Princess Rescuer
Smash Apprentice
- Joined
- Nov 3, 2018
- Messages
- 119
You may think I'm a fun-hating contrarian who wants to arrive at the party and pop all of the balloons, but I'm anything but that. The disappointment only began this month. Why did they wait so long for those details to be revealed anyway? I don't hate Smash (in fact I have played all of them in both single and multiplayer extensively) and I don't have any bones to pick with Sakurai. In fact, I probably respect him more than you do; I hold more contempt for whoever put him in the awful November 1 Direct. If I were making a game, particularly one that is expected to sell consoles, picking a crowd of people with a work ethic unafraid to call out unappealing ideas would be vastly preferable to a group of adoring yes-men who have unrealistic visions of who I am, and may not warn me about troublesome problems. (You know who chose the former? Markus Person, the creator of Minecraft. You know who chose the latter? Yoshio Sakamoto when he made Other M). Put yourself in Sakurai's shoes. You probably see Sakurai as a mythical rockstar, or something greater. He may have personal regrets and insecurities you know nothing about. Some of you want to either be the next Sakurai or work for the next Sakurai. He may see himself as a nothing special cog in a machine, wasting away for several hours a day like a pack rat alongside other pack rats instead of living out his childhood dream of being a J-Rock artist or something. During work, Sakurai is just a regular guy. He has normal conversations with people on breaks. He needs to go to the bathroom sometimes. He sometimes gets tired and drifts into thoughts about vacations or what he's saving money for. And some of the people who know him personally and deal with him every day are investors and executives he probably wishes he weren't as familiar with. And do you really think the concerns I've raised are hurting his feelings? First off, he probably never has any interest or chance to see what people are saying about his Smash games. Second, Sakurai is an adult and any vague disappointments I have had are probably NOTHING compared to the unfulfilling final states of Smash games due to mandated budget, time, and space cuts, not to mention the outright cancelled Smash games such as Dragon Fighters on the N64, and GBA and DS installments of Smash, which in hindsight, were probably cancelled for the better. Third, when Sakurai is off the job, he would probably rather be thinking of anything other than the games he's making. Being oh-so-proud of himself for being Sakurai would be like me having a deep investment in what people are saying about the grocery store I work at whenever I'm not there. Fourth, Sakurai would probably rather not be making Smash games and, as a renowned game maker, probably has loads of interesting and original concepts other than Kirby and Smash that Nintendo won't allow him to make. Working at Nintendo may be a dream job for it's fans, but whenever Sakurai is off of work hours, he is thinking of doing anything but being Nintendo's new Michael Jordan to replace Miyamoto (that's Michael Jordan the basketball player, not Michael B Jordan the actor). It would be better for everyone if we mentioned the names of all other employees working on the same team as Sakurai as we did mention Sakurai's name.
You know what I would do with Sakurai if I lived in his town and were just his buddy? Anything but play, talk about, or think about Nintendo or Smash. People who do that, even big fans, are not helping. He has enough of that crowding his life already. I'd take him to a tavern and order him a pint of sake, on me, to clear his mind of Nintendo. I would go to the rural countryside, to the ocean, to the archipelago, maybe even the hot spring. We would talk about sports and the weather. I would ask him which career(s) he would rather have or at least wanted earlier in his life. He would probably have quite a few answers, ha ha. I would even tell him about all of his fans from faraway lands who think of him as a rockstar. The people reacting to trailers on YouTube, the top players like Zero and Mango making it their goal to master his games, even all of the people on Smashboards (who I would say positive things about. You guys are interesting people to debate against). That might lift his spirits and make his work life seem not quite as tedious. Maybe even visit Mr. and Mrs. Sakurai, who may not even know about his Nintendo job and still think of him as their baby. That would invigorate him much more than reminding him about the results of his long work hours.
You know what I would do with Sakurai if I lived in his town and were just his buddy? Anything but play, talk about, or think about Nintendo or Smash. People who do that, even big fans, are not helping. He has enough of that crowding his life already. I'd take him to a tavern and order him a pint of sake, on me, to clear his mind of Nintendo. I would go to the rural countryside, to the ocean, to the archipelago, maybe even the hot spring. We would talk about sports and the weather. I would ask him which career(s) he would rather have or at least wanted earlier in his life. He would probably have quite a few answers, ha ha. I would even tell him about all of his fans from faraway lands who think of him as a rockstar. The people reacting to trailers on YouTube, the top players like Zero and Mango making it their goal to master his games, even all of the people on Smashboards (who I would say positive things about. You guys are interesting people to debate against). That might lift his spirits and make his work life seem not quite as tedious. Maybe even visit Mr. and Mrs. Sakurai, who may not even know about his Nintendo job and still think of him as their baby. That would invigorate him much more than reminding him about the results of his long work hours.
