Sakurai's Interview on How Characters Are Chosen

[BluePikmin11]

http://kotaku.com/smash-bros-creato..._source=Kotaku_Facebook&utm_medium=Socialflow

Smash Bros. Creator Explains How Characters Get on the Roster

The Super Smash Bros. series has always had a wide variety of characters to choose from, and the roster for the latest Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS is no different. So how did the series creator, Masahiro Sakurai, choose who would be in it?

In his column in the latest Weekly Famitsu, Sakurai addressed the fan question, "How are characters selected [to be in Smash Bros.]?"

"We conduct a character popularity poll both domestically and internationally." answered Sakurai. A rather straightforward answer. Of course, it's not like we expected anything along the lines of nighttime rituals with a ouija board. But there's more. Continued Sakurai, "We also research games that are currently being developed. After that, it's pretty much up to us, with a touch of convenience."

"There are a lot things to take into account when deciding [characters]." Sakurai wrote. "Does the character have something inherently unique about them? Can that be used to make Smash Bros. interesting? Is the character a representative character [for the source material]? Do they conflict at all with other characters? Was there anything about them that stood out when we began development?"

As for who doesn't make the cut, Sakurai noted, "Characters from a series that has no future are rarely chosen. Also, fighters that switch models are a different matter."

In the end, as director, Sakurai has the final say on any character ideas that come across his desk. "Basically, any character is accepted if I believe it works [in the game]. On the other hand, even if a character is unique, if they overlap with other characters and aren't unique as a fighter, they are rejected." Sakurai wrote. Essentially, it all boils down to Sakurai's creative eye – and looking at the results, I think it's safe to say his eyes are fine.

Thoughts?

 

[the8thark]

"Characters from a series that has no future are rarely chosen.

I see Megaman, G&W, Duck Hunt Dog etc etc. All series that are either in limbo or totally dead. So that makes no sense.

"We conduct a character popularity poll both domestically and internationally."

So either only the hardcore few want Ridley or Ridley is more popular than we think and Sakurai ignored the poll results and found another reason to not have him in the game.

"Does the character have something inherently unique about them?

I see nothing unique about Dark Pit, some of the pokemon and Fire Emblem choices. But they are in the game. So making every character in the game feel unique is not a reason to have a character included.

Thoughts?

My thoughts are that Sakurai looks into lots of characters and who he wants is totally up to him. He can try to justify his choices with our input like surveys as much as he wants but in the end it's his choice and what we think or feel as fans has nothing to do with it. Overall he did a good job but he certainly didn't listen to the fans on the roster. If he did, then Ridley, Mewtwo, Roy, Snake and others would be in Smash 4.

 

[Verde Coeden Scalesworth]

Last minute clones don't count towards his "uniqueness" factor. He had time to make a few more, and quickly went with it. He didn't chose them over anyone else except perhaps another clone.

Ridley isn't that popular in Japan, notably. He also may not have an idea on how to make him playable at all. All Pokemon are relevant due to the series is popular. Ice Climbers were cut for technical issues, Snake had to have had another reason, and any "single character" series were kept otherwise because losing an entire series is different from losing one character in a series. Ness is more important than Lucas. He's part of the Original 12. Duck Hunt Dog falls under uniqueness.

He's saying that if he's going to cut a character, they need to have their game series be dead, and another reason is required. Wolf felt redundant to him for some reason. Lucas' series was dead. Ivysaur and Squirtle were tied to Pokemon Trainer. Isaac is from a somewhat dead and not very popular(anymore) series since Dark Dawn killed it badly. It got low sales.

I'd say all of this is pretty logical overall. Not logic I agree with, but it makes sense. I wish Snake was explained, though. Everybody else? No biggie.

 

[Frostwraith]

It's pretty obvious that clones are exempt from the uniqueness factor, given they aren't planned in the first place.

As for the dead series, it's obvious that it's a matter of priority: more prominent characters are prioritized over less prominent characters. I'd imagine the likes of Ness, Captain Falcon, Mr. Game & Watch, R.O.B. or Duck Hunt Duo were given less priority than characters from currently active series: Mario, Link, Pikachu, Charizard, Toon Link, Ganondorf, Marth, Robin, Pit, Rosalina and so on.

Given how early Star Fox U currently is in its development, it's very likely it hasn't even been planned when Sakurai decided the roster for this game.

Lucas's removal was likely due to his series' state. He probably went to a very low priority given his series is finished.

As for Snake, he's a unique case. He's a third party character belonging to a company who hasn't been doing business with Nintendo. The higher ups at Nintendo may have not allowed his inclusion. Of course, it's all speculation, but it's something to consider.

 

[LordVacation]

Why come up with reasons to include someone than go against all of them?
A'int fooling me, Sak'.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

I do like the dead series coming back - DHD, MegaMan (basically), Cap, and Ness are just awesome characters, despite not having recent games. It's the all-stars, and just because the series stopped doesn't remove someone's imprint. Besides, in the case of Falcon and Ness, I think that while their old series is dead, ther new series is Super Smash Bros, which is still going strong.

However, the relevancy argument is a bit of a downer, since most of the clones are pretty irrelevant to Nintendo as a whole. There are loads of characters who didn't even exist before Brawl, and a lot of the major characters from before that were ignored. True, I'm salty about Mewtwo and Ridley, but after looking at pretty much every unofficial poll, at which Mewtwo is on top and Ridley not below third, I don't know how its possible that Sakurai didn't know their fanbases.

As for the clones, I understand that they take little to no development time, but the ones they chose just rub me the wrong way. First, they had ages of dev time with this game, so I don't know if it's really a case of 'ran out of time' as much as 'doing too much;' I hope the existence of two different console versions of the same game doesn't turn both into half-games, particularly since one has such weaker processing power than the other. Second, we'll go back to the fan requests - Mewtwo could have existed perfectly as a Lucario clone, and Ridley as a Charizard clone, so why were they not chosen over others which had significantly smaller fanbases or relevance to the series as a whole? True, everyone's a bit annoyed that Ganondorf is still a Falcon clone instead of getting an update in SSB4 (or even Brawl), but the chance for Luigification exists if they can get their foot in the door.

 

[Kwazilla]

"Characters from a series that has no future are rarely chosen.

I think this may have more meaning to it than most of us are looking into. Kid Icarus was dead by the time Brawl came out, but suddenly Nintendo decided to revive it. It's possible that Duck Hunt was placed in the game to gauge fan interest in a possible duck hunt revival. With the Metroid Prime trilogy over with, the Next Metroid will likely be a 3rd person action/adventure, leaving Nintendo without a major FPS IP, and Duck Hunt could become that. I don't think they'll be bringing us any new Gyromite games - ROB always should have been in Smash because of his place in video game history. Without ROB, the NES likely would have failed - but I think a new Duck Hunt could be fantastic if given the proper care.

I know it's pretty unlikely that this will happen, but a boy can dream

 

[True Blue Warrior]

That doesn't explain why KI got 2 newcomers even though the franchise was confirmed to have no immediate future at the time the roster was chosen.

 

[BluePikmin11]

I think this may have more meaning to it than most of us are looking into. Kid Icarus was dead by the time Brawl came out, but suddenly Nintendo decided to revive it. It's possible that Duck Hunt was placed in the game to gauge fan interest in a possible duck hunt revival. With the Metroid Prime trilogy over with, the Next Metroid will likely be a 3rd person action/adventure, leaving Nintendo without a major FPS IP, and Duck Hunt could become that. I don't think they'll be bringing us any new Gyromite games - ROB always should have been in Smash because of his place in video game history. Without ROB, the NES likely would have failed - but I think a new Duck Hunt could be fantastic if given the proper care.

I know it's pretty unlikely that this will happen, but a boy can dream

Duck Hunt was most likely in because of his iconicness anyway.

 

[the8thark]

That doesn't explain why KI got 2 newcomers even though the franchise was confirmed to have no immediate future at the time the roster was chosen.

Sakurai wanted them in. That's about all their is to it. Doesn't matter that they should not be in the game for all the other reasons he stated in the article. His wants trump all other reasons.

Duck Hunt was most likely in because of his iconicness anyway.

So Iconic that no one wanted the character in the game before it was leaked. People are only looking at the character differently now because it is in the game. Before all of this no one talked about the character at all. It was just a dead relic of the 1980's.

 

[Kwazilla]

So Iconic that no one wanted the character in the game before it was leaked. People are only looking at the character differently now because it is in the game. Before all of this no one talked about the character at all. It was just a dead relic of the 1980's.

Actually, I'd been dreaming about beating the crap out of that dog ever since I was a kid. Laugh at me because I missed a duck? Time to go out back and settle this the old fashioned way.

 

[BluePikmin11]

So Iconic that no one wanted the character in the game before it was leaked. People are only looking at the character differently now because it is in the game. Before all of this no one talked about the character at all. It was just a dead relic of the 1980's.

You really do not look into other fanbases do you?

 

[Mysteltainn]

I disagree with the majority of what was said in that article and call poppycock, but it's no matter. For one thing, the roster is not necessarily decided by popularity, or at least it's not the key factor, that's for sure.

 

[True Blue Warrior]

You're really do not look into other fanbases do you?

Actually DHD was never a heavily requested character for Smash at all. Check out all the unofficial polls Shortie did and you won't see Duck Hunt Dog anywhere near the top 25 characters at all.

 

[Crescendo]

The entire interview just, as a whole, feels silly to me. It's obvious that there a lot more factors that play into who becomes playable and who doesn't.
Uniqueness is a factor, sure (as proven by Robin VS Chrom), but we also have what is around the character. Popularity, but also what he can promote, the development time used to make him, personal preference of the developper but also necessities from the higher ups (see Game Freak and Greninja). Outside of development necessities, I feel corporatism plays a much higher role than we think in the character selection process.

Although, that stuff about series with no future pretty much confirms that characters like Falcon or Ness are probably amongst the last characters to be remade. I wonder if hypothetically they'll break the taboo and cut one of them if Nintendo does absolutely nothing with their series in the future, but thankfully the chances of that to happen are very low. I hope.

 

[Verde Coeden Scalesworth]

Actually DHD was never a heavily requested character for Smash at all. Check out all the unofficial polls Shortie did and you won't see Duck Hunt Dog anywhere near the top 25 characters at all.

Read the context again. The person said "no one wanted him". That's completely untrue. Arcadenik is the biggest fan of him and wanted him well before the leak existed.

Yes, he has fans. Not many, but they exist. Wii Fit Trainer is far closer to a character nearly no one wanted. Apparently some people think she'd be in according to a poll topic made here, so...

 

[Marakatu]

We conduct a character popularity poll both domestically and internationally.

Lies. We surely would know about this poll on Smashboards if there was such a thing.

 

[True Blue Warrior]

Read the context again. The person said "no one wanted him". That's completely untrue. Arcadenik is the biggest fan of him and wanted him well before the leak existed.

Yes, he has fans. Not many, but they exist. Wii Fit Trainer is far closer to a character nearly no one wanted. Apparently some people think she'd be in according to a poll topic made here, so...

Ah, fair enough. Yeah, there were demands for the Duck Hunt Dog, but he was overshadowed in the speculative community by Takamaru who many thought was more likely than other retro candidates.

 

[Frostwraith]

Actually DHD was never a heavily requested character for Smash at all. Check out all the unofficial polls Shortie did and you won't see Duck Hunt Dog anywhere near the top 25 characters at all.

Problem with those polls is that they have a limited scope compared to the entire intended audience the game has.

There are many, many more people who buy Smash besides the more dedicated fanbase.

The entire interview just, as a whole, feels silly to me. It's obvious that there a lot more factors that play into who becomes playable and who doesn't.
Uniqueness is a factor, sure (as proven by Robin VS Chrom), but we also have what is around the character. Popularity, but also what he can promote, the development time used to make him, personal preference of the developper but also necessities from the higher ups (see Game Freak and Greninja). Outside of development necessities, I feel corporatism plays a much higher role than we think in the character selection process.

Although, that stuff about series with no future pretty much confirms that characters like Falcon or Ness are probably amongst the last characters to be remade. I wonder if hypothetically they'll break the taboo and cut one of them if Nintendo does absolutely nothing with their series in the future, but thankfully the chances of that to happen are very low. I hope.

Of course corporate stuff plays a role in this. I'd say it's a pretty much obvious thing, to be honest.

There are many factors that make character selection a complicated matter. More than it meets the eye, I say.

 

[Verde Coeden Scalesworth]

Ah, fair enough. Yeah, there were demands for the Duck Hunt Dog, but he was overshadowed in the speculative community by Takamaru who many thought was more likely than other retro candidates.

Too true, too true. I even had him on my roster. But I also had poor Tingle and Toad.

 

[True Blue Warrior]

Problem with those polls is that they have a limited scope compared to the entire intended audience the game has.

There are many, many more people who buy Smash besides the more dedicated fanbase.

I agree with this. Which is why we have the Miis and Pac-Man among our newcomers.

 

[Clint Jaguar]

I figured Sakurai chooses characters by throwing darts at a poster with every nintendo character on it, then picks whoever the dart lands on. Ridley is dead centre, so he's yet to land on him.

 

[Swedish_Otaku]

Then why the **** isn't Mewtwo in the game? It makes no bloody sense I don't care what anyone says. I worship Smash and Sakurai is a god for giving it to us, BUT he's also an idiot for not including such a worthy, deserving, unique, amazing, popular, awesome, charismatic, legendary, veteran! I'll never forgive Sakurai for not having in him Brawl and now he does it AGAIN. AND puts salt in the wound with characters like Lucario and Toon Link and clones and Dr. Mario that has no place in the game unless the basic characters like Mewtwo are being prioritized. He does NOT care about what others say. There's no excuse and the roster makes no sense the way it is now. His eyes are f:ed up.

 

[Dark Phazon]

Lmao some RealTalk though...welll....what can i say......whats done is done. Im getting both games but not paying for them.

 

[RazorsawTF]

but after looking at pretty much every unofficial poll,

well, there's your problem

 

[TheAnvil]

"I put in the characters I want, and don't care what anyone else thinks".

That would be a lot closer to the truth.

 

[Aguki90]

"We conduct a character popularity poll both domestically and internationally."
I can understand with Those are popular choices even is there even being the most modern.

We also research games that are currently being developed. After that, it's pretty much up to us, with a touch of convenience."
Look like gets all the credits on this.

"Characters from a series that has no future are rarely chosen. Also, fighters that switch models are a different matter."
<--That why is so different when compared him in the past or even fanmade 3D Model.
Instead making cartoony look, they make more as like a realistic dog like and the same time cartoony!
-Even him was choose its modern design thanks to the new punch out!!! and choose too as the TRUE retro design.

I wish they choose more obscurity, because there too damn unique and unpredictable and in them moment I see... I can't get excited and amazed how they managed to make a moveset so quirky and amazing!

There a lot of logic here, but I think the 3DS limitations kill so many good things. Smash 4 could be a better game overall, Even clone character could be twice unique.

 

[bksbestbwoy]

I'd just like to see where this USA poll was and how come it wasn't publicized enough. Melee and Brawl both had polls that had Japanese input posted to the Dojo site at one point in time but from the beginning of this franchise to now, I've never encountered a poll taking in suggestions from the west.

Which is a crying shame. Maybe then they'd realize that there's actual demand even here for some of the more interesting faces that get locked in NCL's basement because their popularity is "local only".

 

[KawaiiPiranha]

My thoughts on this- it's a load of garbage.
Sakurai picks the characters based on who he wants to see in the game. That's it. There are so many contradictions with what he's saying that it isn't even worth listing them all.

He can make all the excuses he wants as to why certain characters were included and others weren't. It doesn't change the fact that Dark Pit is playable and Lucas, Wolf, Mewtwo, Squirtle and Ivysaur were cut.

 

[LancerStaff]

"We conduct a character popularity poll both domestically and internationally."
As I've said before, Sakurai gauges overall popularity and not just the biggest fan's opinion. If K. Rool really was popular in Japan, he'd be in if it were just about the biggest fans' votes.

"We also research games that are currently being developed. After that, it's pretty much up to us, with a touch of convenience."
I'd say this also applies to recently released games like FE and KIU.

"Does the character have something inherently unique about them? Can that be used to make Smash Bros. interesting?"
See, I can't help but think of Ridley and K. Rool when he says this. It's worth noting what he said about Mac in the direct: "It was hard to make a moveset, but he turned out nice," to paraphrase. What a character can bring to the table, especially now, is highly influential to their inclusion.

"Is the character a representative character [for the source material]?"
Basically, it means main characters only.

"Characters from a series that has no future are rarely chosen."
Welp, Issac fans won't be happy to hear this.
People have applied this to Kid Icarus, but that's a recent series with an undecided future, not a dead one. Other then that, Sakurai hasn't cut C. Falcon and the like because of his aversion to cuts. Just don't expect Black Shadow any time soon...

"Also, fighters that switch models are a different matter."
There goes every Pokemon Trainer, MM Link, Zoroark, and a ton of others.

"On the other hand, even if a character is unique, if they overlap with other characters and aren't unique as a fighter, they are rejected."
Sounds like he's talking directly to Dixie and Ridley fans...

 

[Raido]

I see Megaman, G&W, Duck Hunt Dog etc etc. All series that are either in limbo or totally dead. So that makes no sense.

He said rarely. And saying that Megaman has no future is extremely silly...

So either only the hardcore few want Ridley or Ridley is more popular than we think and Sakurai ignored the poll results and found another reason to not have him in the game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Im3ECarsZvc

This shows quite well how difficult it is to make him playable without changing him into something else.

I see nothing unique about Dark Pit, some of the pokemon and Fire Emblem choices. But they are in the game. So making every character in the game feel unique is not a reason to have a character included.

As some others have already pointed out, the clones are clearly added at the end as a bonus and the in the initial roster plans, but in the costume plans.

And he just said that it is a factor which they take into account, not that it is mandatory.

 

[Minato Arisato]

My goodness, there's a lot of anger here.

To those of you who didn't get your most wanted character...maybe next time, yes? *sigh*

 

[Naoshi]

G&W, ROB and Duck Hunt dog were added due to history and retro. Let us not apply that "no future" logic to those characters, please.

G&W was their first major handheld BEFORE Game Boy. ROB was a huge part of why Nintendo managed to get away with localizing the NES system during the gaming crash. Duck Hunt Dog is an iconic NES character and represents the Nintendo Zapper accessory, considering that Duck Hunt references and cameos other games that uses the acccessory. They deserved their slot.

My goodness, there's a lot of anger here.

To those of you who didn't get your most wanted character...maybe next time, yes? *sigh*

Seriously, I thought people would get over it by now... but nope lol

There is only so much characters one can put into a game with the amount of dev time they have.

 

[TTTTTsd]

I think the only reason Dr. Mario is in is because Sakurai has a secret man-crush on him. I mean he got the most work of the 3 clones put into him given that you can't play him like Mario at all beyond basic neutral stuff.

I mean, why else would Dr. Mario(who is meant to be a reskin of Mario) be the most different and developed of the 3 clones in this game as opposed to 2 characters who are MEANT to be different from their sources more than they are here? Just really funny to me.

 

[BluePikmin11]

Then why the **** isn't Mewtwo in the game? It makes no bloody sense I don't care what anyone says. I worship Smash and Sakurai is a god for giving it to us, BUT he's also an idiot for not including such a worthy, deserving, unique, amazing, popular, awesome, charismatic, legendary, veteran! I'll never forgive Sakurai for not having in him Brawl and now he does it AGAIN. AND puts salt in the wound with characters like Lucario and Toon Link and clones and Dr. Mario that has no place in the game unless the basic characters like Mewtwo are being prioritized. He does NOT care about what others say. There's no excuse and the roster makes no sense the way it is now. His eyes are f:ed up.

Like I said before many times:

I think you can blame Gamefreak for Mewtwo's exclusion, Mewtwo honestly has no problems with coming back, I guess Gamefreak wanted to focus on the 6th generation Pokemon in advertising.

 

[SuperMasterHand]

A character as to be at least as unique as Dark Pit to get into Smash, so it's not that difficult

 

[Naoshi]

I'm pretty sure the "unique" quote are referring to the ones that were planned from the start, ie the non-clones.

The clones are last minute additions to beef up the roster. They didn't have enough time to add more unique characters since they require MANY times the work, this happens in every Smash Bros game. If not for the clones, the roster would've gone from 49 to 43. Do you guys just like taking things Sakurai say the wrong way to justify your anger?

I mean, really, what the **** is so hard to understand that?

 

[Marakatu]

Is the character a representative character [for the source material]?

 

[BluePikmin11]

Technically she was a filler character back when she was added in Smash 64.

 

[The Slayer]

My goodness, there's a lot of anger here.

To those of you who didn't get your most wanted character...maybe next time, yes? *sigh*

I know I don't care. Assist Trophies works better for me anyways (even though 99% of the competitive scene prefers them off but as mentioned, zero importance) and although only one became a character, it a chance for others to do the same if they become overall important to their series and Nintendo as well.