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

Source: 1 2 3

So wait, in the first part they say "they don't know how you would add experience," then in the second part they say "build up your character on 3DS, put it on Wii U"

Where's the beef?

yea confusing, plus its sounds too much like pokemon and pokemon stadium games

I like the idea of connectivity between the WiiU and 3DS, they did hint it during the conference, I wonder if the features they talk about can improve a franchises like this one.

 Notice that Sakurai says Wii U allows 60 fps :)

One of the things I love about Nintendo is how they never compromise on fps. Glad to know the video stream to the controller won't blink.

I wonder if they will make another smash bros. webpage. That was fun.....

I LOVED that,

every day, before school in 2007 and early 2008, I would check that webpage to find out new characters, screenshots, items, videos, stages, etc.  SSBB was the most hyped I've ever been for a game (only really rivalled by Zelda TP and Pokemon Diamond) and it was made worse by the extra 4 month localisation wait for Europe.  It's a good thing I felt the game delivered in every aspect and area.

Here's an interview on the next smash games:
EVERYTHING FROM BELOW IS FROM AN EARLIER VERSION OF THE BLOG AND MIGHT NOT BE AS ACCURATE

http://www.project-sora.co.jp/interview2/index.html

Here are some things Ankoku has gathered with his masterful translation skillz:

- Sakurai is using his experience working with Kid Icarus 3DS to smooth the development process of 3DS smash. Mentions he would randomly think about Smash during Kid Icarus development

- "While I'm sure some people just want a new DX (Melee) or X (Brawl), that is not the answer I'm looking for"

- There's a lot of implied differences between the 3DS and WiiU versions. The issue of limitations (or lack thereof) come up ("I could make 50 characters, or double the stages, or make everything prettier (graphically), but with the WiiU I don't have to choose just one of those options"), while he runs into that problem with the 3DS, "maybe something fun like the original smash bros." adding something about a handicap.

- 3DS version will be more "personalized" than the WiiU version, as most likely the handheld machine will only be played by one person. This regards "personal data and achievements." He's probably referring to the stat-keeping mode the Smash games have had and how a handheld version would most likely only be tracking a single person's stats.

- Sakurai feels conflicted, saying something to the effect of "On one hand, a player feels a great sense of accomplishment by beating something really difficult. On the other, if it's too hard, they'll feel a sense of frustration by constantly losing to it." (implied differences between versions)

- Iwata goes on to add that a handheld experience is typically a "fun experience in a short amount of time," and that adjustments would have to be made to work around that.

- "So, for the 3DS version, since you must enjoy it alone, it has a system of rewards that you can customize your character with. And then you can bring these characters from the 3DS to the WiiU to fight on. So one "individual" on a handheld will appear in the "stadium" of the home console." Iwata summarizes by saying "The 3DS version is where players will earn individual achievements for themselves, while the WiiU version will be a place to show those achivements off"

- Sometime late in the Melee development cycle, Iwata told Sakurai "you can never have enough Smash Bros!," to which Sakurai replied "YES YOU CAN." Sakurai apparently doesn't remember this.

- Iwata mentions that he likes how in Smash, both high level and beginner level players can feel a sense of accomplishment in comparison to other fighting games. If you don't know what you're doing in other fighting games, you'll typically get destroyed, in Smash you can earn a few more hits. Sakurai adds onto that saying "You'd think it'd be natural to help new players improve, but when the goal of a fighting game is to beat your opponent down, that becomes difficult." Iwata "feels helpless and weak when he loses badly," and lastly Sakurai adds that "the 3DS version will have ways to help beginner players," going on to suggest co-op "There will be a reward system for good players helping bad ones"

- Apparently the balancing and rebalancing of characters was entirely up to Sakurai, but he's going to ask for some help from other members of the team this time around. He still feels the creator of the game will have the clearest vision of how the balance should look like, but definitely welcomes the help. Iwata asks what type of balancing he's referring to, and Sakurai responds talking about balancing animation/frame/hitbox data, while making sure it makes sense in the scope of the game. It has to "look natural and feels good to land the attack"

- There's implied distinction between casual and competitive play made by Sakurai, saying "all these claims of 'this character is too strong' or 'this character is too weak' varies from person to person." When he looked at the sets of data from Wifi games, all characters had relatively the same level of success. "However, according to the competitive scene, that doesn't seem to be the case elsewhere."

- A balance regarding the difficulties of surgical balance changes, and how they don't want characters to "feel the same," adding that specific traits/strengths/weaknesses are intentionally built to differentiate characters. Along with the "oh now that we nerfed this, this other thing is broken," etc. Iwata comments that this type of balancing is ridiculously hard and congratulates Sakurai for pulling it off with every single character by himself.

- Sakurai mentions that while new developers might see this initially as a learning opportunity, it'll eventually turn into a lesson of pain.

- More commentary regarding the extreme level of difficulty regarding balance vs uniqueness in a fighting game cast, with Iwata joking that "I knew I had an eye for talent when I picked you"

- Sakurai comments "the mechanics of a game better fit the system the game is on." The 3DS's small screen, for example, is something they have to work around, making sure the backgrounds and stage structure are clearly visible.

- Iwata comments that some designers enjoy gimmicks like FMVs and cutscenes, because it's where developers get the most free reign to show off their skills.

- Sakurai mentions "I think it'd be best if we can design something that works well and looks good regardless of whether it's on a portable or on an HDTV, but having a different team for each version is also good because we can still make very specialized additions to each." Each individual project will take advantage of each developers "specialty and where they're most likely to apply it."

- Essentially boiling down to "while keeping coherence between the two version is important, they don't want to use that as an excuse to compromise potential features for either version"

- Apparently Sakurai had no direct involvement with either Sonic's or Link's implementation in Brawl.

- He's slightly concerned by the fact that the various branches of Brawl staff worked on different schedules so the development process has gotten rather long. Iwata asks "but now you get to be a lot more hands-on with Smash 4, right?" to which Sakurai answers "Yes, but I'm coming into development right after Kid Icarus finishes, with no rest inbetween. So any help I can get is much appreciated"

- Sakurai says as a game designer and head developer, he really enjoys making something himself and seeing it turn into something good, but if he takes it in the wrong direction he won't reach the people he intends to. With Smash he wants to reach out to as many as he can. Iwata comments "this leaves a lot up to chance when it comes to the finished game," but Sakurai responds "I prefer it to a "stable" series where every sequel is juts the same game with a little bit added on. While it's painful to make something new, it's fun to figure out how." While with Smash, each iteration has a different fun twist, and even someone who doesn't know much about the series can pick apart the differences fairly easily.

- Iwata anguishes over how expensive the project is and that it requires a lot of people.

- Sakurai "Anyway, I look forward to the people you bring to this project, since the success of it is dependent on who you gather for me! Still, even if you don't gather enough people, I wouldn't want to see the project stretched thin, so we could focus on only one system." Iwata: "What? Even after we announced at e3 that we'll be developing for both systems?!" Sakurai: "Well either that or I take a small team and we take five years"

- in the conclusion, Iwata thanks Sakurai, and Sakurai says "thanks, but my time is currently focused on making sure Kid Icarus is perfect for launch!"

BTW I posted this for those lazy enough not to go onto the sources posted above :p