Reggie Fils-Aime Says Waluigi in Smash Bros Ultimate is Sakurai’s Decision

Martin Patino June 28, 2018

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate was one of the biggest games at E3 2018, with Nintendo dedicating a very large chunk of its press conference to the new entry in the massively popular series. And one of the loudest responses to the game so far is the disappointment over Waluigi’s exclusion as a playable character, with fans demanding that he become playable rather than once again being just an Assist Trophy.

In an interview with Waypoint, Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime said that while Sakurai is aware of the “groundswell of support” for Waluigi, it is ultimately his decision whether he becomes a playable character or not. He went to reference the launch of the Super Smash Bros. game for Wii U and 3DS where fans were asking for Reggie himself to be a playable character.

Reggie reiterated how the company goes about its E3 showings saying, “one of the good things about the way we approach E3 is when it’s all said and done we step back. We look at all of the feedback and share with the devs…” He also said earlier in the interview that despite what fans have been saying, Nintendo does not hate Waluigi. He even previously mentioned in the interview that Waluigi is his main character in Mario Tennis Aces.

When the roster for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate was announced at E3, fans noticed that Waluigi was once again relegated to being just an Assist Trophy, much like he was in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, rather than a playable character. Since then, fans of the game and Waluigi have been clamoring to get him upgraded to playable character status, even going as far as making online petitions.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is scheduled for release on the Nintendo Switch on December 7, 2018. The new entry into the series will feature all the playable characters from the previous games. Currently, a total of 66 characters have been confirmed to be in the game’s roster. It must be noted though that not all of the characters will be available at launch as Nintendo plans to unlock them gradually, although Nintendo hasn’t detailed how they will do such.