November 17^th, 2005 (12:40am) - Masahiro Sakurai had left Nintendo and internal Nintendo development studio HAL Labs to form his own company, Sora, and with games such as Meteos under his belt for the Nintendo DS, it seems that the efforts of his own game studio have been very promising so far. However, Sakurai will be returning to Nintendo to act as director and game designer for a popular Nintendo series that he’s worked on in the past. Yes folks, Sakurai will helm the development of Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo next-generation Revolution game console.

This surprising piece of information comes from the latest issue of Famitsu magazine, in which Sakurai states that Nintendo President Satoru Iwata asked him if he could possibly return to work on the Super Smash Bros. series when first leaving HAL Labs in the Fall of 2003. To Sakurai’s surprise, when Super Smash Bros. for the Revolution was first revealed to be in development, Sakurai had not known about it until Nintendo had announced it during their E3 press conference. Soon after, at the E3 event, Sakurai was called to see Iwata-san at a hotel and was asked to act as director for the game.

"We’d like you to be involved in the production of the new Smash Bros., if possible near the level of director."

Super Smash Bros. fans should be very pleased to here this news. Masahiro Sakurai is considered by many to be the creator of the Super Smash Bros. series and the man responsible for the game’s addicting gameplay and incredible appeal. Now, there’s even more of a reason to look forward to this online enabled and next-generation instalment in gaming’s most popular fighting series.