Project Sora has published a unique interview involving Nintendo president Satoru Iwata and Project Sora’s Masahiro Sakurai on their website. The interview is quite interesting and revealing. The column discusses how the idea of making Smash Bros. for both the Wii U and 3DS came to be and discusses preliminary details.
It seems that the development team will be placing a focus on building up characters and collecting items on the 3DS and then demonstrating your abilities on the Wii U. Additionally, Sakurai teases that he is interesting in presenting a slightly different experience on the 3DS than what we’re used to seeing in the series. One area of focus for the 3DS project will be placed on players assisting each other.
Early discussions of Smash Bros. for 3DS
- Iwata said that by the time people read the interview, Sakurai’s second game from Project Sora would be announced
- Sakurai corrected Iwata by saying Iwata would be announcing the second and third project
- Internal talk regarding a new Smash Bros. began soon after Brawl was released
- Nintendo first asked Sakurai to create a 3DS game
- Iwata knew fans would like to see a Smash Bros. for 3DS, but wasn’t sure if it would be okay to ask Sakurai to make another Smash Bros. so soon
- Kid Icarus ended up being Project Sora’s first game
- Sights set on making Smash Bros. as the second game
- Wanted to build up experience with the 3DS through the first title
- Sakurai says it’s difficult gathering developers from scratch
- This was done for Brawl, though Nintendo told devs that they’d be working on Smash Bros.
- Project Sora started adding staffers under the guise of making a mystery project led by Sakurai
- Kid Icarus: Uprising planning was already happening at the time of the solicitation notice
- Was also known to be a shooting project for 3DS
- Nintendo kept it secret from incoming staff that Smash Bros. would be Project Sora’s next title
- Only Iwata and Sakurai knew of Nintendo’s plans to make Smash Bros.
Wii U information
- Sakurai knew that Nintendo would have to make Smash Bros. for Wii U and 3DS when Iwata first mentioned Wii U’s development
- Iwata actually planned on asking Sakurai if he wanted to make the game for 3DS OR Wii U
- Sakurai started thinking about what he’d do with the next Smash Bros. while making Kid Icarus
- Sakurai believed it would be wrong to make a simple extension of Melee and Brawl
- He also believed that he couldn’t just increase the volume by adding characters, stages, and improving the visuals
- Sakurai felt that making Smash Bros. for the console just to have improved performance would be wrong
- There was appeal in making a portable Smash Bros. for Sakurai since a number of new things could be accomplished
- He also knew there would be limits since they would be at a disadvantage in some areas when comes to offering the usual enjoyment areas of Smash Bros
- Sakurai believes a portable system makes the game a more “individual” experience
- Unlike a console, it’s easier to make players attached to the data they’ve built up and collected
- Carrying the 3DS with you makes it a more personal experience
- Smash Bros. titles haven’t relied on rewards, earning money, or raising character levels
- Iwata said that there’s no element of gaining experience to make your character stronger
- Sakurai: adding the notion of experience would pose a dilmena
- This is because some players would get into such a game while others wouldn’t like it
- Iwata believes placing a focus on experience would also make the game lose its instant play quality
More 3DS/Wii U talk
- Sakurai wants players to build up their character through battle/rewards on 3DS, then take their custom character to the Wii U version to battle everything
- Sakurai thinks this idea could make the “personal” portable space and the stadium-like “public” console space coexist and mesh
- Iwata’s summary: Spend time on 3DS building up a character/collecting, then show off skills on Wii U
- Sakurai explained that the Wii U being an HD system allows for 60 frames-per-second, high-quality graphics, dynamic effects, smooth character movements
- Sakurai understands it’s necessary to have both versions be enjoyable, but the connectivity itself will make the experience even more enjoyable
- On 3DS, Sakurai wants to offer players a slightly different experience from conventional Smash Bros. titles
- He thinks that there’s merit in having skilled and unskilled players play together
- As a result, one emphasis will focus on players helping one-another
Moving on from Kid Icarus, adding staff
- A large number of Kid Icarus: Uprising staff will move on to work on Smash Bros.
- It is also necessary to add new staff to the team since the scale is so large
- Planners: Sakurai needs staff in this field to be in charge of all areas of game balance and character strength settings, which was what he did with past games in the series
- Programmers: Sakurai wants to focus on smoothly making the basic systems since it’s difficult making two games at once
- Staff will first port the basic gameplay systems of Smash Bros. Brawl to 3DS and Wii U
- Sakurai threatened/joked that if they can’t find appropriate staff, he’ll switch to development on just one platform or he’ll use a small staff and it’ll take five years to make the games
