Sakurai on the making of Smash Bros. Ultimate and the future
Masahiro Sakurai posted another video on his YouTube channel today, which delves into the making of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and once again includes a brief comment about the series’ future. A good amount here was known previously, but it’s worth a watch in any case.
Sakurai started out by talking about the concept of bringing back all fighters and general development such as how the team didn’t need to start over completely since Bandai Namco was brought back and there’s “some similar architecture” between Switch and Wii U. The team was able to move on right from Bayonetta as DLC for Smash Bros. for Wii U and 3DS right into Smash Bros. Ultimate. Sakurai came up with a lengthy proposal regarding new feature and adjustments, which even included the possibility of VR support before Nintendo Labo was announced.
As for fighters, each one was given an average of 70 to 100 potential changes. Gameplay tempo was decided to be a little above Super Smash Bros. Brawl but below Melee.
Not as many new stages were introduced since it would have taken too much time. And given how much content was involved, something like the Subspace Emissary wasn’t possible. Trophies were cut due to “cost of labor.” Sakurai also felt players wouldn’t be satisfied with something like Melee’s Adventure Mode.
As for the future of Smash Bros., Sakurai had this to say:
As for what comes next for the Smash Bros. series, even I’m not sure. I feel like we truly succeeded in making people happy with this game, but now that Smash Bros. has grown to be monstrous in size, I’d say it’s difficult to imagine an increase of this magnitude happening again. Every time, we managed to make a game I had previously thought impossible, so I can’t say for certain that there won’t be another, but I do think it would be difficult to push it any further than we have.
You can watch Sakurai’s full video below.
