Can you believe that Masahiro Sakurai, the creator of Kirby and the Super Smash Bros. series, is 51 years old today? The man’s youthful appearance makes it seem like he’s still in his thirties, but it really is Sakurai’s 51st birthday today, on August 3, 2021.
Many fans have been wishing Sakurai a happy birthday over Twitter. In response to his picture of the day, Masahiro Sakurai thanked everyone for the birthday mentions.
“Thank you for my many birthday mentions,” wrote Sakurai in English. Above the English text was Japanese that basically stated that the picture of the day that he was responding to had nothing to do with the once-a-year event.
この絵とは関係ないですが､多くの誕生日メンションをありがとうございます! 恐縮です｡
Thank you for many my birthday mentions.— 桜井 政博 / Masahiro Sakurai (@Sora_Sakurai) August 3, 2021
Masahiro Sakurai’s parents were initially disapproving of his career choice as a video game designer. However, this seemingly changed when Kirby became popular after the first game’s release. Sakurai has noted before how he has seen Kirby souvenirs in the household of his parents following the character’s success.
Super Smash Bros. 64 was initially just developed by Masahiro Sakurai and his boss, the late Satoru Iwata, during their free time. During development, Sakurai realized that the game would need iconic characters for it to be successful.
Though they were initially denied to use the likes of Nintendo characters like Mario, Donkey Kong, Link and Fox, Iwata took a big risk and told Sakurai to implement those characters into the game anyhow. Luckily, this risk ended up paying off as the game was a huge hit.
“I’ve been working on this for a long time. You could call it my life’s work.” – Masahiro Sakurai
Super Smash Bros. 64 wasn’t originally planned for release outside of Japan, but it was so successful in the region that Nintendo decided to port the game overseas.
A release on the GameCube happened just shy of 3 years later with Super Smash Bros. Melee. To make this happen, Sakurai nearly killed himself and ended up in the hospital thanks to his destructive work cycle.
Sakurai would work 13 months straight without a day off. He’d only allow himself 4 hours of sleep after 40 straight hours of working on the game.
After Sakurai left HAL Laboratory, it was believed by Satoru Iwata that continuing the Super Smash Bros. series — aside from a port of Melee to the Nintendo Wii — would be impossible without Sakurai.
Though Sakurai was diagnosed with calcific tendonitis during the development of Super Smash Bros. 4, it’s been stated a few times that Sakurai is taking better care of himself. Of course, he is known for coming into work with an IV drip when sick so that he can continue work as if things were normal.
Since development of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate began just shortly after DLC was wrapped up for Super Smash Bros. 4, Sakurai has been working on the Super Smash Bros. series nearly non-stop for 10 years now. Notably, he reflected on this during the recent Kazuya presentation.
“Up until now, we’ve created all sorts of fighters and stages,” said Sakurai. “Gathering all of these games, new and old, and compiling them into a single product is a task that has meant a lot to me.”
“Now that I think about it, it’s been close to 10 years since Super Smash Bros. for the Wii U and 3DS systems was in development,” continued Sakurai. “I’ve been working on this for a long time. You could call it my life’s work.”
Needless to say, Sakurai has put his all into his career to make video game fans happy all over the world. It really is no wonder why the topic of “Sakurai” is currently trending on Twitter with over 10,000 mentions, most of which are wishing him a happy birthday.
And of course, we here at EventHubs would also like to wish Masahiro Sakurai a happy 51st birthday. The man’s impact on the video game industry is certainly something to be cherished and celebrated by fans all over the world.
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