed up. That said, it's been years since he watched enough anime to keep his otaku license valid. Maybe one day he'll see enough of a given season to pretend to know what's hot. Until then, it's Star Trek reruns, gacha games, and bylines at Destructoid and GameCritics.