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Filed under: Featured Content, Industry People, Masahiro Sakurai, Super Bros. Smash For 3DS, Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, Super Smash Bros. Series

Sakurai’s Famitsu Column Vol. 499: Exhaustion and Excitement

2016-02-09 (1)

Note: Do not repost the full translation. Please use the first two paragraphs and link to this translation. For additional information, please read this post. This translation is for fan use only, and may not accurately reflect the opinions of Masahiro Sakurai.

This column was originally published on February 10th, 2016.

[TN] indicates a translation note. It is not present in the original text.


 

The last two DLC fighters for Super Smash Bros. for 3DS/Wii U, Corrin and Bayonetta, are now available. At long last, development on Smash for 3DS/ Wii U has ended!! To all of the staff who were involved in this project, thank you for all your hard work. To all who supported and followed the game and its development, thank you so very much. Personally, I’m happy I can finally take an extended vacation.

I’ve said this before, but excluding Lucas and Roy, who are returning veterans, every DLC character has unique mechanics and playstyles. Corrin transforms into a dragon and boasts incredible reach. Bayonetta utilizes special combos, her Bullet Arts, Witch Time, and even speaks in both English and Japanese. [TN]

Smash invites a large variety of possible playstyles. It’s one of the first games people suggest when inviting guests over, and our data shows the average playtime is quite high. You could say people are getting more than their money’s worth.

What that means is that the game can wear you out pretty quickly every time you play. If you turn on items and visit a bunch of different stages while playing with a group, things will unfold differently every time, so there aren’t a lot of problems. However, there are a lot of people who enjoy serious matches, and in order to win, they’ll narrow down the number of fighters that can be used, and that diminishes some of the breadth of the game.

This exhaustion necessitates some kind of change. It takes a little extra tweaking to provide something fresh and stimulating.

However, I don’t want to simply do something outlandish for the sake of surprise. I think it’s best to approach things from an objective perspective. Most people out there choose to play one specific game every time out of the wide selection of available games, and play that one. I see fans as those who don’t limit themselves to playing the same thing over and over, but those who will enjoy each day on its own, reaching out to play whatever new and interesting game is out at the time.

For example, the Star Wars main theme is the same every single time. This doesn’t mean, however, the composer is unable to come up with something new. Rather, it’s precisely that theme which makes us roar with excitement: “Star Wars is back!”

As for Smash, I haven’t changed the fundamental rules of the game (despite using new theme music each time). I haven’t made the transition to 3D, added any new gauges, or anything because even if those ideas might create new excitement, those changes wouldn’t make the players happy. Of course, people still tell me “the last game was better”—especially when they’re talking about a game they’ve built into muscle memory over many years.

If I were creating something completely new and original, I might prioritize generating excitement. However, I feel creating Smash is a process that’s very different from simply making a brand-new game. Just adding a single fighter becomes a show of public support for that character and their game. Moreover, each new title is built upon the tremendous number of Smash matches played over the years.

As a result, the mindset I had when developing this game was that the game’s “rules” are set in stone, but the fighters themselves are very flexible and allow for new, exciting elements. The fighters themselves become the sources of new excitement. That’s why the new fighters can do things the others cannot, to bring to life a number of battles that did not previously exist. Smash is much more extravagant in its design than other fighting games, development is difficult, and I have to deal with oversight from the original creators, but I have to do my best.

Of course, the players are the ones in control, and the strategies employed will vary from person to person. At the same time, there are others out there who have a good time throwing out nothing but Smash attacks, and I think that’s perfectly okay. After all, I intentionally made the controls simple to make it easier for those who enjoy simple fun.

I’m extremely grateful to see Smash is enjoyed by so many people.


TN: In the Japanese version, Bayonetta can use her English and Japanese lines, depending on the costume.

 

Translators:

Soma

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48 comments
  1. Sakurai seems a little more optimistic and realistic when reflecting on developing the Super Smash Bros. series. For some reason, this gives me hope that he may return in the future to develope a new title! (of course, after a long vacation, and exploring other concepts he wishes to explore, ala Meteos or Kid Icarus Uprising.)

    Thanks for the translation!

    the101 on February 9 |
  2. Yes, please! Take a long EPIC vacation.

    Maybe you should go visit the lands of Nohr & Hoshido. Or the Fountain of Dreams. Or why not relax inside Palutena’s temple? Take your cats too, why not? Wherever you go, PLEASE DO NOT RETURN, & don’t worry about the future of Smash Bros., because hopefully that a new director would get it. That person might not think so highly of himself to the point that he feels the world revolves around him, & at least he would know there’s a lot more seri that exist besides Kirby, Kid Icarus, & Fire Emblem.

    J. G. (@GeneralRayburn) on February 9 |
    • So savage.

      I have problems with some of Sakurai’s choices, like the choice to make this game Fire Emblem Tourney with Nintendo Characters, or patches, or even small stuff like stages or music, but I don’t think he’s egotistical or stupid.

      He is a smart Dev, and someone else working on Smash, especially with the best replacement, Iwata, tragically passed, worries me like no end.

      I hate Corrin and some bunk like that, still mad Zelda got 0 reps,one new stage in Wii U not nearly as good as the awesome stages in 3ds, but I would never say as a dev he sucks or that I never enjoyed Smash.

      I get the Fire Emblem, but Kirby got no new characters, only a fair and VERY good amount of stages and definitely music, Kid Icarus got the recognition it should’ve gotten years ago if it survived as a series, and should be lucky to be back. Fair amount of representation.

      Again, I disagree with Sakurai a lot on things in Smash, like the fact that only in N64 was one of my favorite characters not left back, but he did great with most of Sm4sh and I appreciate his work.

      I hate when people say salt all because you don’t like a character choice, or say that you don’t “appreciate” Sakurai’s hard work for having a justified opinion and criticism.

      But this is the saltiest ocean right here. It’s like when you head to the beach and the salty smell in the air just hits you, oof.

      aguchamp33 on February 9 |
      • Please. Working hard has nothing to do with it, as there are many other AAA titles that had more work put into it.

        Sakurai has made some of the most clueless decisions with this iteration of Smash Bros & it has little to do with turning the roster into a vanity project. The menu is a cluster, Wario is extremely void of creativity, Donkey Kong has next to no content compared to Kid Icarus, he removed the Ice Climbers altogether despite the Wii-U being in great need of selling factors, we got no real story mode because he was too afraid of cinematics getting leaked, none of the DLC characters got special move variations while an NPC for one game got her own real special moves, most of the new final smashes are for his OWN characters, he deems some franchises “dead” & doesn’t consider them unless they are one he wants to make a game for, etc. How could anybody defend most of these decisions? And since we’re in the year 2016, we should be able to choose out own colors for attires & not just be stuck with 6 or 8 colors by now.

        These are going to be ongoing problems as long as Sakurai is in charge. Will Wario & DK continue to get screwed over? Will we get J-Pop Chrom as a new character? Will we actually get Paper Mario or Linkle? That remains to be seen but knowing Sakurai, I’ve learned we shouldn’t get our hopes up.

        Kirby shouldn’t get more characters, by the way. There aren’t any more other than the 3 in the game that are true “all stars”.

        J. G. (@GeneralRayburn) on February 9 |
        • The fact that you think Palutena from a series called Palutena no Kagami is just a NPC for one game and that there aren’t more than 3 Kirby all star characters shows how little you actually know about Nintendo’s IPs. Then you turn around and suggest Linkle? If this is bait then you got me.

          Cheese on February 9 |
          • 3 is all Kirby needs. Bandana Dee would be like adding the Hammer Bro. Dyna Blade is “too big”. Adeleide doesn’t fight…but then again, who’s to say she wouldn’t get the Palutena treatment?

            Krystal has actually done more than Palutena, & the last game Krystal has appeared in was 10 years ago.

            J. G. (@GeneralRayburn) on February 9 |
          • Bandana Dee is like Hammer Bro? Hammer Bro is playable in how many games? Who are the two playable character in the latest Kirby game?

            Krystal is more important than Palutena? Where is she in the latest Star Fox game? For someone who loves accusing Sakurai of being clueless, you’re pretty clueless yourself.

            Cheese on February 9 |
          • Because we don’t know what we like. We have Sakurai to tell us what we like. We certainly didn’t want King K. Rool as DLC. Thank god for Sakurai stepping in & removing him from the ballot 3 months in advance, or else that would have been so bad for us!

            Seriously, you don’t think it’s shady that he did that while countless fans wasted their picks on a character that wasn’t going to happen?

            J. G. (@GeneralRayburn) on February 10 |
          • Love how you use “we” like we all want the same character, and saying people wasted their pick as if they could only vote once.

            Cheese on February 10 |
          • Love how you use “me” like you’re pretending to be me.

            J. G. (@GeneralRayburn) on February 10 |
        • Lmao you lost me at ‘Linkle’, kid. That is just fucking sad. Sorry you didn’t get your shitty B character.

          Your Opinion Sucks on February 9 |
          • Does that mean I want J-Pop Chrom & Mario 3.0 too?

            J. G. (@GeneralRayburn) on February 10 |
          • Well, you did say that you wanted Paper Mario, who would be Mario 3.0 so… you tell us, man.

            Spencer on February 10 |
          • All right mister, sit in the corner please.

            It’s obvious you have little idea of Smash’s creation and use, and honestly, why use Linkle when here only weapon is an arrow? Doesn’t sound very fun, not like Pit’s arrows.

            Paper Mario sounds ok, but I think the clone limit should be 3. I love Dr.Mario, and honestly I think that he was a good comeback for smash.

            I think for Zelda, a Zora, Goron, and even Young Link would be a better choice than Linkle, being just about any Link I feel has a huge arsenal Smash has barely scrapped the bottom of the barrel with.

            Bandana Dee would be interesting with his lance, acting as a balloon weight weapon melee character. Sounds cool, considering the other lineup.

            Just overall, quit trying to be the hero of everyone, and accept the fact that your character picks that honestly would be better as alternate costumes didn’t get picked for Smash.
            I get out my Corrin hate by beating his ass in Smash, not ragging on a hard working dev who I feel works harder on Smash than other AAA games, most of which are easy to program with their engine and aren’t as physically draining to code for. Draining, but at least for those games, you don’t always have to choose individual stats and moves for characters.

            C’mon, let’s mature a bit. We can’t all win.

            Honestly on the Smash NX comment you posted, I would very much like some of those additions. Adding more characters would be cool, but might be unfair to 3ds users. Seriously, I wish Smash 3ds used an SD card system so that we could accede the limitations it has.

            aguchamp33 on February 10 |
        • Actually, the series you mentionned belonging to Sakurai… don’t belong to him

          John Kenny on February 11 |
      • Okay um…Linkle. You know, there’s something that animators can use to help with that called “imagination”.
        Also, Linkle might have another weapon in the game. I have HW & characters have more than one weapon set to choose from. Ie: Lana has a tome but you can switch to a Deku Spear if you want. There is a chief Goron you can play as. His name is Darunia.

        How could Paper Mario be a clone?

        When did I say I wanted these characters? Please document it.

        I thought that…Codename NX was going to be both a portable & home console.

        J. G. (@GeneralRayburn) on February 11 |
        • Mario is popular, but enough characters is enough, and Linkle is just bland, especially to choose for the Zelda 30th anniversary. Why not have the 3 main Links?

          aguchamp33 on February 22 |
    • That was pretty rude…

      MikauAnaki on February 9 |
    • Relax, buddy. Think about what you’re saying. I don’t want to throw you under the bus or anything, but it is comments like these that really remind me that Sakurai really can’t please everyone, regardless of the amount of effort he puts in. I really can’t blame anyone for seeing things the way they want to; heck, there’s things I really wish were in Smash 4 that likely weren’t even considered. However, I sincerely urge you to read more of his columns and learn about the development history of the games, as well as what drives his character choices. Plus, try to refrain from making blanket statements like saying he prefers certain series just because of the number of representatives that they have, because it’s a lot more complicated than that.

      One point I want to bring up, since you mentioned it, is that you seemed to imply that too much attention was given to the Kirby series. I find this idea interesting, since A) no new Kirby characters were added between Brawl and Smash 4, and B) there are actually quite a few fans who think that the series is *underrepresented*. I still remember people asking for Bandanna Dee as a playable character, though I’m personally not even sure who that is. The way I see it is that Kirby, King DeDeDe and Meta Knight are probably the most iconic characters of the Kirby series, and as such are obvious picks for characters. In terms of Fire Emblem, however, each game has its own protagonist, meaning there are a lot more memorable characters to choose from. I could be wrong about this, but I think that Sakurai thinks more about what the character can bring to Smash, rather than how represented their universe is. Obviously, there are exceptions; Roy and Corrin were added in part because their games were new, and Lucina was upgraded from an alt. costume to a character so that she could have her own attributes. Long story short, there are reasons that we get the characters we do, and I don’t think Sakurai has done too much wrong in picking characters in the way that he does.

      Something else I wanted to mention (though you didn’t bring it up) is how people feel like the Zelda series is underrepresented. I’m probably biased since I’m just a little above neutral when it comes to Zelda games, but the way I see it, the Zelda series already has 5 fighters (3 and 2 semi-clones to be precise), and 3 of those fighters are the most iconic characters from the series. I’m a Pokemon fan, and I know that Sakurai has yet to upgrade Meowth into a fighter to match that kind of representation, not that I particularly expect him to. I am definitely biased on that point though, since Pikachu is my favorite Pokemon.

      Spiral on February 9 |
      • Because he can lie as well. He probably has never played any Zelda, DK, or Wario games, but if he give an excuse as to why he made an unfavorable decision like not give Link new attire for his most recent game, I know he’s full of it, because when I look at Nintendo as a whole, they still regularly promote & celebrate Zelda, DK, & Wario to some respect. Tropical Freeze sold over 100k copies in Japan, which is pretty good for that region.

        As for the Fire Emblem characters, there is next to no creativity among the six of them. & I play Fire Emblem & enjoy Fire Emblem. They can use bows, axes, lances, they’re not limited to just a sword. The only times when Sakurai really felt like making a character unique was Robin & Corrin. & even Corrin’s got a counter! The entire team couldn’t think of a better move than that for half of the newcomers! At least with Mario they got many memorable characters. In Brawl, there was just 2 characters. By the end of DLC for Smash 4, there are 6! As much as I enjoyed Awakening, Sakurai picked TWO characters from that one game & neither of them was the main character. & nobody in the right mind should say that they are on that level with Luigi & Yoshi. They’re not elite, & Fire Emblem is not yet a major franchise. Sakurai’s living in a bubble. Corrin is the main character in FE: Fates, but we all know he was picked as a DLC character not because of his popularity & not because he’d make an interesting fighter but because Sakurai wanted him now now NOW! The interview where he said that his team threatened him over Corrin, that was likely another lie. There isn’t another game that came/will come out around this time they could have promoted insetead?

        J. G. (@GeneralRayburn) on February 9 |
        • You fucking dick, people like you don’t deserve something like Smash, Smash isn’t a fucking popularity contest! Get that through your thick skull you nitwit, it’s about what they can bring in Smash and what place they’re in and if it’ll help the company. Don’t hate him just for making independent decisions. He can do whatever he wants it’s HIS game not yours, not anyone else’s you can go ahead and quit on Smash as if we care we’re better off without people like you anyway. You need to realize one of these days that the fans don’t control the game, the director does aka Sakurai.

          Peridot Gem on February 9 |
          • Cheese: Because when you think of Mario, you think of a water gun from 2002.

            J. G. (@GeneralRayburn) on February 10 |
          • Poor entitled director. So sore from pointing at people.

            J. G. (@GeneralRayburn) on February 10 |
          • Sakurai is so entitled, you guys. Why is the creator and current developer of Smash allowed to decide the roster? The fans should decide who deserves to be in Smash, and by fans I mean me, JG. Kirby fans and Kid Icarus fans can go to hell.

            Cheese on February 10 |
          • Shut up Cheese

            Peridot Gem on February 10 |
        • Well, considering Lucina was a last-minute addition and Roy was arguably the only Melee veteran left to add, 5 of those were at least semi-justified. I can understand anger over Corrin, although I myself got over it when we saw how different he was. Yet, in this game alone, we got Mega Man, Pac-Man, Rosalina, Bowser Jr, Little Mac, the Villager, Robin, Shulk and Duck Hunt, iconic characters with huge fanbases that Sakurai had no involvement with their games. Really, the only characters Sakurai personally helped with were Palutena and Dark Pit, one of which is an upgraded palette swap. Then we also got Ryu, Cloud and Bayonetta for DLC, alongside the two most popular Melee vets not in, and Lucas.

          I can’t see a reason to complain at this point considering how much fanservice we had this time around.

          APC99 on February 9 |
          • Were they all due to fanservice, or were they because it was expected of him according to the direction Nintendo is going? It’s no surprise that Animal Crossing, Rosalina, & the Koopalings were all getting heavily pushed. Shulk, however, his game barely even made it to the states as Gamestop was the only reason it got there & they were selling it for like $90 at the time.

            J. G. (@GeneralRayburn) on February 9 |
          • I’m not sure I understand your phrasing regarding Xenoblade.

            Xenoblade started out as a standard, retail priced game and was available as such for months. It was $49.99, the same as any other first party Wii title. It was only after it went out of print that GameStop started their shenanigans.

            tokotamer on February 10 |
        • It’s become clear to me that you’re just speaking out of anger and aren’t actually researching what you’re saying. In regards to you stating that Sakurai has never played a Wario game, I’m just gonna leave this here and be done with it:

          Spiral on February 10 |
          • Director(s) Goro Abe
            Taku Sugioka

            J. G. (@GeneralRayburn) on February 10 |
          • The guy posts a video of Sakurai playing a WarioWare game based on your blind belief that Sakurai neglected Wario in Smash (FYI, Wario is a Mario character, even having his own logo and themes) and you come with two random directors’ names? Give me a break.

            fabricioogrande on March 15 |
    • Wow… What a rude and disrespectful comment. The man poured his heart and soul into the game, and clearly loved making it, and you want him gone just because you didn’t approve of his character choices? You’re the type of person that’s wrong with the Smash fandom.

      Also, there’s no guarantee that the new director, should there be one, will give you the characters or w/e that you want.

      SC on February 9 |
    • So this is what Smash can do to people.

      King on February 10 |
    • The disrespect is disgusting.

      Peridot Gem on May 28 |
  3. Sounds pretty clear that either Smash for NX isn’t happening, or Sakurai isn’t involved.

    If it is happening without Sakurai, I hope he’s spent some time mentoring the people who will take over.

    Ondo on February 9 |
    • Well I bet sakurai won’t be part of it I hope still they can put ice climbers and wolf in the nx version if that’s even happening but ya seeing this I think smash nx is a complete edition just a port nothing new. But hey we will see

      Ghostman8000 on February 9 |
    • I can agree that Sakurai may not work on Smash NX, if the rumor is true in the end. But even then, I think he’ll still advise staffs on how the Smash development will work. He still has his own rights on mentoring too, and its not a bad thing at all.

      zoniken on February 9 |
  4. Thanks for this new article. It’s too bad that Wolf didn’t come back, but it’s still pretty damn amazing as a game regardless. If Smash NX is coming soon, can’t wait to see how it’s different(if it’s a port). If a new game, could be even more interesting.

    Irene on February 9 |
  5. J.G., I don’t think I’ve seen anybody leaving more butthurt comments and spreading more misinformation on Sakurai articles than you. “Most of the new final smashes are for his OWN characters”? Please.

    Ian on February 9 |
  6. I personally just wanted an epic new game mode at one point in an update like the 3DS had with Smash Run. Smash Tour sucks and I think this game could have been so much better in the platforming department if we had such an adventure, as literally every other game had in their own Adventure Modes. Hell, Sm4sh only has a Classic Mode and nothing else in the Adventure department.

    Oh, and Takamaru. I can not stress enough how much of a dumb decision I think it was that, even though it is the LAST game and this shouldn’t matter, he excluded such a good choice in fear that nobody would know who he- THEN WHAT ABOUT MARTH, SAKURAI?! You’re only picking your own choices right there! You KNEW Takamaru had potential to be good, but you just scoffed him off. He even had a great remix for his reveal trailer, too.

    These are the only two things the game is missing to me. I just felt like it was so dumb to not have them.

    Notshane on February 9 |
    • There’s more to Marth than you realize. By the time Melee had come out, Marth had appeared in two games, and his series was still producing more titles. On the other hand, as far as I know, Takamaru has only appeared in one, with no plans for a sequel. If Sakurai solely decided based on character notoriety (which he doesn’t), Marth had a higher chance of being known than Takamaru did. Don’t get me wrong, since I view almost any new character as a good thing, but character choice is more complex than you give it credit for. There are articles here on Source Gaming that talk about it more, so I’d suggest you look into those. This is one I particularly find to be useful, as it really does shine a light on Sakurai’s thinking process when it comes to characters: http://www.sourcegaming.info/2015/04/13/the-definitive-unused-fighters-list-in-smash/

      Spiral on February 10 |
  7. Thanks for sharing this article Team SG! It’s a good thing that Sakurai is always reasonable whenever he’s creating games and choosing characters, and I really respect him for doing such a great job.

    I do agree on every points on how he’s been working on Smash for a very long decades. It’s good to keep Smash the same style as it still makes the game more exciting rather than adding new but unfamiliar features, because that’s how it makes Smash iconic. Plus, I do agree that choosing characters with unique abilities is important to Smash, and that can said the same to any other fighting games. It’s important for that character to do something what others can’t, and Corrin and Bayonetta are the great examples. Well yeah, there are clones like Dr. Mario and Dark Pit, which its really unwanted, but even then its the uniqueness that needs to be focused on than being too typical and generic. Also, every characters in Smash isn’t just chosen by Sakurai alone; every company who’s involved in the production, which is mainly Nintendo, are the ones who’s deciding which character is best for Smash. Every characters have their own policies of whether they’re eligible to join or not, and everything must be reasonable when choosing that character. Some characters may have been refused to be chosen because many reasons like lack of iconic move sets than popularity, and those characters are something which both Sakurai and the supporting company must agree on to make that character work in Smash. Choosing characters because they’re simply popular as just being cool and OP isn’t even reasonable but pathetically simple minded, and that’s not what Sakurai and the supporting company wants to bring for Smash. Even creating move sets for that character is something both Sakurai and the company needs to work and discuss about, which every moves aren’t just from Sakurai alone either. Even creating that character to work on Smash is the toughest thing to deal with, as it’ll take 4-5 months to create a perfect model of that character. It’s no longer the old 90’s where people create characters in 2D pixel dotted animated figures; Sakurai’s in the level which is MORE harder than that. Being a game designer isn’t the easiest job than anybody think of, as there’s no such thing as an easiest job in the planet.

    Although the character choices were mostly unexpected far away from fan choices, I still believe the choices made the roster perfect enough. But if the Smash for NX rumor would be true, then it wouldn’t be odd if they’ll add in those characters that was mentioned by fans, maybe one of those remaining top 5’s from the Smash Ballot. But at this moment, I think I’ll agree more that Sakurai may not work for it. But it wouldn’t be bad to assist staffs by advising what character to choose for uniqueness and how they’ll work in Smash. We know Sakurai still cares about Smash, so whether he’ll continue working for it or have a replacement for his position, I think he’ll still be around to help the staffs to create Smash a more better game than before. And yes, forget and ignore those haters no matter what (and you know who I’m talking about when it comes to here), they don’t (and never) understand how Smash works and how hard his job meant to be. Its best recommend for them to play MUGEN instead since there’s no rules to protect and freedom to add any craps inside there.

    But anyways, whether he’ll work on more Smash or not, I’m still looking forward for him on his next project, whether that’ll be a Kid Icarus sequel, or something new. But before them, I would like to give him long waited rest from his brilliant work that took 3 years of production. Rest easily Sakurai, and see you on your next project!

    zoniken on February 10 |
  8. In reality there are a BUNCH of characters that “could” have made it into Sm4sh, but if you think about how difficult it would be to implement them all – you start to respect what you have. People don’t seem to get that certain characters require a LOT of legal matters (including Bomberman which I really wanted in the game 🙁 ), even if Nintendo owns the character, they have to check if the owners of said characters allow them. Then comes the coding, designing, VAs, etc, that make a character. Having to track down every single one of those resources can be quite difficult.

    That being said, my problems with Sm4sh are few (seriously how many Fire Emblem characters are you going to cram into one game), and in my opinion – believe that they should continue patching to fix character balancing. As for the overall roster, it’s not too bad seeing as there is only 1 character that I believe to be slightly “higher tier” than the rest (I’m looking at you ZSS – though I haven’t played the most recent patch yet so I don’t know how much they changed; I don’t own the game but play with friends).

    Xinthium on February 10 |
  9. Sakurai was on the right path with the first 3 waves of DLC and they were all a great start. (Mewtwo, Lucas, Roy, Ryu, Suzaku Castle, Miiverse, Dream Land, Hyrule Castle, and Peach’s Castle.) He could’ve brought back 1 more veteran which would’ve been Wolf and he could’ve brought more fighters from the Smash Ballot to make the DLC large. But instead, He ignored everything the fans hoped for and we got Super Mario Maker and Pirate Ship, And then nothing, And then nothing, And then nothing, And then nothing, And now we got a Cloud, Corrin, and Bayonetta. (With Midgar and Umbra Clock Tower.)…..That kinda ended DLC in a disappointing way IMO but I still like having the last 3 characters and the last 2 stages. But let’s just hope the NX remake can do better later this year. Namco Bandai might be working on it…..And they might add additional content to it to make it an enhanced port. Anyway Sakurai still did a good job with the DLC in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and Nintendo 3DS…..But seriously. He could’ve ended it in a better way if he brought back Wolf at the last minute.

    Ryan Hines-Kazama on February 15 |
  10. I’m late to the party, but screw it, I agree with everything J. G. said, save for Linkle. Terrible character. I want someone who’s going to into Smash with a fresh mind and won’t complain about his social life and whine about how it takes so long to make a character. No one’s denying that making games isn’t easy, but you’re not the only one making games, Sakurai. If anything, Iwata gave you a lot of leniency with Kid Icarus and Smash Four. You got it better than most other Japanese developers, and you still whine about how things are hard and try to generate pity with that letter about how you had to get up as soon as you went to sleep.

    A LOT of people do just that. I did on my last job. We ALL have to work and put our all into tedious tasks, and you’re no different. This is why we need new blood in Nintendo. Splatoon was a great game, and it shows. The more you let these older veterans stifle growth and potential with their narrow-minded views(Miyamoto, Sakurai, most of the Board of Directors and such), the less chance you have of making your products stand out. Tatsumi sees this, too and I can only hope he can get the NX rolling and not be a failure like the Wii U.

    But back to Sakurai, he needs to stay away from Smash. Let him work on another sole project and do whatever he wants, and let someone new on Smash implement their ideas. Harada showed interest and made a nice little statement on it, and Smash has much more room to grow.

    From a ‘salty’ individual who paid money for Sakurai’s game and didn’t like it. As the customer, If I don’t like something I bought, I’m going to complain, and as the customer, I’m entitled to the very best. Basic economics. He makes these games for us, the ‘fans’. Same with Nintendo.

    No Name Given on February 16 |
    • No thank you, I do not want another person taking over Smash. Sakurai is what made the Smash Bros Roster unique. Freakin Wii Fit Trainer!? No one expected that! If it was someone else on the other hand they would be doing nothing but the fan requested characters which would be too predictable. PLUS I do not want the fans messing with the main Smash because of GOKU and SHREK getting tons of votes on the ballot.

      …. .-. That proves fans can’t be trusted with the series. Like it or not.

      Peridot Gem on February 28 |
  11. I’m hoping that Namco Bandai can remake Smash 4 on the Nintendo NX with additional content. If they do, They’ll be awesome and better than ever. But my question is Are we gonna get a Super Smash Bros. 5 in the future or is this really the end of Super Smash Bros.? (And by the end, I mean is Smash 4 really the last game?)

    Ryan Hines-Kazama on March 20 |
    • That’ll* My bad for the typo. #ttc

      Ryan Hines-Kazama on March 21 |