Nintendo was thinking about porting Smash Bros. Melee to Wii before Brawl happened

Had things gone in a different direction and Super Smash Bros. Brawl never came to be, Super Smash Bros. Melee could have been ported to Wii instead.

It’s well documented at this point that series director Masahiro Sakurai didn’t initially know that Nintendo planned to make a Smash Bros. game for that console. The news was shared during a pre-E3 press conference in 2005, and president Satoru Iwata announced to the world that a new entry would be released for its upcoming system with online play. Iwata and Sakurai met shortly after, and Sakurai ended up agreeing to make a Smash Bros. game for Wii. But something else Nintendo was considering was a straight port of Melee – we could have seen this if Sakurai “turned the work down”.

Sakurai spoke about the situation a bit in his latest YouTube video today that we reported on. Here’s what he shared on the subject:

“I had already gone freelance, and had I turned the work down, they might have left Smash Bros. Melee’s 26 fighters completely untouched and simply rereleased the game as-is for the Wii. That’s what Mr. Iwata once told me.”

Something else Sakurai shared: “If we hadn’t been able to make the game at all, that may have spelled the end of the Smash Bros. series as we know it”.

We also posted some comments from Sakurai in which we further spoke about why he feels online play isn’t the best fit for Smash Bros. You can find that here.