Super Smash Bros. has its own — and last — Nintendo Direct in December

This past week Nintendo returned to its series of Nintendo Direct announcements for the first time since the summer, and next month will be the final dedicated broadcast for Super Smash Bros. on Nintendo 3DS and Wii U.

The information comes from a Nintendo of Europe news release on Thursday, lost in all the news of that day's Nintendo Direct. It was the company's first since the death of its well known and well liked president Satoru Iwata in July. Iwata had been the host of the series.

There have been three Directs dedicated to Super Smash Bros., the last one a pre-E3 event in June that formally introduced the new characters Lucas, Ryu and Roy to the game. The announcement doesn't necessarily mean the end of Super Smash Bros. programming from Nintendo, or its DLC, just that broadcasts solely about that game are coming to an end.

It is possible that the results of an online ballot to determine a new characters for the game, which opened in April and closed in October, will be discussed at this Direct. In Thursday's Nintendo Direct, Super Smash Bros. revealed that Cloud Strife of Final Fantasy 7 (pictured above) would be the next DLC character for the fighting game, but did not say whether that was because of fans' votes or another reason.

You can recap all the coverage of the Nintendo Direct in Polygon's storystream.