Midgar

The DLC for Super Smash Bros. 4 drew to a close earlier this month, easily making this the most packed version of Smash Bros. to date. Naturally, there's a lot of franchises from across many companies that could easily belong in a Smash Bros. game, and the process of deciding who and what gets represented likely isn't one that gets taken lightly.

Nintendo Dream recently interviewed Masahiro Sakurai in last month's latest issue, and he discussed the process behind making the DLC items. For the stages returning from previous entries, the three from Super Smash Bros. were chosen mostly due to how there were only nine stages available from the first game, and there were a few stages that had already made it in.

It seems that the 3DS hindered development somewhat and impacted which stages were picked; Pirate Ship was too complex for the platform, while Midgar and Super Mario Maker had to be simplified so they'd fit within the 3DS' limitations. Midgar especially took some time to make, as the studio had to do most of it from scratch. Summons were chosen based on popularity, looks, and attacks, and the team had to find the right balance for how often they could appear.

For Suzaku Castle, they decided to add two extra platforms to the left of the main platform to give the stage a bit more variety, seeing as how 2D fighting games typically just have flat stages. The stage's music also changes when a fighter's percentage reaches a certain point and they're in danger of being knocked out.

For the Umbra Clock Tower, the team also had to build this one from scratch, as the stage data they received from Platinum Games wouldn't work within a Smash game. For this version, they changed up how the Inspired Snake would move at it flies around the stage, and they made sure to reference the fact that the stage exists in Purgatorio, a parallel dimension that remains mostly invisible to the normal world.

Hat tip to Nintendo Everything for the translation work.

What do you think? Are you glad that the team made sure to pay attention to all of the details? What's your favorite stage? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

[source nintendoeverything.com]