Hiku said: Because Sakurai was (supposedly) against the competitive play styles of Melee, and added a random tripping mechanic to Brawl to prevent it, I was under the impression that Sakurai didn't like and didn't play competitive fighting games. But hearing his KOF story, I understand that the intention didn't come from him disliking those games, but that he wanted to create a game where people wouldn't get overwhelmed as easily by more advanced players, and still manage to have fun. |
Sakurai was never against competitive play necessarily. It's just that he felt Melee went too far in the depth side that people just saw it as just another fighting game, where there's a massive barrier to entry to learn to get good. That was never the original intention of Smash though. It was created to be a party fighter that you can take seriously if you want, rather than another hardcore-focused tournament game. Brawl was made the way it was because Sakurai felt a more RNG-focused game would be a good fit for the non-gamer audience of the Wii, as well as the game needing to work with Sideways Wii Remote.