Today marks the one year anniversary of Satoru Iwata's passing. Iwata has had a huge impact on the Super Smash Bros. series -- being there from the very beginning. Let's honor his memory by remembering his contributions to our favorite franchise.
Note: This article was originally purposed as Thank Iwata for Smash on Source Gaming. I've updated and modified it for SmashBoards.
From an interview featuring Shigesato Itoi (creator of MOTHER), Masahiro Sakurai and Satoru Iwata, we know Iwata's key role in getting Smash approved. He programmed the original prototype, Ryuoh (translated by Nintendo as Dragon King the Fighting Game) even though Iwata was acting as president of HAL Laboratories. However an issue came up. Sakurai wanted to use Nintendo characters as the original prototype did not feature characters.
Feeling that Nintendo characters would do well due to their recognizability, Sakurai and Iwata needed approval from Shigeru Miyamoto. This was at a time where Nintendo had just signed off on the Mario Party series after having become protective of their IPs. Approval was unlikely. In fact, Iwata did present the idea to Miyamoto, and Miyamoto shot it down. However, Iwata kept this as a secret from Sakurai, and had Sakurai present the idea again to Miyamoto. The second time was the charm, and Miyamoto approved his characters for the game.
Super Smash Bros. (1999):
During development of the original Super Smash Bros., Iwata was the president of HAL Laboratories. This was done after the company was failing in 1993 at the bequest of Hiroshi Yamauchi. Iwata served as the producer for the first installment.
Super Smash Bros. Melee (2001):
During Melee’s development, Iwata moved from his position in Hal took the position of General Manager of Corporate Planning at Nintendo. Despite his managerial position, he actually helped out with debugging and some programming in Melee. Because of Iwata's efforts, Melee was able to release on time. Iwata is credited with a “Special Thanks” in the credits.
After Melee's release, Iwata would be promoted to the CEO of Nintendo, succeeding Hiroshi Yamauchi in 2002. At the same time, Sakurai decided to leave Hal Laboratory. Before leaving, he consulted Iwata on a number of topics. To Sakurai's surprise, a sequel to Super Smash Brothers was brought up. Iwata promised Sakurai that if a sequel were to be made, Nintendo would consult Sakurai. This is because, Iwata believed that only Sakurai possessed the tact and vision to ensure that Smash Brothers was true to its' source material, while still being enjoyable and successful.
Super Smash Bros. Brawl (2008):
When the Nintendo Revolution was announced, Iwata had confirmed that a Smash Brothers game that made use of the Nintendo WiFi connection would be released alongside the console--much to Sakurai's surprise. [See Sakurai's column discussing this incident]
Shortly after that announcement, Iwata and Sakurai met in a private hotel room. Iwata reaffirmed his promise to Sakurai. If, and only if Sakurai did not sign on to making a new Smash Brothers game, then Iwata would have staff remake Super Smash Brothers Melee with online capabilities for Nintendo’s new system. Iwata told Sakurai that he would probably not change anything else. No extra stages, no extra fighters. Sakurai was initially unsure whether or not to sign on to this project, but felt that a full re-release was unfair to the fans of the series. After discussing it with Iwata and Eiji Aonuma, Sakurai would sign on and make Super Smash Brothers: Brawl.
For Super Smash Bros. Brawl, a new office location would be built in Tokyo -- just for one game. This was a huge investment by Nintendo, but Iwata believed in Sakurai. The risk paid off as Brawl sold exceptionally well.
Smash for Wii U/3DS (2014):
After Brawl's development, Iwata told Sakurai to work on something non-Smash. Eventually his idea Project Sora became Kid Icarus: Uprising. At E3 2011, Iwata announced that Sakurai had come back to the series for an installment on both the Wii U and the 3DS. The game was announced in order to start attracting team members for Sakurai's team. Bandai Namco was chosen and the game started development in 2012. [For a full timeline of Smash for Wii U/3DS development, check out this post]
During the April 2015 Direct, Iwata announced the Smash Fighter Ballot after discussing the idea with Sakurai.
Unfortunately, on July 11th, 2015 Iwata passed away. Sakurai wrote about Iwata's funeral in his Famitsu Column.
Conclusion:
Satoru Iwata is the godfather of the Smash series. Being a close friend and adviser to Masahiro Sakurai, his contributions to the Smash series is incredible. So please take a moment and say #ThankYouIwata today.
PushDustIn remembers the tears and pain from Iwata's passing. You can follow PushDustIn on Twitter.
Note: A lot of the information in this post was from translations offered by Source Gaming. If you are interested in seeing more research and translations, please contribute to our Patreon. If you can't donate, give us a shout out! We really appreciate the support the community has given us!
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