We had last heard that Masahiro Sakurai was taking a long deserved “extended vacation,” after wrapping up development on Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and Nintendo 3DS.
Now, Sakurai has mentioned in passing that he is working on an undisclosed game, making such a comment in the regular column that he scribes in Japan’s Weekly Famitsu magazine. This came after discussing his experiences in developing Kirby’s Adventure for the Nintendo Entertainment System, with his memories coinciding with Nintendo Classic Mini Family Computer’s release in Japan.
“Sakurai casually confirms he’s working on a game in the column,” Source Gaming summarise in their translation. “He states that while looking around the development room, there’s not a lot of people who have developed for the Famicom anymore. He’s getting older.”
As to what Sakurai could be working on, there has been repeated rumours that a Super Smash Bros. port has been in the works for Nintendo Switch, and that it would target the console’s launch window.
I doubt they’d need Sakurai for a port though.