Super Smash Bros. being made in partnership with Namco

There's a new Super Smash Bros. game in the works but, unusually for the Nintendo series, it's being made in partnership with Namco Bandai (Go Vacation, Tekken).

Previous Smash Bros. games were produced under the direction of Masahiro Sakurai, the designer credited with the creation of both Kirby and the Smash Bros. series. Many of them were made at or in cooperation with HAL Laboratory, the studio at which current Nintendo president Satoru Iwata got his break.

Sakurai is still on board for the new Super Smash Bros. but will be working with Namco Bandai's Masaya Kobayashi (Go Vacation, Metal Gear Solid series), Yoshito Higuchi (Tekken, Tales Of series), and staff at Namco's offices.

There's no release date for the title, and for much of the last three years Sakurai has been occupied with the 3DS title Kid Icarus: Uprising.

As Sakurai wrote on the Nintendo website, 'not only are we developing two titles simultaneously,' referring to the 3DS and Wii U versions of the game, 'but we announced the project before we even started actual development, so I'm afraid we will likely have to keep you waiting for quite a while.'

Meanwhile, PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita, starring characters from Uncharted, Sly Cooper and PaRappa the Rapper among others, is heading to retail before the end of the year.