Famitsu Interview Hints That Masahiro Sakurai Could Step Back From Directing Games

I think a Smash game without Sakurai as director would be a good game too, as long as he's consulting. But most important is his health here, ofcourse.

Now Sakurai can joined Miyamoto and Aonuma as the 3 sages of Nintendo.

Good God people, stop begging for a port of Smash 4, beg for a brand new installment with new and exciting things that it could bring to the table!

Good, the man could use a break

@Azikira A Smash 4 port with all the DLC would be utterly massive, though. I fail to see how a new game would be anything other than a downgrade from what a remaster would already provide.

I wish he would do a new kid Icarus uprising games first!!

@Yorumi
100% this. His overreach into all aspects of its development harms him and the game.

Just help make Kid Icarus for Switch. That's all I ask.

I felt as though this was a long time coming. I love the Sakurai directed smash games (he's been doing great so far imo) but purely from a health standpoint I feel him stepping down from the director role was inevitable. Now I'm curious who they'll get to direct the next smash bros.

A much needed rest for another legend, except that Sakurai is a younger legend.

Smash will still be amazing I'm sure even after his departure as director especially since he'll continue as a consultant but I feel a big part of Smash will go away once he's gone, he gave Smash his 110%, I doubt a succeeding director can achieve even 90% of that...

Aww, I'll miss him in the director's chair, but he was running himself into the ground. No job even one you love is worth that.

@aaronsullivan
Yeah. Let's get a nice 2D one this time. Maybe like how Super Metroid was to the original Metroid. Let's get a Super Kid Icarus.

Has he had a long luxurious vacation since he made Super Smash Brothers for the Wii U and the 3DS? That is what he should do before anything else. That’s what would like to see him do. He is an excellent game director but we don’t need him to ruin himself!

@Ralizah I wholeheartedly agree. Smash 4 is such a complete and nearly perfect game. Starting from scratch doesn’t make any sense, especially considering the huge amounts of development time necessary. Just add several more characters in stages and I will be just as happy.

@Azikira What could a brand new game bring to the table, exactly? And whatever new features you’re thinking about could just be added to and enhanced port, couldn’t they? You do realize games in this series take years and years of development, correct? And the end product will be pretty much the same thing. I would rather get Smash this year than wait until 2020.

I hate it when I get burnt out making overrated games.

@thesilverbrick All DLC and all stages from both version. Smash Run from the 3DS version. And, who knows, maybe an extra character or two as incentive for the people who bought most of the DLC. It'll be fantastic and pull in a ton of money for relatively little in terms of development costs.

@Yorumi I don't know about that. I mean it's true, he holds some things back. But OTOH, it's that kind of restraint to say "this is what the game should be, and giving people what they want will break it" that the industry lacks, and keeps games like his at the top. Those limitations are sometimes what makes it good, even if we gripe about them.

@thesilverbrick A proper singleplayer campaign would be awesome. The concept of Subspace Emissary was cool even though the implementation was lacking, just bring someone who can tell a really cool coherent plot (even with all the shenanigans going with characters from all franchises) and something like an expanded Smash Run from the 3DS ( just make the enemies less annoying) and then you have something “new” to offer.

Hell make it metroidvania so there are some hard reaching or obscure places where you could unlock secret characters.

@Kmno That sounds like a great idea. But the thing is, that could be simply added into the existing Smash 4 we know. Rather than rebuilding 58 characters from the ground up and starting from scratch, why not use what you already have and just expand upon it? In the end, we would get so much more content.

@Ralizah I agree. Make this the definitive version of Smash 4. It would be foolish not to include a couple more characters, especially since it could provide sales synergy with other IPs. An Inkling in Smash is overdue, and I’d love to see Springman, too.

Smash 4 Switch would give us what we want and would give Sakurai a nice break for this console generation. Honestly if we don't get a port we probably won't get anything for another 3 years.

If they do a Smash 4 Deluxe and decide to add a few new characters, I'd love to see the Inklings, Dixie Kong, and Cranky Kong. I'd also love to see Solid Snake return, and IF they can add another third party character PLEASE let it be Bomberman. ( OR GENO! PLEASE LET IT BE GENO!! )

@Phle He did, and he played Xenoblade 2 in his break.

Even If they make a port I wont buy it,I'll wait for a new Smash bros.

I want a new director for Smash. Sakurai has done overall a great job with the series but there are features or lack of them I dislike too, like the reduced hitstun in later titles that limit combo potential, rage in Smash4 and not having story mode in Smash4 because of leaked cutscenes in the previous game. It'll be interesting to see where the series go from here with such a ridiculously massive roster featured in Smash4.

Also bring wavedashing back. They can make it easier to perform like Dan Fornace's team has done in Rivals of Aether compared to Melee (or that's how I think).

I'm sorry but smash 5 would be the same as smash 4 only because not many other Nintendo characters are left to add to the roster. They could add some new stages but most of smash 4s stages would make up the bulk of the game. The only worthwhile change I could see added is a good storymode. My point is that like madden, fighting games in general, would be better off receiving dlc add ons, instead of full blown sequels in most cases. Not sure, but I heard there was initially a story mode for smash 4 and if they added it to the port on the switch it would be enough for people to stop complaining. I'd personally be happy with a smash port and yearly additions to the game.

@Ralizah The same argument could be made for a Super Mario Galaxy 1/2 deluxe port or a Super Mario 3D World port. Just add a few new stars, slap on a $80 price tag, and call it a day. Why incur all the huge development costs?

But I think everyone reading this is glad they made Super Mario Odyssey instead. Sometimes it's better to provide the consumers with a superior product rather than one that's cheaper to make.

@Euler Poor comparison. Every 3D Mario game is VERY distinctive in its own right and offers something the other games in the series don't.

Moreover, my point is entirely that, at this point, a new game WOULDN'T offer consumers a superior product. It wouldn't have nearly as much content as Smash 4 does.

I'm not saying that they shouldn't eventually develop a Smash 5, but, right now, a remastered version of Smash 4 would make a lot more sense. There's a lot of life left in it. Especially for the masses of people who likely never purchased the DLC.

Kid Icarus Uprising is possibly my favourite 1st party game from last gen so I would rather see Sakurai either direct a sequel or do something entirely new.
He has so much more to offer Nintendo than rebalancing Smash Bros every generation.

I'd rather have SB4 with better Single Player content + DLC than a whole new game with similar modes to 4. The core mechanics were perfect for my skill level.

Well if they make a new Smash game then I hope they make it a bit more competitive. I like 4 but it still didn't deliver the satisfaction of a certain past game.

@thesilverbrick
I agree but they really didn't expand much on MK8D. I wish they would release the smash 4 port with a few new characters/stages and just treat it as a new game supporting it with DLC

@Obitokamui64 That would be ideal. I’d love to see them just take what they already have and continue to expand it. There’s no point scrapping it all and starting over. If they started from the ground up we would just get characters and stages cut, plus we would have to wait quite a while to play it.

He was in physical pain while developing Smash Wii U/3DS, so I can see why he'd want to step back as the series director.

I'd totally go for a Sm4sh remaster, as long as it combines the two games and adds a couple other things. That would be perfect.

Also, can someone remind me why developing Sm4sh was such a massively physically demanding undertaking on Sakurai? I've forgotten.

@dew12333 I agree. That was perhaps my favorite game on my 3DS and I would love more of it.

Seeing as he and his team were too lazy and or stupid to add the Shiny versions of the Pokemon as alternate costumes it might just be for the best if he were to stay in the background for the next game. And let's not forget about the lack of the amiibo costumes that could've been used as alternate costumes for Bayonetta. So much wasted potential that the man's too ignorant to see.

@Timsworld Dude, seriously. What is your malfunction? "too stupid and lazy" ? You're insanely ignorant of reality, and if that's your attitude, you don't deserve anything you want. It's repulsive.

Anyway, the thought of a Smash without Sakurai does kinda bum me out because i feel like he 'gets' the majority of what makes each Nintendo bit great in terms of presentation. That said, Nintendo's been doing a great job reinventing a lot of it's core franchises lately. Maybe a fresh pair of eyes can help do some neat things to the series!

@Yorumi Your observations are woefully inaccurate.
"Tripping punishes skill" is incorrect. Tripping is a goofy mechanic that helps make the game more chaotic and goofy, which was -always- Smash Bros.'s strongest identity. An option to disable it would have been nice, sure, but he knew exactly what he was doing with it.
"No subspace emissary" isn't (solely) because it'll just be put into YouTube... It's because it was an unsuccesful experiment, in his eyes. I feel that mode proved that the series really doesn't fit a single player platforming narrative well at all, and if the only thing to do passed mediocre gameplay is have cutscenes, then why spend the enormous amount of time and resources on it at all? Anyone who played that mode (we'll say 99.99% because I'm sure you'll say "NOT ME") only played through that once to unlock everything, and never really looked back as Smash is a Multi-Player focussed game, and always has been. If anything should be cut for time and money, it's single-player.
Sorry the guy who makes these games likes Fire Emblem, I guess? I mean, you're not complaining about the 9 Mario Bros. characters... Plus, every Fire Emblem character added is relevant at the time they were added, so why is it a bad thing to add them? They all make sense, they're super popular, and besides Marth and Lucina, they're all wholly unique and fun so who cares where they came from? Stop adding pokemon too, I guess, because soon there's too many of them, right? That makes sense, right?

@DrRandle The only ignorant ones around here are Sakurai and his team. Didn't he claim that he always tries to stay as close to the source material of a character as possible? Boy oh boy what a great lie that was.

@Yorumi I'm not sure how much of that is Sakurai failing. Tripping...yeah...but it's broader than Sakurai. It's a Nintendo core philosophy. Like blue shells "life isn't fair"....they have a core company identity revolving around luck overriding pure skill to ensure it's chaotic and not too serious. Arms' producer (Also MK producer) said they don't want a situation where doing the same thing over and over can always lead to success, they dont want it to be predictable where relying on practiced skill always works. I disagree with that but it's a broad concept within all Nintendo.

I'm still annoyed at Subspace Emissary though. That was the best part of Brawl. Sure, it was just a Kirby game....but it was so awesome. I was really disappointed ot the point of not caring much about Smash 4 without it.

Still, I wonder if Smash would retain its gravitas without his direction. Stilted or not, his will is what defines what made it a success so far. (I will never forgive him for the controls if Kid Icarus: Uprising though.....)

@DrRandle Subspace Emissary wasn't just about single player though. The thing that made it great was the coop. Smash-ing through those very cool platform stages with a coop player was pure fun, and really reinforced the party brawler identity of the game versus trying too hard to be a PvP fighter. Let's face it, it's not Tekken. Subspace brought out what makes it great.

@Yorumi There's another factor in the hollowing of Smash 4. We didn't know during development just how bad Iwata's condition was at the time. And he was kind of the co-architect of Smash.....technically the entire thing was his idea from the start. So for the first time Sakurai was mostly on his own without Iwata's close assistance, official or unofficial, at least for the second half of development.

Add that to Sakurai being a primadonna, and in tons of pain during development...plus doing 2 versions at once....yeah...he probably underdelivered.

Mario Kart and Super Smash Bros. were always meant to be fun party games. They require skill, but they're not designed to be competitive e-sports. They should be judged in that context, not by people who are trying to make them into something they're not. I don't really think random tripping adds much to the game, but it's ridiculous to say that makes Brawl a bad game or unplayable. And saying Nintendo "punishes skill" is a strange argument. They generally don't like Kaizo-style techniques that require bizarre button combinations and split-second timing (which is why they removed wavedashing, snaking, etc). But that doesn't change the fact "Nintendo Hard" has become such a widespread term that it has its own Tvtropes page. There's no shortage of skill-based challenges if you know where to look.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NintendoHard

Poker, Backgammon, and Bridge all involve a lot of random chance but that doesn't mean they aren't games of skill.

@Ralizah The fact that both Melee and Smash 4 will be featured in Evo, whereas Brawl is extremely unpopular with neckbeards, strongly suggests each Super Smash Bros. game is distinctive in its own right and offers something other games in the series doesn't. If they added 20 new stages or so, new event matches, a new single-player campaign, some innovative new modes and gameplay mechanics (Final Smashes, Subspace Emissary, Smash Run, 8-player smash - think along those lines) and at least 10 new characters it would feel fresh. They seem to have gotten the physics engine right, so they wouldn't have to develop that from scratch at least.

And I don't know how you can presume it wouldn't have nearly as much content as Smash 4. It's a game we know nothing about. It's possible that they haven't started development yet. It's possible that they've been secretly working on it for the past three years (much like they did with Odyssey). For reference, though, Smash 4 (which was actually two games) only took them two and a half years years to develop. So I'm not really seeing a reason why we wouldn't be able to have Smash 5 by mid-cycle (2019-2020). After Metroid Prime 4 and Pokemon Male/Female (working title) come out (likely within the next 12 months), they'll need some more E-ticket games. Especially with the PS5 likely to launch somewhere within that timeframe.

@Ralizah agree on mostly everything you said, although I feel free to correct this one for you (#28):

“I'm not saying that they shouldn't eventually develop a Smash 5, but, right now, a remastered version of Smash 4 would make a lot more sense. There's a lot of life left in it. Especially for the masses of people who likely never purchased THE ORIGINAL GAME AS THEY SURE AS HELL NEVER HAD A WII U LIKE US VISITING THIS SITE.”
You’re welcome 😉

P.S.: I know it’s on 3DS too (in fact I only have that version ‘cause portability), but if it ever came to the Switch, that version would obviously be more comparable with the Wii U one than the 3DS one.
Also, I think that if you only had it on 3DS like me you’re more likely to double dip, as it’d mean a huge step forward. I for one will be surely buying it on the Switch too, if it were to happen; mind that it’d mark my first double dip ever (Smash is just that good).

...yet not good enough for you to buy it when it was actually new.

@thesilverbrick
I agree. Maybe they will have something to say about smash at e3.

@DrRandle if no one ever replayed Subspace Emissary then why do so many people ask for it? I’ve replayed through it and know several friends who did, even if Smash is multiplayer focused doesn’t mean next to no one enjoyed the single player modes. Don’t project your own views.

@Saego but did he post a “chillin’ on the beach in the sun and sipping on a cool smoothie with a parasol”- picture? I just feel like gaming could easily turn slightly work-related for him...

@ShadJV You're the ones projecting YOUR views. You say "everyone I know" like it's more than a handful of the millions of people that owned Smash. You're in the minority because most people rarely /finish/ single player campaigns in games, statistics I can prove if you'd like me to, much less play them again. Smash is a Multi-Player focused game, it always has been, and always will be. Everything else is bonus content.

@NEStalgia Subspace was not particularly great. It showed why not every character was designed to be in anything other than a fighting game. Nobody's playing single player co-op on EVO stages.

@Timsworld I just pity you. that's all I have left to say. You don't deserve games.

@Yorumi Yeah, people being overly ridiculous and ungrateful little punks makes me angry. It's a character flaw of mine.

@DrRandle Why so? Because I ain't a sheep who blindly accepts any and everything that's thrown his way?

@DrRandle And what percentage of the Smash customer base plays at EVO? Even looking beyond that a great many folks at EVO don't accept Smash as a fighting game versus a party brawler to begin with....

Subspace highlighted its strength as a party brawler fantastically, and was indeed multiplayer focused via coop. If I wanted serious hardcore 1v1 fighting I'd boot SFIIU, or the upcoming SF collection. Heck, even Pokken. Maybe even ARMS. Smash is something else. Which is what makes it special, but it's something different than a core fighter. Subspace did much better a job highlighting that than the silly board game on WiiU. The 3DS special mode at least felt usable as a subspace replacement than that board game.

@Azikira I think we all want them to have as much time as possible to do the best possible 5 they can. Giving us a port of 4, with some additions, is a great way for everyone to be happy.

@DrRandle where did I say “everyone I know”? You’re grasping in your argument and have too many fallacies to name here. I’m not even going to dignify this conversation with any further response because clearly you either are a troll or just too stubborn to have logical conversation with. Have a good day.

@Timsworld Holy hell, you actually used the word 'sheep' to describe people. You are now a caricature of a terrible human being. You are utterly without remorse in both your ignorance and heartlessness.

@ShadJV "I’ve replayed through it and know several friends who did," You're right, sorry, it wasn't everyone you know, it was the few people who could tolerate somebody like you long enough to be in the same room, which, to my point you clearly missed, is not at all remotely close to representative of the Smash Bros. player base. And in case you think that's not enough, you'll be hard pressed to find a single review of that game that doesn't mention how actively not great that mode is. I mean I don't know what you think your microcosm represents, but I'm talking reality.

@DrRandle Boo hoo. Can't handle the harsh truth I see. How pathetic. Go cry somewhere else fool. I do not need to hear it.

@Dang69 Personally speaking, as someone that bought all the original with all the DLC, that would dissuade me from ever buying a Switch. It most certainly would not make everyone happy.

I’d rather have a new smash than a remastered version but we are getting a remastered everything on switch so a remastered smash is probably what we will get.

@rdrunner1178 I could enjoy that. I like the original. Honestly, though, a sequel to the 3DS game could really shine on the Switch with some refinement and dual analog instead of the stylus control.

@Euler Well boo hoo - you and I both know MOST people would be happy to double dip even if they had all previous DLC. It's all anyone has been talking about for a year.

@Dang69 You said ‘everyone’ before, not most people. Clearly not everyone would be happy with a rehashed Smash 4 and a significantly delayed Smash 5.

An Internet forum is not representative of the market as a whole. People with stronger opinions and more extreme positions are more likely to comment on them.

@Euler Everyone never means everyone unless you say "literally" everyone, in casual convo - but, in this case, by "everyone being happy" I meant, "everyone who wants it now will be happy with getting a port", "everyone who wants a new Smash and not a port will be happy that Nintendo will not have to rush the next game out to fill a franchise hole".

Maybe that's a good thing. In my opinion the Smash series needs a new lick of paint, otherwise it gets stale. And I want a new big single-player with cutscenes please!

Also, Sakurai put to many Fire emblem characters in it. King Rool would have deserved it more, to name one character!