You'd think Sakurai would be burnt out on Smash Bros. Ultimate by now. Years in development, and continued work on DLC. Surely he doesn't even want to think about the game when he leaves work. That's not the case at all, as Sakurai reveals in his latest Famitsu feature. Check out a translated snippet from the feature below, courtesy of NintendoEverything.

I’ve been playing Smash Bros. on-and-off too. Of course, I was able to fiddle around with it here and there during development, and I still play it with the rest of the staff during our lunch breaks. That being said, I’m still able to enjoy it as it is on my own Switch back at home. I spend my days sending my spirits out to scour for resources, sending them to training Dojos, and leveling up any Legend class spirits I have. In the long run, I plan to play until I’ve collected every spirit; other games take priority, though, so I’m making my way through it all at a leisurely pace.

Yahtzee returns to check out Smash Bros. Ultimate and offer up his unique opinion. If you're not familiar with Yahtzee's style, you might want to hang back from this one!

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is now available on Nintendo Switch! The game can seem a little overwhelming if you’re new to it – there are so many different ways to play and fighters to try out. This is a game designed to accommodate all sorts of players, though, including those completely new to fighting games, not just seasoned pros!

Let’s start with the most basic question: how do you play it?

Yes, how do I play?

In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, your goal is to…well…"smash" your opponents off the stage! The more damage a fighter takes, the further they’ll fly when someone launches them into the air. If your fighter is the unlucky soul that gets launched, don’t give up – try to make it back to the stage and keep fighting!

Japanese publication Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun recently had the chance for a quick interview with Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa. He had some great news to share about the Switch in general, and also shared a few more tidbits on Nintendo's smartphone plans. Check out the summary below.

- Smash Bros. Ultimate surpassed 5 million units sold worldwide in its first week
- Switch is seeing the fastest home console software sales in Nintendo's history
- Furukawa sees smartphone gaming as a pillar of earnings
- he wants to work towards releasing multiple hit games/apps across various fields in mobile

Nintendo has detailed Smash Bros. Ultimate's Fire Emblem Fest 2 Spirit Board event. The event starts Jan. 18th, 2019 and runs for three days. As you probably guessed, Fire Emblem Spirits are the focus, and you'll have a chance to grab some Spirits who weren't part of the first round of this event.

In Smash Bros. Wii U/3DS, players could take control of Charizard as an individual fighter. In Smash Bros. Ultimate, Charizard has returned to the control of the Pokemon Trainer. Wondering why the change was made? Pokemon Co. has offered up the following explanation.

The returning Pokémon Trainer can send out Squirtle and Ivysaur, as well as Charizard, which is back at the Pokémon Trainer’s side after its previous standalone appearance. We’d like to believe that this Charizard merely decided to disobey its Trainer for a little while, much like Ash’s Charizard did in Pokémon the Series.

As if King K. Rool's crown wasn't enough of a perfect weapon already, now there's a way to make it super-sized! A new glitch has been discovered, seen in the video above, that ends with the King's crown tripling in size. It seems the only way to trigger the glitch right now is in a battle against Yoshi. This glitch is sure to be patched, so get your fill of it while you can!

Dr. Wright of SimCity fame has been a part of Smash Bros. since the Melee days. Sure, he might not be playable, but he's still a recognizable face in the series! In an interview with Game Informer, SimCity creator Will Wright talked about the character's inclusion in Smash Bros. over the years.

“I mean, it’s an honor. I first started working on Nintendo way back on the early NES for the very first SimCity and Miyamoto-san asked me if I would mind if they named the guy with the green hair Dr. Wright – the guy who kind of gives you the help. And I was honored back then because Miyamoto is actually gotta be the best game designer ever, and also a good friend.”

Wright parlayed this discussion into some praise for Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto as well.

“I think Miyamoto never lost his childhood. It’s not like he remembers his childhood – it’s like he kept it with him. A good bit of him is still a six-year-old boy playing in the garden and you see that when you talk to him, just the way he approaches the world. And I think that’s his most valuable asset.”

Did you know that Sonic's sound director Tomoya Ohtani arranged Splatoon's Bomb Rush Blush for Smash Bros. Ultimate? Indeed he did, and Mr. Ohtani himself has shared a dev blog detailing the process. Here's the tidbits he discussed in his post.

- he was very happy to be given the opportunity to work on Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
- Ohtani calls Smash Bros. Ultimate “the biggest festival of collaborations in the video game industry”
- Ohtani chose Bomb Rush Blush because he wanted to try something that younger players are familiar with
- Ohtani was considering remixing several Splatoon tracks into one song
- Ohtani was provided the voice audio for the song once his request to do the arrangement was approved
- Ohtani increased the pace of the song, while Sakurai did some small retouches after the song was more or less complete
- the arrangement had many elements and it took lots of hard work to complete them

For the month of Dec. 2018, Nintendo came in third place overall when dealing with TV advertising spend. First went to Sony for PS4, and second went to Microsoft for Xbox. Check out Nintendo's numbers below.

- budget of about $10.5 million for 18 commercials that ran over 4,700 times
- 609.1 million impressions
- “Super Smash Brothers Ultimate: One More Try” commercial had the biggest spend (est. $2.1 million)
- MTV, Teen Nick, and Adult Swim were three of the networks with the biggest budgets
- The Amazing World of Gumball, NBA Basketball, and Ridiculousness were three of the programs with high spend