While today’s Nintendo Direct conference announced a lot of new features and releases, including new footage of some highly anticipated games, what seems to have struck fans most (for better or worse) is an announcement regarding the upcoming fourth installment of Super Smash Brothers. Instead of the usual team, HAL, Namco Bandai will be working on the project along with Project Sora (of Kid Icarus: Uprising).
Masahiro Sakurai, who has worked on past SSB titles and the recently released Kid Icarus, will be leading the team once again. He will be working with Namco Bandai’s Kenya Kobayashi, who worked on Go Vacation and Ridge Racer; and Yoshito Higuchi, best known for producing Tales of Vesperia.
Namco Bandai’s most recent games developed for Nintendo platforms include Project X Zone (2012) for the 3DS and Tales of Graces (2009), Klonoa (2009), and One Piece: Unlimited Cruise (2009) for the Wii. They were also the company behind the highly successful Dark Souls game.
Tekken and Soulcalibur characters confirmed!