Sakurai talks about the stress of making the Wii U/3DS Super Smash Bros. games, character choices, Mega Man, and more

by **Lugia2453** Tue Jun 18, 2013 1:52 pm

Sakurai recently had an interview with a website called Pology, and among other things, he talks about the stress of making the games, character choices, and Mega Man.

*Making the games is very stressful for him. It's stressful to add and keep characters in the roster, as well as remove them. According to him:

"The amount of stress I feel, it's almost to the brink of death. Because it's not just a matter of me personally thinking this character or that character is going to be in the game; it's that we also have the game balance, animation, graphics and sound to think about in order to make that character fully fleshed out in that universe. I have to think about all of that when I go through this decision-making process."

*Without Mario, Kirby, Samus, or Link, the games just wouldn't be Super Smash Bros. According to him:

"Whether it's a minor character or a character that is one of the most highly skilled and most played if that character is removed from the game, the people who live for that character in Smash Bros. are going to have their feelings hurt. I think we have to really consider that, so I take a very serious, hard look at that and have empathy for the players who look for these type of characters when we're making these decisions."

*Sakurai makes decisions based off of his own thoughts and surveys. According to him:

"What is the uniqueness of this character? What does this character bring into the Smash Bros. universe? What do they have that other characters don't? How do they complement or contrast other characters?"

*Mega Man was the most requested character after Sonic, and getting him in the game was easy. According to him:

"We approached Capcom with the idea and they were very favorable and open to it. The approval process, in terms of how we're representing Mega Man, was actually really smooth and went really quickly."

*The development team builds each character from scratch. Color, precision, and resolution must be considered before a character is built. After that, the team considers balance, which includes how a new character will exist with veterans. According to Sakurai:

"For example, look at Samus. She's sort of floaty [in Super Smash Bros.]. The reason we've represented her that way is we've taken some of the inspiration from the original Metroid. I think the reason Samus felt floaty in the game is becasue you have to jump so much, you have to have a certain level of accuracy while you're jumping and shooting. By enabling her to be floaty, you're slowing down that motion allowing for better accuracy in her shooting. At least, that's how I interpret why she was floaty in the original game. What's important about that is realizing why Samus moves the way she does, not just saying, 'This is how she moved in a previous game, so we're going to represent that because that's the way she's always been.' I have to really go and think about it all again before I give her that representation. It's making sure we understand that and using the same logic in creating her in this world."

*Sakurai promises "daily visual updates" from his desk through Miiverse and the official Smash Bros. website, which have already started. He won't talk too much more during development, though.

Source

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