New Sakurai Interview: Smash Bros DS and 4 news.

[Fatmanonice]

if geno was so highly favored how come he didnt make it?

*sigh* Didn't you read my post at all? Let me break it down so you have an easier time reading it:

1. Sakurai said at GDC back in March that all the characters except Sonic were chosen three days after E3 05 when Iwata pitched the idea at him.

2. Sakurai also said at GDC that all these characters were completely programmed by the beginning of 2006. Sonic was the only exception and he wasn't added until the summer of 2007. He said he did this in order to focus on the other aspects of development so that they didn't run into one of two problems: running out of time and having to greatly extend the development (which they basically had to do anyways because of complications with online).

3. Sakurai said that other third party characters weren't added because of time issues just like Sonic and Snake in Melee. Getting permission to use a copyright is time consuming so it's understandable.

4. Every new character added in Brawl except ZSS and ROB were representatives of the most recent games of certain franchises or ideas that were left on the cutting room floor for Melee.

5. The offical Brawl poll wasn't held until May 2006. Reference point 2 to see why this matters.

@ Catfight:

I don't think it would be all that farfetched seeing how most of the newcomers will definately fall in the "obscure" category since a lot of the major players are in Brawl. For example, it's not very likely that Kirby and Mother will get any more reps and every other major has like one person left. For example, DK has King K. Rool and LoZ pretty much has Tingle *vomits violently... stops for a bit... tries to talk again but falls to his knees and starts to puke blood*.

 

[the_Capt_Falcon_Master]

Geno isn't owned by Nintendo. Of course, neither are Snake or Sonic, but you have to consider why Snake & Sonic made it while Geno didn't:

1) Hideo Kojima wanted Snake to be in SSB Melee, long before Brawl. Sakurai kept that request in mind when he made Brawl. When the creator of a character comes to you personally and demands their character in your game, that's saying something. That was not the case with Geno or any other 3rd party. In Sonic's case, he was just a highly requested character (especially by us in the US). Seeing as how moth Nintendo and Sega representatives have stated in the past (after Sega went 3rd party) how they would like to see Sonic and Mario in a game together, and with Sega making those Mario & Sonic/Olympic games, it was not unreasonable to put Sonic in.

2) Geno is, really, just a mere secondary party member from Mario RPG, his one and only game appearance. Sakurai went through the proper channels to get the rights to use Snake & Sonic. I know for a fact that negotiations have to be done before a 3rd party character can appear in another company's game. I doubt Sakurai would want to go through all that trouble to use the obscure and minor Geno character for Brawl. Snake and Sonic don't have cult followings; they have huge fan bases. Their star power separately overpower Geno's small fanbase.

Just because Geno happens to be the so-called "bad ***/cool" character of Super Mario RPG that a small cult following of fans like him, doesn't merit his involvement in Brawl.

And before anyone compares the inclusion of Isaac (Golden Sun) and Saki (Sin & Punishment), characters that aren't owned by Nintendo, to Geno;

Technically, Nintendo does own Isaac and Saki. They had Camelot and Treasure respectively make these games for Nintendo, but Nintendo does own the rights to Golden Sun (or at least their characters) and Sin & Punishment (or at least their characters), if not fully, than partially, and enough to use these characters. It seems like Square owns everything that they made specifically for Super Mario RPG that retains to original, new characters (that would be Geno).

Of course, there is the possiblity that your question is sarcastic. Such as;

"If Lucario is such a popular character, why haven't I heard of him?"

Ummm...because you don't play Pokémon?

thats exactly my opinion as well. I was just making a point.


fatmanonice: do you realize that point 4 actually helps my argument. Geno hasn't had a significant role in a game since his first (and only) game. And hasn't appeared in a game since mario & luigi and even then he was unecessary and could have been replaced by anyone. And don't pull any crap about pit or r.o.b. or g&w. The reason they are in is cause they had a major impact on the gaming world. Geno has not.

and you constantly quote sakauri's list it seems to me like he picked everyone but geno to be in the game from the top 5. Coincidece? I think not. Your killing your own argument just stop. I've argued this stupid crap millions of times. And yes i was right i said geno would not be in brawl i didnt mention any other character. I said "GENO WILL NOT BE IN BRAWL" and i was correct there is no way around that. I was right you were wrong. And that is all i am going to say about that doll.



Back to smash ds seeing as how you are able to download certain things to your ds for other games (if it does come out on the ds) do you think you will be able to download stuff for smash ds?

 

[aids514]

Man, you guys can whine about anything, can't you?

True that.

 

[Scala]

Not to mention DS only supports 8 directions on the d-pad. Characters like fox and zelda would have to have different recoveries (or autoaim the ledge, but we all know how that would turn out)

 

[D14]

What also could be nice for the next game are real cheats like infinite health or one hit kill, but you have to unlock those by playing very hard events.

 

[MuD.]

ssb on ds would be awesome

 

[Faith]

What also could be nice for the next game are real cheats like infinite health or one hit kill, but you have to unlock those by playing very hard events.

No, just no.

If they do wi-fi battles nicely on the DS version that would be awesome. Maybe some features unlocked when linking DS with Wii ?

 

[Catonis]

I would like that. But for those of you hating on Geno listen to this. Geno was one of the most wanted characters for the game and Sakurai tried hard to get him into Brawl. Square Enix however would for some reason not allow it. Geno still has a very large fanbase even after over 11 years. Does that make him the greatest game char. ever? No! But it does mean that he is very popular and that many people like him (obviously me included) and that people want him in a game again. Unfortunately Square Enix and Nintendo have not worked together for a very long time and they have grown apart. However Sakurai did want Geno in Brawl and that is final. I think he could have made the game even better and do hope he is in the next Smash game. The end.

 

[the_Capt_Falcon_Master]

I would like that. But for those of you hating on Geno listen to this. Geno was one of the most wanted characters for the game and Sakurai tried hard to get him into Brawl. Square Enix however would for some reason not allow it. Geno still has a very large fanbase even after over 11 years. Does that make him the greatest game char. ever? No! But it does mean that he is very popular and that many people like him (obviously me included) and that people want him in a game again. Unfortunately Square Enix and Nintendo have not worked together for a very long time and they have grown apart. However Sakurai did want Geno in Brawl and that is final. I think he could have made the game even better and do hope he is in the next Smash game. The end.

did sakauri tell you he wanted geno in brawl? See i don't mind geno. It's just that i think there are many characters more interresting and more important to the history of gaming that should be in before him.

 

[flyinfilipino]

And yes i was right i said geno would not be in brawl i didnt mention any other character. I said "GENO WILL NOT BE IN BRAWL" and i was correct there is no way around that. I was right you were wrong. And that is all i am going to say about that doll.

So were you involved in the selection of characters for the game? If not, then way to sound totally childish.

 

[Cat Fight]

This is probably gonna be a lot different fighter than the usual Smash games. I wouldn't be too worried about UpBs with certain characters. :"p

 

[rathy Aro]

I was thinking of an ssb game on the DS. It'd be funny if smashDS was better than brawl... yet not too surprising.

 

[WolfCypher]

I would like that. But for those of you hating on Geno listen to this. Geno was one of the most wanted characters for the game and Sakurai tried hard to get him into Brawl. Square Enix however would for some reason not allow it. Geno still has a very large fanbase even after over 11 years. Does that make him the greatest game char. ever? No! But it does mean that he is very popular and that many people like him (obviously me included) and that people want him in a game again. Unfortunately Square Enix and Nintendo have not worked together for a very long time and they have grown apart. However Sakurai did want Geno in Brawl and that is final. I think he could have made the game even better and do hope he is in the next Smash game. The end.

I don't believe that for a minute. :embarrass

 

[Spartan1841]

I would like that. But for those of you hating on Geno listen to this. Geno was one of the most wanted characters for the game and Sakurai tried hard to get him into Brawl. Square Enix however would for some reason not allow it. Geno still has a very large fanbase even after over 11 years. Does that make him the greatest game char. ever? No! But it does mean that he is very popular and that many people like him (obviously me included) and that people want him in a game again. Unfortunately Square Enix and Nintendo have not worked together for a very long time and they have grown apart. However Sakurai did want Geno in Brawl and that is final. I think he could have made the game even better and do hope he is in the next Smash game. The end.

A few more characters would have made the game better. I don't like geno much but It would be cool if he was in.

I don't believe that for a minute. :embarrass

Sakurai admitted he had more characters so its obvious that Geno was one.

 

[IWontGetOverTheDam]

Man, you guys can whine about anything, can't you?

Sigg'd.

EDIT: Ouch. Right when I say that, I read something disturbingly stupid that had to be sigged. Sorry.

 

[flyinfilipino]

Sakurai admitted he had more characters so its obvious that Geno was one.

Reeeeally? Howwww?

 

[boom-man97]

personaly this makes me happy, VERY happy...
with in reason

 

[ChronoBound]

A few more characters would have made the game better. I don't like geno much but It would be cool if he was in.



Sakurai admitted he had more characters so its obvious that Geno was one.

I hope that was sarcasm...

 

[¯\_S.(ツ).L.I.D._/¯]

Not to mention DS only supports 8 directions on the d-pad. Characters like fox and zelda would have to have different recoveries (or autoaim the ledge, but we all know how that would turn out)

Definitely tru, i don't kno how that would work out, except if they could go like pika and go up and ova, that mite work.

 

[SmashChu]

If they made a Smash for DS, they would need to do plenty of tweaking to the core gameplay mechanics in order to make it the best it could be for the system it is running on.

It may be what makes the game better. Rather then make the same game, it could end up being it's own.

I'd love to see this done but more so on a later console for more characters opportunities.

 

[Fatmanonice]

I would like that. But for those of you hating on Geno listen to this. Geno was one of the most wanted characters for the game and Sakurai tried hard to get him into Brawl. Square Enix however would for some reason not allow it.

There isn't 100% proof behind this. This is all we know considering this matter:

1. Sakurai said at GDC that some third party characters didn't get in due to time matters. In the journal, as previously shown, Megaman and Geno were the only third party characters that he seemed to have a decent amount of interest in but we don't know if either one were who he was talking about it. Inafune could have lied about Sakurai not approaching him about adding Megaman in Brawl but we can't prove this.

2. Beware the Forest's Mushrooms is a deleted track in Brawl's coding. For Sakurai to use it, he would have had to approach Square Enix to use it. This tune is considered by many people to be Geno's theme so there could be a connection.

 

[Newuser12345215]

#2 I remember when he was saying that he didn't want to make any more smash bros.

#4 No but innovative ideas like tripping would make an excellent game!

Or adding ONE MILLION TROPHIES AND STICKERS instead of WORKING ON THE ACTUAL GAME are BRILLIANT.

While I do like trophies and stickers, they could have spent more time on actual characters and limit trophies only to characters in the game and NOT THE WHOLE NINTENDO FRANCHISE.

I said this in another thread, but trophies take a bit of time to make. Their character models are really good, good enough to take long... and take a lot of people...

Which could be used to make more characters or whatever.

Personally, I don't really care too much about characters in specific, I care more about gameplay of the character. I mean I do have my favorite characters that I'd like to see in Brawl but they'd have to play fun and not have 2 identical moves like....

...Sonic, why does he basically have the 2 VERY similar B moves.

Side B and Down B are nearly identical. The main difference is(As far as I noted when playing him):

1. Side B - You can just hold the button to charge. Side B causes Sonic to get launched up a little when first used.

2. Down B - You have to repetitively tap "B" for it to charge. It does not cause sonic to get launched up in the air(a little) when used.

They could have easily combined the 2 moves into 1 and give him another move.

There isn't 100% proof behind this. This is all we know considering this matter:

1. Sakurai said at GDC that some third party characters didn't get in due to time matters. In the journal, as previously shown, Megaman and Geno were the only third party characters that he seemed to have a decent amount of interest in but we don't know if either one were who he was talking about it. Inafune could have lied about Sakurai not approaching him about adding Megaman in Brawl but we can't prove this.

2. Beware the Forest's Mushrooms is a deleted track in Brawl's coding. For Sakurai to use it, he would have had to approach Square Enix to use it. This tune is considered by many people to be Geno's theme so there could be a connection.

I could see Inafune not lying. I mean, why wouldn't he want Megaman in Brawl? It'd increase Megaman's popularity, increase sales of Megaman, etc.

I could HOWEVER, see Square Enix not wanting Geno in Brawl because it doesn't really benefit them in anyway.

They have no new games with Geno in it, so why should they give permission for them to use a character?

So it could be true that Square Enix probably rejected the request or something and NOT from capcom.

 

[Axelguy4realz]

Here we go. X is tilts. Y is smash. A is jump B is B moves. Well just let the people be able to customize the controls just like in Brawl. Make online as good as jump ultimate stars. ( can play 3 people in japan with no lag). Atleast add 5 characters. ( Jumnp ultimate stars had 100 playable characters and 300 supports) Improve coin launcher. Make adventure mode less like a chore and more fun.

 

[olimarmaster]

the....brawl......to.......end.......them......all

 

[flyinfilipino]

the....brawl......to.......end.......them......all

Wanna share with us the Japanese equivalent?

 

[starL33T]

some of the few things that would make a new smash better, would be...
1. Characters, need more, not being palatial, but just enough of the right ones, Paper Mario, Ridley Crono etc etc.
2. more assist trophies, Sakurai states he went "overboard" with them, but not rly, maybe some more coz they're fun.
3. Make it on the DS, most like 64 which was SO awesome.
4. Keep the game as simple as possible, to make it last as long as possible.

 

[Masque]

It's been a long time since I referenced this but these were 9 most mentioned characters in Sakurai's journal:

1. Geno (5 entries)
2. King Dedede (5 entries)
3. Ridley (4 entries)
4. Ike (4 entries)
5. Diddy Kong (4 entries)
6. Krystal (3 entries)
7. Olimar (3 entries)
8. Takamaru (3 entries)
9. Toon Link (3 entries)

(Characters that were referenced twice just for the heck of it

10. Lip
11. Megaman (the only third party character besides Geno mentioned more than once)
12. Lucas *playable*
13. Claus *technically playable...*
14. Isaac *assist trophy*
15. Professor Kawashima
16. Demille/Demiru
17. Black Shadow
18. Ray 01 *assist trophy*
19. Animal Crossing Boy
20. King K. Rool
21. Sigurd
22. Jeff (from Earthbound, heh...) *assist trophy*

Notice for the top 9 how about half of them are characters that were already added to the game at that time. I personally think this reflects both their popularity and Sakurai favor for them. Unless Nintendo comes out with a ton of new franchises in the next 5-6 years, expect a lot of the new playable characters to be drawn from this list.

Agreed. The characters in red are practically shoo-ins for SSB4.

I will, however, adamantly contest your point about Claus. He is NOT technically playable, much to the chagrin of Claus fans such as myself. While one of Lucas' alternate costumes looks identical to child Claus (albeit with hair going in the opposite direction), the Claus for which many of us so longed was the Masked Man. Because of Sakurai's personal investment in and adoration for MOTHER 3, I can only hope that the Masked Man will be playable in Smash 4. I wouldn't discount the possibility.

Also, you forgot to mention that Sukapon (Joy Mech Fight) was mentioned twice on the poll. He would be another lovely addition.

 

[phantomphungus]

Dang. WHY DOES TAKAMARU HAVE TO GET IN OVER SUKAPON? WHYYYYY????

Sorry. I'm just a hardcore Sukapon wanter (not a fan. I never actually owned Joy Mech Fight, and I know only a few things about the plot. BUT I STILL WANT HIM LIKE HELL!)

 

[Spire]

Dang. WHY DOES TAKAMARU HAVE TO GET IN OVER SUKAPON? WHYYYYY????

Sorry. I'm just a hardcore Sukapon wanter (not a fan. I never actually owned Joy Mech Fight, and I know only a few things about the plot. BUT I STILL WANT HIM LIKE HELL!)

... why? Sukapon does not appeal to me at all, and for the record, neither does Takamaru.

A gathering of discrete blobs forming a semi-humanoid form that fights. I'd rather take Rayman over Sukapon to be honest, but even he's low on my list.

 

[Trozz]

More characters make the game harder to balance. SSBB isn't exactly the pinnacle of balance... and it's not like Nintendo releases patches or anything either.

 

[Masque]

Dang. WHY DOES TAKAMARU HAVE TO GET IN OVER SUKAPON? WHYYYYY????

Sorry. I'm just a hardcore Sukapon wanter (not a fan. I never actually owned Joy Mech Fight, and I know only a few things about the plot. BUT I STILL WANT HIM LIKE HELL!)

I want them both equally--and, for the record, I would absolutely love to have them in the next game.

Seriously, play Joy Mech Fight. It's delicious. :bigthumbu

 

[flyinfilipino]

I think we all should've learned by now that no one is a shoe-in.

 

[Roy-Kun]

I want them both equally--and, for the record, I would absolutely love to have them in the next game.

Seriously, play Joy Mech Fight. It's delicious. :bigthumbu

Possibly. However, Sakurai-San already stated that we must not expect to see Sukapon as a Playable Character, why? Because he would be a way too complicated character to make.

I personally want Isaac in, more than Sukapon. (Hey, he's more popular, and has a easy moveset potential).

That's my oppinion, i'd prefer to have Felix in too, but now that's asking too much.

 

[-Big_-Blue 9]

Eh i dont care how much characters he puts in nor their importance, megaman and saki
are the only ones I kind of want but I digress
I just want The awesome gameplay that was in melee back( hit stun especially)

 

[the_Capt_Falcon_Master]

Agreed. The characters in red are practically shoo-ins for SSB4.

I will, however, adamantly contest your point about Claus. He is NOT technically playable, much to the chagrin of Claus fans such as myself. While one of Lucas' alternate costumes looks identical to child Claus (albeit with hair going in the opposite direction), the Claus for which many of us so longed was the Masked Man. Because of Sakurai's personal investment in and adoration for MOTHER 3, I can only hope that the Masked Man will be playable in Smash 4. I wouldn't discount the possibility.

Also, you forgot to mention that Sukapon (Joy Mech Fight) was mentioned twice on the poll. He would be another lovely addition.

I think we all should've learned by now that no one is a shoe-in.

exactly, geno and krystal were "shoe-ins" for brawl too. And we saw how well that worked out.

 

[Krug]

exactly, geno and krystal were "shoe-ins" for brawl too. And we saw how well that worked out.

Thank goodness for that, Olimar and Wolf were the better choices.

On Topic: I can only hope King K. Rool finally gets in, I've been waiting form the day Dedede was announced, however Claus or Black Shadow would be other great additions.

As for those not on the list.

I really want Amaterasu from Okami. BEST 3RD PARTY EVER. Screw Geno, Ammy would be the most unique Character ever to grace battlefield, problem is I don't see much support, despite her being a great Character, besides me and my friend, and that just won't cut it. Kamek would be another great addition, besides, we need more Yoshi characters other than...Yoshi. Also Crash Bandicoot for reason's I stated in the official SSB4 thread.

 

[Fatmanonice]

exactly, geno and krystal were "shoe-ins" for brawl too. And we saw how well that worked out.

We got ahead of ourselves. We didn't know that Sakurai got the characters out of the way so early in the development and when Sakurai asked in the offical poll what characters we wanted to see Brawl, we all assumed he meant playable. Most of us went off the assumption that it was going to be like Melee where most of the new characters WERE decided by the fans.

@ Whoever mentioned Sukapon:

Oh... I forgot that he was mentioned twice too but Sakurai said shortly after Melee was released that Sukapon's body structure was too complex to work well in Smash Bros. I don't know if he still feels this way (remember how he wanted to replace Ness with Lucas?) but it does suggest that Sukapon doesn't have a future in Smash Bros.

 

[stancosmos]

w

^
WTF i agree whit innovate ideas, but tripping SUCKS BALLS

tripping isnt toooo bad, i mean it rarely does anything. sure it sucks but its a very minor things, atleast it makes it possible for the pros to slip up and get hit.

 

[Newuser12345215]

More characters make the game harder to balance. SSBB isn't exactly the pinnacle of balance... and it's not like Nintendo releases patches or anything either.

Doesn't really matter too much anyway(IMO). All 3 Bro games, there have been imbalances with all characters. As long as they "try" to balance it at all, it should be fine, even if they added 20 more characters.

My suggestions for the new SSB4(most of them are just simple suggestions):

1. More work on the actual game instead of too many trophies/stickers.

2. If possible, 6 player mode. No need to adjust any stages or anything, most stages could fit 6 players(it'd be crowded, but it'd fit).

No need to try to rebalance anything either because of 6 players. Add 6 players but keep it simple and don't change anything because of 2 extra players.

3. Make names "colored" in accordance to the player slot. First player should have a "Red" name, second player "Blue", etc.

This only really matters for 4 player FFA mode and if you're sitting far away from the TV and playing with a group people. Sometimes, I forget where the heck my character is, especially hard if someone else is also playing a character that looks like yours.

Simple change.

4. More control customization. Allow you to map "Select" button to "Taunts", so you can free up some space on the D-pad for other controls.

Holding select while pressing the D-pad should activate the taunt instead of just pressing the D-pad.

5. Add all bosses or optional characters, playable, in "Special Brawl"(or whatever SSB4 will be called).

Being able to play as or against master hand or crazy hand at anytime would be fun.

6. Allow you to adjust the appearance rate of assist trophies and pokemons in "items". Like if I wanted to play with only Lyn as an assist trophy, make it possible.

7. Allow you to enable/disable exploding crates/containers.

8. For special brawl/mode - Allow you to set specials only on one player. For example, if I wanted one person to be giant, another person be metal, and another person have flaming curry, it should be an option for this in the new SSB game.

 

[AmigoOne]

Ya, seriously, enough trophies and stickers bull****.
They also need to fix the pokemon and assist trophies, most of them either completely overturn the game in your favor or dont do ****. They need more in betweens.

Besides that, the basic whine about gameplay changes