Smash Bros.-inspired sequence in No More Heroes 3 received Nintendo and Sakurai’s blessing

If you’ve played through No More Heroes 3, you may have noticed that the game has one sequence that’s extremely similar to Super Smash Bros. Director Suda51 spoke about that particular fight in an interview with Siliconera. 

Suda51 said it largely “started as a joke” and he “wrote it up a total rip-off of the Smash Bros. style”. However, after development began, he started to become a bit worried since it was more closely resembling Nintendo’s hit series than initially expected. Although Suda51 considered changing or removing the fight in No More Heroes 3, it managed to stay in after Nintendo and Smash Bros. director Masahiro Sakurai gave their blessing.

Suda51 stated:

“As for the Smash Bros. thing, that’s kind of a different story. Actually, I wrote that up kind of screwing around. It mainly started as a joke. I was gonna say ‘OK, we’re gonna have Fu and Travis take each other on in a sumo style fight, and hey! Let’s make it Smash Bros. style.’ I wrote it up a total rip-off of the Smash Bros. style and we started developing it. When I saw it coming to shape, I thought this might be a problem because it was really Smash Bros.-y. It was really, really close to the actual game. I decided to change it, or completely get rid of it all together.

But before I did that, I actually went and spoke to the people at Nintendo to see what they thought. I was kind of surprised that they told me ‘No, do it! Go for it! We think it’s really cool and that it’s better like this. If anybody gives you shit for it, we’ll take responsibility for it. We’re not gonna get mad. It’s fine.’ Sakurai himself even said ‘Yeah, this is cool. You have my blessing. Go for it.’

I was like… Really? Are you sure this is OK? And they were like ‘No, definitely. Totally. Do it. Go for it.’ So instead of changing it to a different style to not rip-off Smash Bros. Nintendo basically told me to rip them off as much as I could. And that’s how that boss fight kind of came to be. It started out as kind of a stupid joke, and the people who mattered happened to like it not only supported it, but requested to keep it in.”

For what it’s worth, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate does have some No More Heroes 3 representation. Travis Touchdown was added as a Mii Fighter costume and players can obtain spirits based on the game.