I've read about quite a few insights on Brawl. The thoughts on gaming, what Sakurai thinks about it, are bound to be integral to the final product. It is funny when Iwata makes a long comment and Sakurai's answer is something like "yep." That said there seems to still be a lot of "boss-employee" dynamic going on. From what I've heard, Sakurai doesn't say much unless it's something he's really interested in, then he starts digging down into the details.

Wikipedia says Sakurai is already 37, so he joined HAL in 1989 or 1990. The first title he directed was Kirby's Dream Land, released in 1992.

Part 3 is now up... about to read it myself:

http://us.wii.com/iwata_asks/ssbb/vol3_page1.jsp

Iwata
"It was quite surprising. (laughs) To me, online gaming had always been a place for the strong. One person would be living it up while hundreds or thousands of people were unhappy. I can’t completely reject this model of course, but as long as things remain this way, online gaming can spread only so far no matter what you do. I mean, even if people thought it looked interesting, most would hesitate to get involved and stay lingering on the sidelines. "

Holy smokes, someone figured it out!

Sakurai
"That’s right. When people think of playing Smash Bros. online, they think about battling opponents to see what happens based on their record of wins or losses, or about holding tournaments online. But I felt that this would make it a service from which only a select group of players could derive enjoyment. For Smash Bros., there are small communities here and there where there’s fun in winning and losing, even when there are more skilled players than others. But if you make an environment where everyone is trying to climb their way to the top of a single tall mountain, it’s clear that the people having fun would be limited to a small number of individuals. "

WHOA I luv you Nintendo!

It's like they read my mind when it comes to ranked battles...

Part IV:
http://us.wii.com/iwata_asks/ssbb/vol4_page1.jsp

I dont think any new information will come out of this. Just some interesting back story.

I'm not really expecting any new information about characters or anything from these interviews, thats what the Dojo and the obsessive compulsive mods of Brawlcentral are for. Hearing about the creative process for the game is just as exciting for me still, particularly parts like today's tidbit about the creation of a story in the Subspace Emmisary. I mean, how can you not get excited when an already extremely deep game adds the skills of a writer from what is arguably one of the most epicly written games of all time (in final fantasy VII):

Sakurai: At that point, I decided to ask Kazushige Nojima-san to help us since he had composed the scenarios for titles like Final Fantasy VII.


Iwata :Wow, asking the person who crafted scenarios for Final Fantasy to write one for Smash Bros. is a pretty big deal.

Sakurai: I know! (laughs) I didn’t ask him to write everything from scratch though. I explained the world of Smash Bros. and its characters and then asked for his help. The first storyline he came up with, however, wasn’t exactly what I was looking for.


Iwata: It was different than what you had envisioned.

Sakurai: Right. It wasn’t bad at all and had its own appeal, but it was a bit different than what I had envisioned it would be. It went something like this…"Some of the characters are on a bus on the way to the stadium. Samus is there. Donkey Kong is there and Snake is watching the bus from afar." It was like that. (laughs) I had envisioned a more serious tone for the story. Something with some misfortune like a single character escaping total annihilation of his squadron and then fighting back while rounding up his allies. Ultimately, we worked together and successfully organized our ideas into the storyline for The Subspace Emissary.

Part V:
http://us.wii.com/iwata_asks/ssbb/vol5_page1.jsp