Super Smash Bros coming to Switch in 2018

[Nautilus]

Lonely_Dolphin said:

KrspaceT said:
The last Smash Bros released in 2014. Not the shortest time span to develop something.

Could be new.

Nautilus said: 

Its been 4 years if Im not mistaken since the last Smash.More than enough time to make a new game.

Sure if they immediately started on the new game, but they made dlc up until 2016. That's most likely why despite it having been the normal timeframe of 3 years between Mario Karts, we got MK8D instead of MK9. They might still be able to frame it as a sequel though if there's enough new content, but expect it to be clearly using Smash Wii U as a base, much like Splatoon 2 uses the original.

The DLC could have been very well been dealt with a small team of developers, freeying up other people to tackle it.As for why Mario kart 8 was chosen to be ported over something like Smash, I really dont know.Maybe they thought it had more potential, maybe the game could have pushed more Switches.But I dont think it matters now.

But as for why I think that this is Smash 5 is:The trailer felt like something new.The way they presented it, in contrast as to how Smash 4 was marketed was much diferent.But there are more solid proofs.In the video, the developers are listed as Nintendo and Hal.If this was a port of Smash 4, Bandai would have needed to be listed there.Plus I think that Nintendo would have wanted to announce this as a port to get this "Bad news" out of the way sooner, to focus on the positive later.

As for the development time, who knows.There are some examples of accelerated development time for sequels.XC 2 was done faster than X for several reasons already discussed.There is also the point to keep in mind that ever since the end of 2014, Nintendo already knew that the Wii U was a failure, and started pushing development of everything related to Switch.And when Kimishima took the job as president, being the business man he is, he must have given priority to the development of the Nintendo biggest IPs, which may explain a smaller development cycle.

And even if Smash 5 uses Smash 4 as a base, who cares?If it feels like a sequel, then it is a sequel.