Avian archer Decidueye almost made the cut for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, series boss Masahiro Sakurai has revealed.

When it came to choosing a new Pokémon representative, Decidueye made it to the final two - but ultimately lost out to fire cat Incineroar.

The detail comes from the first slice of a two-part interview with Sakurai in Japanese magazine Nintendo Dream (as relayed online by PushDustin, JapaneseNintendo and SourceGaming).

Decidueye is a playable character in Pokémon-focused fighter Pokkén Tournament.

Sakurai addressed the lack of playable characters from Nintendo Switch games Arms and Xenoblade Chronicles 2 - and blamed the lack of both on the need to nail down Smash Ultimate's project plan too far ahead of time.

The addition of Ultimate's other new characters like Simon and Richter Belmont, Ridley and King K. Rool all come from the Smash Bros. Wii U fan ballot, which polled players for characters to become Wii U DLC.

The upcoming Smash Ultimate DLC character Piranha Plant was designed differently, however - to be a surprising non-hero addition to add a little more variety. Also because, as Mario enemies go, Piranha Plant is well known.