Masahiro Sakurai, the creator of Kirby and Super Smash Bros., is ending his YouTube channel, with the final episode of “Grab Bag” dedicated to former Nintendo president and CEO Satoru Iwata, who passed away in 2015 due to complications from cancer.
Looking back on the time and experiences he shared with Iwato, Sakurai says it wouldn’t be right to close his channel without a video like this. The full video can be seen at the bottom of this article, but readers can stick around to see some highlights and anecdotes from it:
Speaking about his first meeting with Iwato, Sakurai immediately noticed his smile, describing it as “carefree” and “a genuine expression of joy”.
Later, while Sakurai was busy working on Dragon King: The Fighting Game, the prototype for what would become Super Smash Bros., Iwata stepped in to help with the project despite being extremely busy himself – going so far as to use days off to help him.
When Iwata became CEO of Nintendo, Sakurai described it as a “surprise” at the time, given the role traditionally assigned to members of the Yamauchi family and Iwata having only been at Nintendo for two years at the time, but that “it certainly seemed like the right choice” from his point of view.
In Iwata’s last days, when he seemed to be recovering from his complications, Sakurai drove him to Narita International Airport, sharing some stories and laughing along the way, not knowing that it would be their last time together.
Sakurai ends by saying that “Mr. Iwata was truly the person who understood me the most,” crediting him for setting him on the path he is on now and praising him for always being “full of virtue” and “dedicated to service”.
