MASAHIRO SAKURAI

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.

In the past, I worked for HAL, and when working there, I had limitations and had restrictions on what I could create. They wanted me to make the next 'Smash Bros.' and the next 'Kirby,' and that wasn't the place for me.

We do various kinds of research during the planning stage. We consider the inclusion of characters that feature in games being developed at the same time, are highly requested by users, and are popular within their series. We then think about how they could be unique if they were to appear in 'Super Smash Bros.'

'Smash Bros.' features a slew of modes as well, but we didn't create them all under the idea that we want gamers to try every single one of them. I think it's just fine if gamers enjoy the aspects of the game they like. It's kind of a buffet-style approach.

I was striving to become an engineer, but something happened that made me think, 'Maybe I can make games instead.'

I don't think I've ever made something that I'm totally satisfied with. That feeling of doubt, or wanting to do more, is my engine to move forward and make the next iteration.

A game's concept is one of its most important assets. I feel that we must aim to satisfy both beginners and experts, and that hasn't changed since I was making 'Kirby' games.

If 'Smash Bros.' were set up to appeal to experts too much and became something like a modern fighter, I think that would raise serious questions about the game's future.

I went out of my way to play games I didn't like or find interesting. Those ended up being a lot more informative for me. At home, I have literally thousands of games, and I think of them as pearls of wisdom from my predecessors.

I've never made a game for a high-definition platform. That's definitely something I'm interested in.

Before there was even an official naming of the 3DS, or before it was even decided that there would be 3-D capabilities, Mr. Iwata had brought up the topic of a new portable gaming system, and with that, the request to create a new title for that system... The topic of Kid Icarus came up.

Game development is very difficult. Nobody sets out to create a game that's not fun. It's all of the challenges and difficulties that happen throughout development that determine whether a game is a failure or a success. I think playing those thousands of games is the single best and easiest way to learn from my predecessors.

I used to work at HAL, where I made 'Kirby' and 'Smash Bros.' After that, I became an independent designer, but I didn't have my own team.

Providing accurate portrayals of characters is something I want to pay ample attention to.

I work from mornings to late nights, even on weekends and holidays. I hardly have any free time, let alone time to play other games.

It was a pleasure working with Q Entertainment. I don't focus on working with one company but rather with multiple companies, and I look forward to working with others.

What I can say now about paid DLC is that we aren't working on anything at the moment. We've put all our efforts into making the actual game. Creating DLC would involve large additional costs and require the involvement of a lot of people.

You can only truly wow a player the first time he sees [a cutscene]. I felt if players saw the cutscenes outside of the game, they would no longer serve as rewards for playing the game, so I've decided against having them.

It's fun making new skills for new characters.

So I created a tool for you to do just that. With the Mii Fighter creator you can have any character you want join the battle.

I'm not depressed and I continue to remain healthy and positive, but developing 'Smash Bros.' is beyond hard.

In terms of scope, and in terms of sheer number of characters, we went beyond our limits long ago.

The pain goes away, but your work always remains.

You never know what's going to happen in this world. I'll just keep my mouth shut. That's a good idea.

If tournament popularity was the most important consideration, then I think we would create a Smash Bros game that included a multitude of fast moves with complicated controls. However, I believe this is actually the greatest shortcoming of fighting games at present, and that is the reason why I don’t do it.