Sakurai on the formation of Smash Bros. roster, selection is stressful “almost to the brink of death”
Choosing the roster for the Super Smash Bros. games isn’t easy. Director Masahiro Sakurai describes the stress put on him as coming close “to the brink of death.”
“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.”
In Sakurai’s opinion, Smash Bros. is all about the character roster. Not having characters such as Mario, Kirby, Samus, or Link playable would make some feel that “it might not be Smash Bros.”
“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.”
So how exactly does Sakurai decide on the Smash Bros. roster?
First, Sakurai comes up with a few ideas of his own. He then takes a look at surveys. Next comes a refined list of candidates based on a series of questions, such as: “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 is one of the new additions in Smash Bros. for Wii U and 3DS. He was actually the second most-requested character after Sonic the Hedgehog. It was the desire from fans and Mega Man’s unique characteristics and abilities that made him a possible inclusion.
And, amazingly, getting Capcom on board wasn’t difficult in the slightest.
“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.”
So we know about Sakurai’s thought process for new characters. Returning characters aren’t much different.
Initially, the development team starts from scratch with every character. They then think about how to bring these characters back on new hardware. Features including color, precision, and resolution are considered before any design takes place. Polygon reports that the staff then “factors in game balance, how an established character will coexist with new ones, and the predefined characteristics of that character should be implemented with Smash Bros. gameplay systems.”
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.”
