Super Smash Bros to Be Continued

Masahiro Sakurai doesn't see Super Smash Bros. continuing without his involvement but he'd rather leave it to someone else

We recently learned about Masahiro Sakurai's thoughts about the potential for a sequel for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate when excerpts from Sakurai's final Famitsu Column were leaked. Because Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is jam-packed with content, following up with a sequel would naturally be very difficult — especially when considering how the "Everyone Is Here" theme is something that will likely only happen once for the series.

However, Sakurai has always overseen the development of each entry in the iconic Nintendo series with the idea that it could be the last game. As such, he really puts his all into the making of each title, and he somehow manages to outdo himself in the process. Still, even Sakurai himself seems to think that a true follow up to Smash Ultimate might be "impossible."

Thanks to the efforts of PushDustIn and Source Gaming, we now have the full details of what was said during the interview that was posted in Sakurai's final Famitsu Column. There are a few additional tidbits that are certainly worth highlighting.

Within the column, the interviewer noted how there are many fans that would like to see the Super Smash Bros. series continued specifically under Sakurai's direction. The interviewer also noted how Sakurai once wrote that for a series to continue for decades, "some believe you must do away with the individualization of its creation."

"As is the case with many series, it's important to consider whether there is someone who can take over when the original creator is no longer around," responded Sakurai. "The more a work depends on its authorship, the more difficult it is to ensure its continuation."

Being that Super Smash Bros. 64 was originally released back in 1999, the Nintendo franchise is over 20 years old at this point. Since the beginning, Masahiro Sakurai has acted as each entry's project director.

"As is the case with many series, it's important to consider whether there is someone who can take over when the original creator is no longer around. The more a work depends on its authorship, the more difficult it is to ensure its continuation." - Masahiro Sakurai

Even the late Satoru Iwata, former president of Nintendo, believed that Sakurai's involvement was an important component to the success of the series. Iwata went out of his way and made some risky moves to enlist Sakurai to develop what would later be known as Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

Had Sakurai declined this opportunity, Iwata's only backup plan was to port Super Smash Bros. Melee to the Nintendo Wii and give it online functionality. While this might sound ideal to many Melee enthusiasts, the Nintendo Wii wasn't exactly known for its stellar online functionality.

Many games on the Nintendo Wii, including Brawl, offered online experiences that were comparable to watching a slideshow presentation. The playerbase of the Wii was also considered to be far more of a casual audience. Considering all of this, it's difficult to say if the intellectual property would've continued beyond this port without Sakurai's involvement as the port probably would've been critically panned.

"At the very least, I don't see any way for Smash Bros. to be produced without my involvement," continued Sakurai in the Famitsu Column interview. "For example, the Challenger Approaching trailers would not have the same level of quality if it was produced entirely by an outside firm."

Masahiro Sakurai is known for involving himself in just about every facet of the development of a game that he's overseeing. For Super Smash Bros., he's actually the one who has written all the scripts for reveal trailers since Super Smash Bros. 4 — with one exception.

The Smash Ultimate trailer that revealed Pyra & Mythra was actually handled by Monolith Soft in terms of the CG and script. Though the workload for Sakurai was lighter this time, he still wrote the script for the gameplay portion of the video and oversaw creation of the audio track used for the reveal.

"At the very least, I don't see any way for Smash Bros. to be produced without my involvement. For example, the Challenger Approaching trailers would not have the same level of quality if it was produced entirely by an outside firm." - Masahiro Sakurai

Throughout the years, Sakurai has worked with many different people to work on the franchise. During Super Smash Bros. 64 and Melee, Sakurai worked as an employee of HAL Laboratory's.

While HAL Laboratory was involved somewhat with Brawl, the development was mostly handled by Game Arts and what was essentially an "ad hoc team" assembled specifically to make the game.

Finally, Super Smash Bros. 4 and Ultimate were both handled by Bandai Namco. In the past, Sakurai noted how the "Everyone Is Here" theme for Smash Ultimate was only possible because Bandai Namco was involved with the development of the previous entry.

For all of this, it seems that Sakurai has not had any sort of protégé he's been teaching to take up the helm of the series once Sakurai is ready to retire or otherwise.

"Also, it's not as if some staff member has been accumulating the know-how of Smash Bros. It would also be difficult to capture the essence of various game titles and combine them into a spec document," continued Sakurai. "For starters, no one other than me has ever served as the director or planned the inclusion of new fighters. Given these conditions, I have to seriously consider whether or not the game will succeed if I entrust the job to them."

"To be honest, I'd rather leave it to someone else because it's very hard for me. I've actually tried, but it didn't work out." - Masahiro Sakurai

We've previously heard how Sakurai has been considering the appeal of an early retirement. There's apparently a part of the Japanese developer that just wants to leave all the work to someone else, but he currently believes that this isn't a possibility. There's apparently even been an attempt to do this before.

"To be honest, I'd rather leave it to someone else because it's very hard for me. I've actually tried, but it didn't work out," said Sakurai. "I may be able to find someone who can make improvements here and there, but I don't have a clue who would be able to create content from nothing [in the same quality]."

There's still plenty of interesting details mentioned by Masahiro Sakurai during this segment of the Famitsu Column. To read the rest of what Sakurai had to say, I definitely recommend checking out Source Gaming's full fan translation of the part concerning the future of Smash.

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Source: https://www.eventhubs.com/news/2021/nov/06/masahiro-sakurai-smash-continue-involvement/

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