Miyamoto suggested Pac-Man inclusion for Smash Bros. Brawl, Sakurai thought it was “a little too farfetched”
Pac-Man is joining the Super Smash Bros. series for the first time through the upcoming Wii U and 3DS games. However, it turns out that the classic character could have been included in the previous entry, Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
Masahiro Sakurai wrote in the latest issue of Famitsu that Pac-Man was a possibility for Brawl courtesy of a suggestion from Shigeru Miyamoto:
“During development of Smash Bros. Brawl, Mr. Shigeru Miyamoto of Nintendo approached me and asked, ‘Can’t we have Pac-Man as a guest character?’ At the time, imagining the image of Pac-Man and his incomplete pizza shape, I thought to myself, ‘Hmmm… That’s a little too farfetched.'”
Sakurai also mentioned in his column that coming up with character ideas for a Smash Bros. game may seem easy, but it takes a great deal of work to implement on the development side.
“How to give the character their own individuality as a fighter and how they’ll move. Should the game system maintain a consistent form or not. What other fighters are there and how will the new character differ in strategy? Does the new idea fit with the original game? Most importantly, is it entertaining?”
As we now know, Pac-Man is in fact joining the Smash Bros. universe eight years later. That led Sakurai to close out with the following:
“You never know what’s going to happen in this world. I’ll just keep my mouth shut. That’s a good idea.”
