It’s coming, people. There’s one more Nintendo Direct broadcast before the start of E3 and Nintendo has confirmed that Smash Bros. will be shown. I’m expecting the Wii U version to get most of the attention, but I’m sure we’ll see some 3DS-based stuff, or at least hear about some of that version’s features.
Get excited.
A press release from Nintendo has listed Super Smash Bros. as one of their games that is “coming soon”, being listed alongside titles such as Lego City Undercover: The Chase Begins, Animal Crossing: New Leaf, and Pokémon X/Pokémon Y.
This has people wondering if the game could be coming sooner than we expected. We know we’ll be seeing the first look at the game at this year’s E3 in June, but could we be playing the game before the year’s end?
Anything’s possible, I suppose. But I doubt it. I think this is one of those times where Nintendo wanted to remind the non-gaming press of the game’s existence and decided to use a very loose definition of the word “soon”. If the game’s released before the end of next year, I would be very surprised.
Masahiro Sakurai, the fellow in charge of the Smash Bros. project for the 3DS and Wii U recently spent some time with the online mode for Smash Bros. Brawl and, unfortunately, found himself disappointed:
What I found was that nobody ever went on the attack; it was like everyone was taking the approach of waiting for the other guy to take the offensive. There were no items, either. I wanted to shout at them ‘This isn’t how you do Smash Bros.’! As the producer, what do you think of fights like this?
This is something he’s taking into account with the new project though:
I’d like people to take some freer approaches with their gameplay, but the sort of battle style you describe in your letter is not interesting or fun. That’s why I’ll probably be thinking of a way to deal with that in the next game. We’ve learned a lot about net play since Brawl was released, after all, so a lot more is possible.
Although he does cut Brawl a little bit of slack:
I suppose the fact that we’ve still got no-fee online battles available in a game that was released five years ago is another cause of the problem. It would have been nice if we could have revised the game rules as appropriate, but with the system we had, that wasn’t possible.
But no matter what, this is good news for the new project. Sakurai’s not burying his head in the sand and trying to make it seem like his previous work was flawless. He’s seeking out the flaws himself and working to correct them. Since Nintendo will surely give him the time to make the game how it should be made, this will probably pay off in the end.
I doubt any developer wouldn’t want one of their characters in a Smash Bros. title, but Edmund McMillen and Tommy Refenes of Team Meat — the folks behind Super Meat Boy and The Binding of Isaac — have specifically shared that, if Nintendo were to put Meat Boy in one of the games, they would work on something for a Nintendo platform. They wouldn’t work on something exclusive for the platform, but as Refenes clarified:
If they wanted Mew-Genics or something and they could promise us Meat Boy would be in the game we’d develop Mew-Genics for them… This is how they would buy it from us. And that’s a very cheap price.
(And to further clarify, Mew-Genics is the new title they’re working on.)
But while I wouldn’t mind Meat Boy being in Smash Bros., I’m assuming there’d be no way to accurately portray him without the inclusion of blood, so I don’t see it happening. There’s also the issue of Nintendo already being fairly-restrictive when it comes to who shows up in the game’s roster. I’m sure plenty of other characters are considered a higher priority.
(via eurogamer.net)
Masahiro Sakurai, the man in charge of Smash Bros. is suffering from considerable arm pain as of late due to RSI. Aside from the pain itself being a problem, it’s also made it difficult for him to get work done. He’s turned to Twitter though to thank people for their encouraging messages, and says “don’t worry about [his] injury and Smash Bros. development”. But of course, it’s only human to hope he gets better soon.
A few weeks ago, we learned that Masahiro Sakurai — the director of the Smash Bros. series — has been dealing with RSI (Repetitive Stress Injury), and was adapting his workflow to accommodate for the pain.
Unfortunately, the situation has not improved:
Not only am I getting calcific tendonitis, but they’ve also found what are apparently several ruptures in the muscles. My upper arm hurts, and there’s this chronic dull pain in my elbow joint as well. On the lower arm, there’s this feeling of fatigue around the flexor muscles that turns into pain when I use a keyboard or game controller with my fingers.
…and:
There’s no instant cure for it, so all I can do is either block the pain with injections or put my arm in a cast to keep the ruptures from spreading. I was told that the important thing was to keep my arm as rested as possible. In order to get it fully healed, the only thing is to not use my right arm or hand. So not only am I using a trackball with my left hand; now I’m using it to eat, brush my teeth, wash my hair, and even drive as much as I’m able to.
Of course, all we can do is hope for a speedy recovery.
(via polygon.com)
Masahiro Sakurai, the man in charge of the Smash Bros. series has confirmed that, yes, it will be shown at E3 2013 for both the Wii U and the 3DS, so neither platform will be left out. I’d assume the Wii U version will still take most of the spotlight though.