Nintendo Everything

Update: Done! Site issues kind of screwed things up, so apologies for that. We’re all good now at least! You can find a full summary below, courtesy of NintendoWorldReport.

Nope, the day isn’t over folks! Nintendo has one more event lined up for today – a 90-minute roundtable/Q&A for Super Smash Bros. Wii U featuring Masahiro Sakurai. We’re hearing that there could be some pretty important news shared here, so you’ll want to stay tuned. We’ll post updates as they happen below starting at 10 PM ET / 7 PM PT.

Pac-Man

– Pac-Man confirmed for the new Super Smash Bros.
– 8-bit moves for the character
– Pac-Man 3DS stage confirmed
– Pac-Man turns into an 8-bit version
– Pac-Man is normally his character from Pac-Man World
– Sakurai wanted to make retro Pac-Man, but the standard is PacLand PacMan
– Pac-Man throws fruit and eats Pac-Dots
– Game & Watch is back (maybe – shown at the end of the Pac-Man video)
– Pac-Man turns into pizza style after recovery move
– Pac-Man have a triple up bmove.
– Seems to have an attack where he uses the ghosts, throws fruit, and even places a fire hydrant on the ground

Character customization

– Sakurai talks about adjusting fighting style of character
– each character has 12 special variations
– You can select amongst 3 moves for each special attack slot
– Mario has a fireball, a fast fireball, and a fire orb; not usable in For Glory
– Palutena is different; she has unique special attacks; not derivative
– Characters can equip items that increase attack, defense and speed, but there are checks and balances
– Equipment also modifies characters by adjusting their balance
– Make a character quicker but then they are weaker
– You can change clothing if your Mii
– Each fighter type has its own wardrobe to select from
– Mii Fighters cannot be used in With Anyone mode online
– Can be used With Friends

Wii U/3DS connectivity

– You can carry customized characters through Wii U and 3DS
– Smash Run is easier to acquire unique items
– Smash Run is designed to help collect items/upgrades. These can be transferred to the Wii U game.

Figures

– FO stands for Figure Player. Users do not control them.
– figurines show up as FP (figure player) and are computer controlled. they can level up to 50. will learn your tendencies. better than level 9 cpus
– Figures will learntheir opponents tactics and adjust over time. They can also use items.
– FP are basically better computer players. can also be used as tag team players in matches
– Sakurai says you don’t have to get every single figure but he will
– Sakurai wants players to think of figures as their partners in battle. Sakurai says you don’t need to collect them all. But he will.

Smash Run

– Sakurai is shifting to discuss smash run. The field is random.
– Sakurai is picking Donkey Kong for Smash Run. he is playing it.
– You pick up powers that you can use in battle via the touch screen.
– There is a jet pack item.
– Warp lets you jump to a different area of the map in smash run
– Smash Run can end with a regular battle, a throwing contest or a running contest

Q&A

– Question: why would you want to release the different versions far apart?

Answer: Biggest reason is debug process. it is a really big game. They need several hundred testers and splitting the release gives them more time to space it out

– Question: why are character transformations removed?

Answer: we want people to focus on single characters more deeply

– Question: any plans for the competitive scene moving forward?

Answer: Sakurai doesn’t work with the competitive events directly. he loves the fans and will keep an eye on it

– Question: balance

Answer: it gets very technical. Sakurai was responsible for the changes from N64 to Melee. He had to use a broader grading system with help from staff when working on Brawl. The process became tricky due to biases in the graders’ playing style. For the new games they have 12 graders, but there could still be balance anomalies.

When creating a game, we cannot just appeal to traditional fanbases. We need to reach out to new gamers, and cater to many target users.

Sakurai points out some chars are better suited for 2 vs 4 player and with or without items. Sakurai considers smash a party game.

– Question: your games have a stylish menu design. What is your philosophy on menu design?

Answer: In Famitsu magazine he has written a whole page on that topic. The important items have to be big–words or icon, but easily understood.

Sakurai loves menus. he writes a column for Famitsu and wrote all about it already there. He makes the important menu items big. doesn’t need to be words but need to be easily understood.

– Question: A competitive Smash player is trying to challenge Sakurai to see if he can win and help balance the game.

Answer: Sakurai asked “have you ever made a game?”

– Question: when was Greninja chosen to be added?

Answer: All of the characters to consider were on our internal roster from the beginning of development. We had a slot for a new Pokemon reserved, but did not way for X and Y. We decided to use Greninja well before X/Y came out, based on early reference drawings.

– Question: How are they ensuring a good online experience this time?

Answer: With brawl the players could set up everything, with freedom. But we learned that some folks team up or play differently, making it difficult for all to enjoy. There is a reporting system. As far as technical connection issues, we’re still working on it. They use async communication in Mario Kart and other games to improve this, but that doesn’t work well for fighting games. So there is cascading failure, especially for four players. That is why they ask people to have the best communication system available (eg a LAN adapter)

Closing

– Footage shown from the Smash Invitational
– Sakurai enjoyed watching the tourney, was nervous it might crash
– Sakurai is heading back to Japan tomorrow
– Sakurai thanks us for coming and he is out. show over. nothing else revealed tonight

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