Smash Bros. Ultimate info - Why Kirby was chosen to survive, day-one retail update, and more

Masahiro Sakurai is back with another weekly Famitsu feature, and this time around he shares some insight into a detail fans have been wondering about for a few weeks now. Want to know why Kirby ended up being the one character that survives in the World of Light mode? Learn that and more in the details below.

- Sakurai knew there would be fan suspicion labeling him as bias towards Kirby, explaining his survival in World of Light
- Sakurai says that from a planning perspective and process of elimination, it's obvious Kirby would be the last left
- it was necessary to have whoever survived the attack to have a reasonable method of escape
- fans have noticed that “Lifelight” when read backwards is “Hoshi no Kaabi” which is similar to “Hoshi no Kirby”
- Sakurai said this is merely coincidental
- Bayonetta couldn’t escape into Purgatorio as her enemies there had also become Spirits
- Palutena couldn’t manifest any of her abilities as Hades and the other deities from Kid Icarus had become Spirits
- Bayonetta and Palutena would also be kind of difficult as first characters, as they're more complex than Kirby
- Erina Koga, singer of the main theme in Japanese, was 17 at the time of recording
- Sakurai decided on Koga at the recommendation of composer Hideki Sakamoto
- there will be an update at launch for the retail version, but digital will have this update included
- this update has something to do with protecting against replay de-syncing
- players will be able to permanently keep replays if they’re converted into a movie format, but this causes a big file size
- when starting up Spirits for the first time, you’ll receive one Advanced-class spirit