Sakurai reveals why Kirby was the only one to have survived the ultimate apocalypse of Smash

We expect everyone and their Duo Hunt Duck to have seen the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate The World of Light trailer (where all your favorite Nintendo characters have been wiped out by deadly beams of light, forcing you to snuggle up against your loved ones with the pure stress and sorrow of all those feelings). Well, if you've seen it, you may be wondering why Kirby is the only character chosen to survive the apocalypse of Nintendo. This puzzle has now been solved.

At first, many have assumed that it was perhaps because the game's director, Masahiro Sakurai, had a soft spot for the character – he created the adorable pink blob after all – but it has a lot more to do with the playability and good sense of the game (as far as common sense can go in a game of princesses, lizards and fictitious electric rodents crashing each other). Sakurai revealed the real reasoning in his latest column of Famitsu magazine, kindly translated by the people of Source Gaming:

"We needed a strong and compelling reason to explain why the character was able to overtake Galeem." All fighters with "normal" abilities were immediately disqualified, his assault wrapped around the ends of the galaxy, only a vehicle capable of defying the laws of physics would work, even a short teleportation would not be enough.

Some of you may have forgotten, but Kirby's Warp Star has managed to distort himself since his very first game. That alone makes him a strong candidate. The other two only fighters who could have survived would have been Bayonetta or Palutena. That said, Bayonetta's enemies of Purgatorio (another infernal world) have been turned into Spirits. It would not have been logical for her to escape. Other divine beings, like Hades, have also been transformed into Spirits. It was therefore impossible for Palutena to survive too. "

In the end, being the only one able to use a Warp star is therefore beneficial, but there are other reasons why Kirby was also chosen. As you probably know, Kirby's survival makes him the first playable character in the World of Light mode. Sakurai reveals that it was important to make this first character a "simple and easy to use" character, allowing players to become familiar with the gameplay. Forcing players to play directly with Bayonetta or Palutena would have made things unnecessarily difficult, which is why Kirby was the natural choice.

If you want to read the rest of the English translation of the column, you can find it here.

Are you excited about joining Kirby in the World of Light adventure? Feel free to share your current hype levels in the comments below.