Sakurai says his arm pains are worse than originally thought, and it’s impacting work on Smash Bros.

Posted on February 27, 2013 by Austin(@NE_Austin) in 3DS, General Nintendo, News, Podcast Stories, Wii U

Last month we reported on some unfortunate muscle pains that were plaguing Smash Bros. director Masahiro Sakurai, but this month we have some even worse news: Doctors say the issue is more severe than originally thought, and he’ll have to cease using his right arm almost entirely in the coming weeks. Don’t take my word for it, though, here’s Sakurai himself explaining the issue in a weekly blog he writes for Famitsu:

“I think the one word I’ve said the most this year, by far, is ‘Ow!’. Not only am I getting calcific tendonitis, but they’ve also found what are apparently several ruptures in the muscles. There’s no instant cure for it, so all I can do is either block the pain with injections or put my arm in a cast to keep the ruptures from spreading. I was told that the important thing was to keep my arm as rested as possible.”

“If this disorder lingers, or if it never gets fixed, there’s no telling what impact that would have on the project. I’ve had to control two characters at once in a lot of game projects up to now, so as long as I keep it to simple moves, this works well enough. It doesn’t go that easy with the Nintendo 3DS version, though, and the debug camera is pretty hard to control. Still, now I realize how important it is to have your health. I’m glad I’m still in good enough shape to work.”

– Kirby, Smash Bros. Creator Masahiro Sakurai

Well… at least we know the 3DS version has a debug camera now! Best of luck to Sakurai, and I think I speak for a lot of folk when I say I hope he gets better both for Smash Bros. and for his own sake!

Via Polygon