Masahiro Sakurai - the director and public face of the Super Smash Bros. series - is known for his tireless efforts when it comes to making video games. In a recent interview with The Guardian about Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, the 48-year-old Tokyo-based developer discussed how his gaming experiences growing up have had an influence on how he balances the competitive and casual aspects of Smash series over the years.
In the arcades, when I was younger, there was a game called King of Fighters 95, and I thought I was pretty good. I had a 50-strong win streak on Street Fighter 2 around that time. So I was playing King of Fighters once – and the way arcades are set up in Japan, you can’t really see the person you’re playing against, because you’re on opposite sides of the cabinet. I was feeling pleased with myself because I was winning, and it turned out to be a total beginner with their partner, just trying to have fun, and I thought, ‘Oh no, I shouldn’t have beaten them so badly. Now they’re going to feel like they never want to play it again!’ It’s important to think about the beginner crowd.
Sakurai has taken his arcade days into account during the development of the Super Smash Bros. games - acknowledging how competitive players and newcomers alike have helped transform the series into what it is today and grow the community:
If we were to lean towards one kind of player or the other … game development would be easier, but forgoing the pros, or forgoing the beginners, wouldn’t result in Smash as it is now, and that’s something I hold dear and important.
I realise that this is a game that lends itself to creating community. That’s something I’ve been aware of since the initial iteration on N64. I really want to continue to create something that doesn’t break or shatter that.
As much as Sakurai aims to please both types of players, he admit what he regularly thought about when watching professional Smash tournaments online:
The one thing I always think is that, if only they used more different stages and items, there’d be a lot more variety in the gameplay.
Around the time of this year's E3, Sakurai said he was cautious about focusing on top-level players, suggesting the game could become too competitive.
What do you make of Sakurai's most recent comments about the Super Smash Bros. series? Do you like a game accessible to all types of players, or would you prefer an ultra-competitive fighting experience? Tell us in the comments below.
[source theguardian.com]
Comments 17
Interesting, but I feel that overall it is impossible to accomplish that fully, because you can't really please everyone.
You see, even the community itself tears apart between casual and competitive players, but I feel that those 2 kind of people always tend to have someone to play with that also enjoy the way they play, so its not as much as it was in arcades, where it could be someone random you don't know. (excluding online, of course)
Besides, I feel that in this day and age, you will always find someone to play with, as the 2 online modes on smash for wii u showed (even though said modes still need more polishing) I think having a ranked matching system could somewhat alleviate this problem.
On his last statement, I agree partially. For smash on Wii U, I'm sick of playing on all the same 5 tournament "legal" stages. I feel that Sakurai addressed this correctly by enabling the hazards off button and having more "legal" stages.
As for Items, I guess players don't like it for the random/luck factor it produces, as well as some items being really good when you know how to abuse them, but I sometimes feel its true, as I recall Sakurai calling Smash being a party game, so I see his point by taking that away.
In the end, I think Sakurai has managed to keep that balance, as people can enjoy the series in different ways, and I don't see why people complain or make snarky comments at each other for playing and enjoying the game in the way they like it.
tl;dr see @patbacknitro18 reply. I think it's described perfectly.
I agree with his last statement, that being able to utilize more variety in the stages would make it more interesting. Hopefully having simplified versions of every stage will suffice for the hardcore crowd...because boy, am I tired of Final Destination...
With this game, it seems like his goal was for everyone to experience the game the way they want to. There are so many customization options that every style of casual and competitive player can adjust the game to their own style of play. So this truly is the Smash game for "Everyone"
"If only they used more different stages and items, there’d be a lot more variety in the gameplay."
Competitive players DO like using as many stages as possible. It's just that it took forever for the hazard toggle to be introduced so every game only had about 6 legal stages. But Ultimate finally has a hazard toggle, and this time they didn't mess up the Omega stages and Battlefield stages, so stage variety will be FAR better in this one.
I have no idea why he wants items in competitive though. Items are clearly designed to be random and chaotic, which is perfect for a casual game, but pretty unfair in a competitive game.
Nothing like playing with friends in the same sofa, a changing stage and items! 😍
@Gridatttack You’re not going to please everybody but being mindful of everyone has made Smash into one of Nintendo’s top 5 franchises despite having a large, dedicated hardcore community.
This makes me love and respect the man even more!
And as someone squarely in the casual side of Smash I really appreciate it. Smash for me is a fun game I can play with a group of friends an family members. Heck, I've even gotten to enjoy playing with random people at some conventions while sitting around between other things we wanted to do.
While I'm not into the competitive side of things at all I know there are people who it's practically everything for them, and I wouldn't want to take that away from them. One game can be a lot of different things for different people. Sakurai keeping this in mind is something I'm truly thankful for. It's impossible to please everyone, but making sure to take care of the fans at both ends of the spectrum of players seems like the best way to also take care of as many people in between as possible. Sakurai has all of my respect.
Many years ago on one of my trips to Japan I found Virtua Fighter 4 in an arcade and I was like "woah, I love Virtua Fighter, but I'll probably never get to play this game ever again!". What I didn't know is that there was a business man sitting on the other side and I had accidentally challenged him to a fight, in which he thoroughly destroyed me. I guess I learned my lesson.
Also, I love that Smursh Borts is meant for both pros and beginners. I don't have the patience or free time to analyze frames or whatever, so I just want to play for fun (like yesterday when I played online against one of my 10-year-old students and he kicked the crap out of me). But I can also appreciate the ner... fabulous people who DO have the time to become pros.
There is the single player and the multi player games. Nintendo has issues trying to please both with the one game. Mario Kart is the best at having an even balance between both. Games like Kirby fail at this, while others like Splatoon, Tennis, Party etc have poor single player modes.
Smash will be priced very high £50 plus. Will the single player mode have enough content to warrant the price? Probably not.
@bagajr What was wrong with the Omega stages in Smash 4?
@Fantasia The blast zone sizes actually differ between Omega stages, meaning that they aren't all uniform.
@Mateo_El_Goron
But they're all just FD. A lot of characters benefit from having more platforms for their combos. After all, Smash Bros. is a platform fighter.
@Luffymcduck I agree, but from a tournament perspective it is not viable to pick any Omega stage, due to the differences in blast zones. Only Omega Palutena's Temple ended up being used, since it was the only Omega stage to have the same sized blast zones as FD, but even then that stage isn't used any more as far as I know.
For friendlies and casual matches sure it doesn't really matter, but in tournaments these small differences really do matter.
@Fantasia They're all shaped slightly different, especially at the edges, and have different blast zones (and I heard a few have some glitches). When you have to memorize all these small differences for 50+ stages, it's not really worth it anymore, especially since it's just for an aesthetic change. In Ultimate, they're all exactly the same so we can finally see a variety of FD and Battlefield designs in tournament.
Nothing wrong in pursuing the middle. It's a place impossible to actually get to, but it provides great inspiration for a developer to aspire to.
On an unrelated note, I will say this, and this will likley raise the ire of every competitive Smash player out there-- I wish SSB as a series had've progressed like Mario Kart regarding the items and stage hazards. You've NEVER been able to shut them off in MK thus far, and gamers accepted MK through the years and learned how to race good AND be proficient with the items. Because of the nature of fighting games, people NEED to KNOW how go they stack up without things in the way, but I feel like MK, playing SSB "all the way" was the way it was meant to be played, but I digress as I'm aware I'm in the minority!
Ah well. I'll just focus on being versatile in all aspects I suppose... just wish I could find more everything-goes players to play.
Well, I am the type of gamer who plays Smash for the single-player. Just give me some proper single-player content!
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