We weren't expecting news on Super Smash Bros. today, but Nintendo surprised us with the revelation that Namco Bandai staff are working on the Wii U and 3DS game.
While series supremo Masahiro Sakurai will still direct the new instalments, top staff from Namco Bandai will pitch in too: Masaya Kobayashi has pledged his "best staff" to make Mr Sakurai proud. Namco staff include Tales series producer Yoshito Higuchi, Tetsuya Akatsuka from Mobile Suit Gundam: Extreme Vs., the art and sound directors from the SoulCalibur series and many of the staff responsible for Tekken.
Namco Bandai has already produced a prototype that "looks pretty good" according to Sakurai, who also had a personal message for fans eagerly awaiting news on the new Super Smash Bros. games.
Hello, I’m Masahiro Sakurai, the director of the Super Smash Bros. series.
It’s my personal belief that the only time a creative product really resonates is in that first moment when it’s actually in front of you.
With that said, I’ve realised that if we keep the new Super Smash Bros. title’s development structure secret, it’ll only create more and more speculation, and I won’t be able to develop the game with any freedom. That’s why I’ve decided to announce this news right now, even though it’s still very early on.
I would love to provide more information, but for now, I’m going to stay quiet until I have something solid to show you.
The project has just gotten started. Bear in mind that not only are we developing two titles simultaneously, but we announced the project before we even started actual development, so I’m afraid we will likely have to keep you waiting for quite a while. Please be patient.
Currently, the prototype prepared by NAMCO BANDAI Games and NAMCO BANDAI Studio’s special team looks pretty good, and it’s working great. In order to take advantage of the fact that there will be versions for two different systems, and to maximise and offer fun new gameplay elements, the entire team is going to work hard together. Thank you.
[source nintendo.co.uk]
Comments 85
I can't friggin' wait.
This is so awesome! I can't wait!
Please make Pokémon vs. Digimon a dream come true! :'D
We'll be probably seeing namco characters in the new game as well!
I'll stab someone if they decide to add some crappy tales characters into this.
Gulp
I'm doing this in a positive way. It sounds like this will be good.
Well, im guessing we will see some bandai namco characters in the game?
Namco is the perfect company for this.
Since this is Namco we are talking about, hopefully, they add Pacman as a playable character. That would be epic awesome!
Please include Dig Dug!
Please be mostly Nintendo PLEASEEEEE
I wanna see alittttle more 3rd party guys though, especially some tales casts...do NOT leave out Lloyd from ToS
Well, as long as Sakurai is in charge, they can't go wrong!
I feel better about this, now that I remember they worked on Tekken. However all these possible added third party characters I don't care for. We shouldn't forget that Super Smash Bros. is all about Nintendo characters.
Oh yeah, Pacman will be a playable character, Pac Ghosts, Dig Dug and Galaga/Galaxian could be used as assist items in battle as a homage to Namco's legacy.
Pacman joints the BRAWL!
@evilmrbeaver If this happens Mark from CGR will go craaaazyy!!! lol!
Maybe we won't have to wait until 2016 after all? I consider this positive news even though a 3rd party will handle most of the development because Sakurai will still be in charge!
I cant really say that im happy with this... I hope that it will still be "Smash Bros" and not "Tales of Nintendo X Tekken - DLC Costume Edition"...
Im a little afraid to be honest...
i could see a few companies that would be a better choice. having namco in this kind of worries me. honestly i would have been happier if capcom were in it instead of namco.
Awesome!
So... Namco characters... Main Character from Baten Kaitos?
Considering there hasn't been a good Tekken or Soulcalibur game in years, this is pretty worrying. I also really do not want to see the game filled with stupid guest characters from hundreds of Namco franchises.
Leave it at Pac-man and Heihachi, please.
PacMan will be awesome, if only to see him and Mario go at it on one of their retro stages! Hopefully they won't have too many of their characters infiltrating just as it was only Sonic and Snake to make an appearance in SSBB.
I still wana see Simon Belmont though but it looks like that possibility is quickly fading...
Namco? My excitement just faded!
It's probably going to be two years before the games get released.
lol cool hope Klonoa is in there! 8D
Might have to look into some Namco (does Pacman count? ) characters and stuff. Not too familiar. Should be great though!
They really should NOT have announced this before it was in production. Keep it in your pants, Iwata.
@adamical I dunno, it seems to have had exactly the desired effect, just like everything else about last night's feed.
Dam,that means no Snake or Sonic.
The art director from Soul Calibur is going to be involves in the new model of Samus?
I'm getting really worried about this...
I'm actually kinda happy about this. With more people working on this, development will speed up. Who knows, maybe we'll even see a actual trailer come next E3.
I... think they'll do well to Smash Bros. I trust that they'll make another great entry to the series.
Great! Hopefully this'll ease the load on Sakurai a bit, he's probably being worked ragged to get the project going. Would be cool if there was a few Namco guest characters in there, too, I would love to have some Tales in my Smash Bros.
Not a fan of Namco/Bandai characters, but oh well.
Klonoa would be a perfect fit for Smash Brothers.
Namco? I hope we see some characters from ToS and/or TotA in it.
This is just another sign that Nintendo is stretching themselves thin. They always need some kind of 3rd party help with developing anything these days. As awful as it sounds, we can probably expect to see Tales of (insert name here), and Klonoa characters. The only thing keeping my spirits high is the fact that Project Sora is involved.
Cool... I actually want more 3rd party characters in Smash Bros. Can't wait to see what Namco does with this.
Whoops, I read the title wrong and thought it was about new power ups for the game. >.>
This does have me a little concerned. New characters, stages, and items related to Namco franchises would definitely be cool, but I don't want Nintendo giving away control of Smash Bros to a 3rd Party.
Smash Bros. is arguably Nintendo's most important modern franchise. They cannot afford to screw it up in the slightest.
Argh i can't wait! Hopefully i'll see some of my childhood favorites like Dig Dug and Pac-man
Hopefully they keep the Namco characters to a minimum, pac-man and dig dug would just be cheesy.
Hahahahaha And there we have Sony with their limked version of the Super Smash Bros series called "Something something battle royale". Poor Sony....
*limked=milked
My only hope is that working with Namco/Bandai will speed up the development process. I have high hopes that we will catch our first glimpse of these games early next year, with a release either late 2013 or early 2014 for both systems.
@Nick-Clegg Snake and Sonic was never intend to be in Super Smash Bros. Brawl to begin with. They were merely included only cuz of begging from Hideo Kojima and the fans. Kojima wanted Snake in the game, since Snake was able to be included, the fans demands Sonic. Since Nintendo allowed Snake they had to allowed Sonic as well.
@Hyperstar96 Just because Namco Bandai is developing the game doesn't mean it'll be any different from what HAL Lab and Game Art did with Melee and Brawl, Sakurai himself is still supervising the game so it'll still be a good Smash Bros. title.
@retro_player_22 It would still be removing characters.
Pac-Man is most likely to join in.... Maybe......
@retro_player_22 #52
And HAL Lab is probably still working on this anyway.
Mitsurugi FTW!
Pac-Man's final smash... throwing up a giant flaming dot at everyone.
i'd much rather see nintendo team up with sega for smash bros over namco. they have sonic, tails, shadow, raphael from rhythm thief, beat from jet set radio, akira and pai chan or jacky from virtua fighter, ulala from space channel 5 and bayonetta- characters who i see can fit into the smash bros universe.
Dig Dug joins the brawl!
Luke Fon Fabre joins the brawl!
Klonoa joins the brawl!
Please make it happen, Namco
Shadow the Hedgehog joins the brawl!
Sackboy joins the brawl!
CHUCK NORRIS JOINS THE BRAWL!!!!
@missqliu81
For characters, sure that's a fair preference, but their development track record is scary.
I would not want them to have a big role in such a huge and important game.
I'm already nervous about Namco, but with Sakurai and his team still at the helm, I think things will be okay.
People hoping for Namco characters... Yeah dream on.
@IAmNotWill #62
I have to agree with you, Namco characters don't seem appropriate for Super Smash, maybe the tales characters could fit, but I think they would just have the same type of move set as the fire emblem characters.
Namco Bandai + Nintendo = 1 hell of a roster!
I'm excited!
I like many others would love to see Pac-Man with a like themed stage. But other then him I just want Nintendo. And maybe bring back at least one or two melee characters. cough Roy cough
I wish Princess Rosalina was a playable character... Anyway, I can't wait for this game to come out!
@Malkeor i understand completely. yes, the secondary non-nintendo characters mustn't overshadow the likes of mario, link, kirby and samus.
sega is my favourite games company after nintendo and i feel they have more interesting and slightly more well-known characters than namco bandai. even if they do have an inconsistent track record of hit titles.
Ah, but WHICH of the Namco Bandai teams who cooperate with Nintendo, I wonder...
super Epic
Namco-Bandai working on it...that was pretty unexpected! Hopefully they know what they are doing, graphics and gameplay wise! We will see!
Namco-Bandai? Sweet! Hopefully Pac-Man and the Dig-Dug guy will get in on the fun. Not likely, but I can hope!
Tales characters already play kind of like SSB characters in their own games.
Neutral B - DEMON FANG
Up B - TIGER BLADE
etc. etc.
I can totally see it happening.
I am extremely terrified of this news... I don't want the new smash bros to be a flop...
Seriously Epic Loved all the past ones and im sure ill love this one
Namco Bandai? Does that mean Mario vs Goku? Or Pacman? Or Sophitia? Or Godzilla? Maybe a Soul Calibur weapon version for every character? or...or... -has seizure-
@warnerdan, maybe Nintendo and Namco should bring a hault to the production of the 3DS version, because you just don't care about it. Vain much?
I'd love to see some cross-platform WiFi connection happen here, with Miiverse coming into the big picture soon. Maybe some AR card and near field technology features as well, but I'm not sure if that would end up being a bad or a good thing.
I hope they don't make it Namco X Nintendo because I will not buy that. Keep Pac-Man the hell out of this game! If they just develop it and have no say in the roster, that's fine. But if they take all the 3rd party slots for themselves with Pac-Man, Tekken or Tales of characters then this will be the first Smash Bros I do not own.
The only thing I'm excited for Namco to do is the online portion of the game as they have loads of experience with online fighters. Besides that, I would've been more than happy to wait double the time for Nintendo to work alone than to collaborate with Namco. Don't get me wrong, they make good games, they're just not the company I'd want on SSB.
both smash bros and soul calibur series are 2 different fighting games
i remembered that on the gamecube version of soul calibur 2 made by namco that came out all those years ago, link from the legend of zelda was a playable character. so for that reason alone and having had some experience in using a nintendo character in a fighting game, that perhaps namco can pull it off.
@EarthboundBenjy #72
I was thinking about that too, Emil's final smash would be his Aen sof our thing (I forgot how to spell it ).
i hope that link is in it
def going to get this if you can play with others online even if they arent on your friend list
now i know lloyd most likely will probaly be in smash bros
ok I'm noticing that everyone has seemed to overlook the fact the Namco Bandai owns the rights to...... DIGIMON! DIGIMON fighting against POKEMON! that would be AMAZING!
@Tallion #83
That was actually already mentioned: Post #3
PACMAN punching Mario in the face = WOOP!!
Hope it doesnt end up too much like tekken which is a good game but theyre different and should stay so
Anybody think they're setting this up for a megaman appearance? I sure do!
Hope this dont flop.
Hmm... I don't know for sure if this will be good but, at least Namco has plenty of experience with some form of Fighter game although not SSB. I'm fine with a few (meaning 2) Tales, Tekken, and Soul Caliber characters being in this game and I am hoping for a Mappy stage.
dont forget BOMBERMAN
I know pac mans Special move he turns every one blue and trys to eat them probably not sure
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