Providing accurate portrayals of characters is something I want to pay ample attention to. If I don’t stick to that thought, then we’d have to lower the quality or break the balance of the game. Something that goes way off spec could break the entire game.

Masahiro Sakurai

Categorized in : Character Games Balance

The pain goes away, but your work always remains.

Masahiro Sakurai

remains pain

You never know what's going to happen in this world. I'll just keep my mouth shut. That's a good idea.

Masahiro Sakurai

mouths world ideas

I'm not depressed and I continue to remain healthy and positive, but developing 'Smash Bros.' is beyond hard.

Masahiro Sakurai

bros developing healthy

In terms of quantity, we've probably already reached the limit of what's feasible. I think a change of direction may be what's needed.

Masahiro Sakurai

limits may thinking

Even if it's a sequel, lots of people have to give their all to make a game, but some people think the sequel process happens naturally.

Masahiro Sakurai

games people thinking

If tournament popularity was the most important consideration, then I think we would create a Smash Bros game that included a multitude of fast moves with complicated controls. However, I believe this is actually the greatest shortcoming of fighting games at present, and that is the reason why I don’t do it.

Masahiro Sakurai

fighting believe moving

You can only truly wow a player the first time he sees [a cutscene]. I felt if players saw the cutscenes outside of the game, they would no longer serve as rewards for playing the game, so I've decided against having them.

Masahiro Sakurai

rewards player games

In terms of scope, and in terms of sheer number of characters, we went beyond our limits long ago.

Masahiro Sakurai

long-ago numbers character

Using a mouse, keyboard or gamepad make my arm tired, so I can't use them in a continual manner. The only device I can use for an extended period of time is a joystick. It's posing problems when I'm test-playing something in progress.

Masahiro Sakurai

progress tired use

It's fun making new skills for new characters.

Masahiro Sakurai

skills fun character

What I can say now about paid DLC is that we aren't working on anything at the moment. We've put all our efforts into making the actual game. Creating DLC would involve large additional costs and require the involvement of a lot of people.

Masahiro Sakurai

creating games people

At the current time we have no plans. I consider my job at this point, and my main responsibility, to make the Wii U and 3DS versions the best and the fullest experience possible. That said, once finished, it's the type of thing we could take into consideration, but for now, you could consider DLC as not being in the cards.

Masahiro Sakurai

responsibility jobs cards

So I created a tool for you to do just that. With the Mii Fighter creator you can have any character you want join the battle.

Masahiro Sakurai

battle tools character

I don't think I've ever made something that I'm totally satisfied with. That feeling of doubt, or wanting to do more, is my engine to move forward and make the next iteration.

Masahiro Sakurai

feeling think satisfied doubt

In the arcades, when I was younger, there was a game called 'King of Fighters 95,' and I thought I was pretty good. I had a 50-strong win streak on 'Street Fighter 2' around that time.

Masahiro Sakurai

king game good time

Game development is very difficult. Nobody sets out to create a game that's not fun. It's all of the challenges and difficulties that happen throughout development that determine whether a game is a failure or a success. I think playing those thousands of games is the single best and easiest way to learn from my predecessors.

Masahiro Sakurai

best failure challenges success

I was striving to become an engineer, but something happened that made me think, 'Maybe I can make games instead.'

Masahiro Sakurai

something think me i-can

We do various kinds of research during the planning stage. We consider the inclusion of characters that feature in games being developed at the same time, are highly requested by users, and are popular within their series. We then think about how they could be unique if they were to appear in 'Super Smash Bros.'

Masahiro Sakurai

think unique research time

I work from mornings to late nights, even on weekends and holidays. I hardly have any free time, let alone time to play other games.

Masahiro Sakurai

holidays alone work time

I went out of my way to play games I didn't like or find interesting. Those ended up being a lot more informative for me. At home, I have literally thousands of games, and I think of them as pearls of wisdom from my predecessors.

Masahiro Sakurai

think me wisdom home