For the Super Smash Bros. community, the name Masahiro Sakurai is pretty well-known. He is the creator of the series, and has managed development of all of its entries since its very beginning during the Nintendo 64 era. He recently did an interview with Game Informer, where he says that he doesn’t think that he himself will make another Super Smash Bros. game. Masahiro Sakurai has also said that he has a medical condition in his left arm, which makes it painful for him to use a controller. This is a horrible thing for any gamer, as you can imagine!
Developing a game like Super Smash Bros., with crazy amounts of features and content, comes at a price. They will spend many long hours and plenty of overtime working on the game. Sakurai says this has worn him down over the years of working on the series. Releasing a Super Smash Bros. game that isn’t as packed to the brim with features and content as the new one on the Wii U would likely spark outrage among fans. This, Sakurai says, ended up tightening the noose around his neck. This is why the current pair of new Super Smash Bros. games may be his last.
Here is some of what Sakurai had to say in his recent interview:
“I can’t positively declare there won’t be another Smash Bros. game. With both Melee and Brawl, I made those games with the thought that there wouldn’t be any more sequels. Thus, I really can’t deny the chance for another. However, as for myself, I don’t think there will be.
Our intention with Super Smash Bros. for Wii U was to provide extra merits to the game which go far beyond the sale price.
You could say that all the effort in the past to stretch out, keep pushing myself, and provide all these extra merits wound up tightening the noose around my neck in the future.
That may seem like it contradicts my personal desire to keep giving gamers as much as I can, but I don’t see any easy answer for it. And yet, despite that, I also have trouble picturing someone else taking my place and providing all this value-added content without me.”
Though Sakurai thinks that he himself is unlikely to make another Super Smash Bros. game in the future, he has not ruled out the possibility of someone else taking the reins in his place when the time comes for another entry in the series. It seems it would be crazy for Nintendo to not release a new Super Smash Bros. game on whatever their next system is, especially considering the great successes the series has had.
You may recall that Sakurai said he was done after Super Smash Bros. Brawl was released, but then he did make us another entry in the series. The next few years may give him enough rest that he might be up to it again when the time comes, but only he will know for sure. We will just have to wait and see, but either way, he has built quite a legacy in the form of Super Smash Bros.
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