Masahiro Sakurai on the New Smash Bros.

Masahiro Sakurai, the creator of the Super Smash Bros. franchise had an awful lot of info about the newly announced games for the Wii U and 3DS. WHAT?! New challenger approaching?! Could it be?? Actually, it looks like the opposite. As you’ve probably heard, Sakurai has been suffering from RSI (repetitive strain injury) for quite some time, which has been restricting his ability to work as well as his lifestyle. And with an already announced release of the new games in 2014, Sakurai certainly has a lot on his plate.

While the man has never been one to rush games (we saw Brawl delayed for quite some time), he has noted that he does feel pressured to make this new installment has good as the last. This being said, he mentioned that there is simply not enough time to add all of the characters in previous games into the new one, but he will add as many as he can. It’s perfectly understandable though; Sakurai still can make a fantastic game, there’s just not enough time to add every single character.

Adding new characters is not a simple addition – it’s really multiplication. The amount of work, adding a character is multiplied and becomes bigger and bigger as you go. We can’t because of the amount of work it takes. However, I do believe I understand that each character has its own set of fans out there who really like that character.

In lieu of the understandable cuts though, Sakurai talked a bit about the differences between the Wii U and 3DS versions. If you were looking forward to playing as Wii Fit Trainer, for example, you’re in luck! Because all of the playable characters are confirmed to be represented in both versions! Sakurai stated that he didn’t want any player to feel left out. While both versions are confirmed to look fantastic, the main visual difference will be based on the graphical limitations of the 3DS. Sakurai and his team cleverly added an outline to the characters in the 3DS version in order for them to be more visible on a handheld. The Wii U version, however, clearly is capable of increased detail and the ability to create things on a larger scale. The 3DS version is set to feature stages and arenas from handheld titles such as Nintendogs and Super Mario 3D Land (which I’ve really been having an itching to play for some reason), while the Wii U version will be based around home console games. So which one should you get? Well, Sakurai has an answer to that.

I don’t have a preference whether they own the Wii U version or the 3DS version or both versions. It’s sort of like what I talk about with the game creation philosophy itself – I really want the end user, the game player themselves, to find what they like and really just go with that.

The final bit of information Sakurai had on the new Smash Bros revolved around what exactly differentiated it from previous installments, rather than from each other. Smash Bros is a little like Mario Kart to me. A new one comes out with every new generation of home consoles, each with new additions or fun little add-ons. But when you look at this one, oh boy, it’s going to stand out! Especially knowing that it was originally only planned for the 3DS! Adding new characters and stages was not enough to evolve the series this time around, so Sakurai sat down with president Satoru Iwata and decided on making a handheld Smash!

At that time, we could have chosen to develop a 3DS version only, but we realized the presence of several limitations. I am referring to the fact of playing a game like Super Smash Bros on a small screen. Thus, even if it is not easy to develop two versions simultaneously, we chose to adapt the game experience to the specifications of each platform.

All this new information has got this Nintendo fanboy rather excited! I don’t know about you, but I think I’m a bit more excited that the franchise is coming to 3DS than to Wii U. I mean, the Wii U one was almost a guarantee. But for handheld? That’s pretty awesome. I can be sitting there on an airplane playing Smash Bros! SWEET. I’d love to know what you think though! Are you excited about the new developments? What do you think about the limited amount of characters?