Who will join?

If you're worried that Namco Bandai's involvement in the next Super Smash Bros. will mean an influx of Tekken characters, fear not. Tekken series director Katsuhiro Harada says that usual Smash main man Masahiro Sakurai remains in control of design.

Harada assured Dusty Cartridge that he is focused on Tekken — including upcoming Wii U fighter Tekken Tag Tournament 2 — and that Smash Bros.' design work will be looked after by Sakurai as ever.

[...] Although we’ll help provide support on technology and other things involved creating the game, I’m currently very focused on the Tekken series. Some people might say online that I’m going to be involved in the development process or not but that shouldn’t really be an issue because the game design is going to be handled [by] Masahiro Sakurai. So I don’t understand why there would be any worries there.

Harada also said that, similarly, roster decisions are down to Sakurai. Harada's had people arguing both for and against the inclusion of some of Namco Bandai's famous fighters so far.

The feedback was very mixed, there were two camps, one said, “Harada, you’re very right, we don’t need the Tekken characters in Smash Bros, good job”. It’s nice that they agree with me but on the other hand, they themselves don’t exactly need Tekken characters in Smash Bros. so it’s kind of complex. Then there’s the other half were people saying, “No, you’re totally wrong, we want Tekken and SoulCalibur characters in the game ,otherwise why does it need to be developed be Namco Bandai?” So there’s really two different sides and it’s difficult to choose one. Obviously I’m not going to say to Sakurai, “We want Tekken characters, please put it in” — that’s not the case, so people don’t have to worry about that. The sole decision will probably be made in a way that if more people want Tekken characters in it then Sakurai might choose to do so, if not then so be it.

Elsewhere in the interview, Harada talked about possible Wii U features of Tekken Tag Tournament 2, such as using the GamePad's screen as a move demonstration area. He bit his lip on the topic of the system's power, however.

[...] People seem to be focusing too much comparing the raw specs to other hardware. You really have to be looking at the capabilities and what features it has.

Do you want to see any Tekken characters in the next Smash Bros.?

[source dustycartridge.com]