Featured Comments #6

A lot of comments this week! 40 comments on the Famitsu Article we posted. It’s always great to see so many comments on our translations on SG 🙂 Hopefully the new layout is making it easier to read through the comments. It’ll be difficult to choose the best, but here are some of my favorites/ responses. (From February 7th to February 12th, Japan time).

zoniken

It is surprising and unexpected someone would bring up Gex. It’d be surprising if there were still Gex fans out there.

Were there any other characters from the dead franchises voted for the all-star poll? –Featured Comments #5

Going meta here. 🙂

We actually discussed the results in the podcast. Give it a listen! Also, I figured out why the links weren’t working last time. I was copying a link to edit the post from the admin panel. Since you guys (shouldn’t) have access to edit the articles, the links don’t work. Sorry about the confusion last week!

Spiral

Is it just me, or are the links to the original articles not working?

Back to this article, this last comment is an interesting one to me. I don’t know much about the whole petting thing in Fates since I’ve tried to keep myself away from anything that could potentially be a spoiler, but it was to my understanding that it was an optional thing. If you were forced to do that to advance your relationship with a character, then I could see that analogy working, but it sounds to me like the juices from the sardines haven’t spilled yet.

Speaking of analogies, I’ve noticed that Sakurai really likes to make those. I recall specifically the one where he compared the base game of Smash as a 5-star dinner, and clone characters were free dessert. I think there was also one where he compared developing Smash to building a house and having people complain about one specific painting in one room of that house. I wonder if we could get some sort of compilation of all these analogies he makes? For some reason, I find them interesting. –Featured Comments #5

Sorry about the link mishap! I *just* realized what the mistake was.

That actually sounds like an interesting article idea (and one that would be fun to compile). I’ll add it to my list of things to do.

Looking back on the older Smash comments is really fun because you realize how little the Smash fanbase is. The only difference is the size.

the101

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

Thanks for the translation!

Yeah, I’m very optimistic about his return to Smash. This and the Fire Emblem 25 Anniversary interview are all really good signs that he will return.

Notshane

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

Smash Run and Smash Tour’s whole conception relied on the notion of the 3DS being private (the “home”) and the Wii U being the public (the “coliseum”). Smash Run in it’s design requires a private screen, while Smash Tour shares the screen with everyone. That design was made on purpose. While some elements of Smash Run were cut due to limitations of 3DS hardware, I’m not sure if Sakurai will port it over to the home console version of the NX (if both versions are ported over). Adventure Mode was officially cut because Sakurai didn’t like videos to be uploaded on the Internet because they were “rewards” for players. Sakurai was probably insulted as he literally poured his blood and sweat into those moves as he acted them out. A big part of me suspects that it was just good planning that the sequel to Subspace wasn’t made. It essentially delayed the game and took a huge toll on development (read the previous link). Subsapce Emissary was essentially a separate project plan, and the original idea was to have another studio make it. This time around they already had two versions of the game be developed at the same time so they really didn’t need the equivalent of three games being made at the same time….

Takamaru’s reasoning makes perfect sense. I never heard of Takamaru until I really got into Nintendo. Casual fans don’t know him (though that’s changing with Nintendo Land and his appearance in Smash. As Spiral mentioned in the reply to you, Marth makes a lot more sense because his series is alive and healthy. He was also planned for Smash 64 (something I did suspect for awhile because Fire Emblem was the only series to get a separate series group in the If There Were a Smash 2 Poll, but it was finally confirmed by Sakurai this year. I also really need to recreate that Definitive Unused Fighter List. I think I can really improve the formatting…

This isn’t a response to Notshane’s comment, but some of the other comments I’ve seen online. The hardcore Smash fanbase really overestimates it’s influence and size. I’ve said this before. Heck, a former Nintendo employee outright confirmed it (Seriously, go listen to it…it’s one of the most important Nintendo podcasts out there). Smash sells 10,000,000 copies. Online communities are lucky to reach 200,000 (and that’s not the active users). We have a representation of less than 2% of the actual Smash fanbase (everyone who buys the games) who is being vocal online. Of course that’s just counting largely the English community. If you want proof of the larger fanbase…consider this: 1,744, 608 people opted in to report their playtime for Brawl. The Nintendo Channel wasn’t switched on by default. That number is still much larger than the Smash fanbase online, and it still doesn’t include all the sales to the game. A lot of people Smash.

Ian

I highly doubt you’ll ever get the ability to pick your own colors, simply because Nintendo and third parties in particular want their characters to be presented in a certain way. Sega doesn’t want Sonic to be red, for example.

I think there’s a good chance that Nintendo will start selling costume packs since all the other fighting games are doing it. –The Case for Smash NX [Part One]

I would expect more DLC like that in the future. Smash DLC has been very profitable for Nintendo, and I’m sure the next version will have a lot of it. Costumes make a lot of sense.

“He has worked on one re-release in the past, and that was Kirby Super Star for the SNES, a game which was released in 1996, and contained a remake of Kirby’s Dream Land, which was released four years prior.”

Actually, I’m sure he was also the director of “Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land”, which was a remake of Kirby’s Adventure. –The Case for Smash NX [Part Two]

I do have it mentioned in the Timeline of Masahiro Sakurai, and he was the chief director (Shinichi Shimoura was listed as the director). I’ll update the article! Thanks!

Bob

When looking at what option Sakurai would find most artistically fulfilling, and what would give him the most opportunity to work with a variety of content creators on stuff like Ryu, clearly a 3+ year job making a new Smash would do so more than a quick remake.

But what if you compare a quick remake and years of DLC to a new Smash? I think remake & DLC is pretty clearly better. A new game would give the opportunity to make more fundamental changes, but his last column says his mindset has been to generate excitement with new characters, not changing the rules. No reason to think Sakurai wants to redesign 58 characters, and we know he doesn’t like cutting them – with a remake he can skip straight to the good part. –The Case for Smash NX [Part Two]

That might be his thought process (if he decides to go through with the port). Just work with the base and add new characters. It’s clearly beneficial for everyone involved.

Arthur 97

It may be that way for now, but if Push had it his way that could quickly change. Besides, Push himself said that he doesn’t think that Street Fighter V and the FF VII remake would make it to Nintendo console, thus rendering one of his biggest points invalid by his own admission. –Settle it in Smash! Nintendo vs. Third Party Characters

I don’t think 3rd parties will drastically outweigh the number of Nintendo characters. I’m against cutting them and going back to “all Nintendo” (which is an idea some people have). Even if Nintendo doesn’t get SFV or FFVII (which are projects which were 100% started before those characters got into Smash), then it still does open more doors for them in the future. Like I said, Bandai-Namco has a lot of interesting Nintendo content in Monster Hunter X. Nintendo needs to continue to foster these third party relations to keep the support going.

Bob

You should have a written form of your arguments for those that hate watching/listening to these podcasts/debates such as myself.

As for the argument over whether or not Third parties are a neccesity for Super Smash Bros., I’m gonna say: Find balance with representation. –Settle it in Smash! Nintendo vs. Third Party Characters

The video just basically repeats the articles. So if you’ve read the articles you understand the majority of the video. We’ll publish our notes next time, but I’m not sure if we will create a transcript as we have way too many projects going on =/.

Note: I didn’t feature any comments from Top 15 Capcom Characters for Smash Bros. This is because the authors of that piece have done a great job replying to those comments/ questions already. So please check out the comment section if you haven’t!

There was also a lot of back and forth in Sakurai’s Famitsu Column Vol. 499: Exhaustion and Excitement that I didn’t feature either (some great points on both sides!).

Also, last day to get your questions for Artsy Omni. Please submit them here!