Sakuai On Smash Bros: “Players Don’t Know About How Hard We Work”

The fourth entry in the Super Smash Bros. series has been in the works for quite some time and Wii U owners are growing impatient. However, what a lot of gamers might not know is just how much effort goes into each installment in this popular Nintendo brawler.

In the latest issue of Famitsu, franchise director Masahiro Sakurai highlighted the incredible difficulties involved in developing a Smash Bros. game. Here's what he had to say:

When you think about three years like that, that’s the amount of time between entering middle or high school and graduating from it [in Japan]. You have all these people working their fingers to the bone to complete just a single project. The games I make tend to be played for a long time, and whether I’m satisfied with the results or there are things I’m not happy with, it always takes a lot of time to make them.

Every time, you know, I try to the point where I think I can’t go on any longer. For example, I think pretty much the limit when it comes to creating characters for a Smash Bros. is about 20, counting those from older games. We remake them completely each time, after all, and the teams and personnel and specs are all different. But we all go beyond what the work calls for because we want to do our best to retain fans of each character.

The Brawl team really put in a great effort. They remade all the original characters and added 18 completely new ones! Even with Melee before that, that game has over twice as many characters as the original. And that doesn’t include online support and the assorted other features we’ve taken pains to complete under difficult circumstances.

But the players don’t know about how hard we work. That’s not a problem because that’s the case for any product, but it’s important to remember that you can’t take anything for granted. Projects take a while, and you run into difficult and painful times. Some people have to bow out of it. To be honest, I’ve sometimes thought about what I’m earning for myself, going through all this life-changing struggle.

Makes you appreciate all the work that goes into developing a game like Smash Bros., eh? The latest entry, which will be coming to both Wii U and 3DS, will launch sometime next year.

[Via]