Sakurai Talks 3rd Party Collaborations in Super Smash Bros Ultimate

For the first two Super Smash Bros titles, the only characters that were brought into the mix were 1st party Nintendo characters from the systems or handhelds that had been done by Nintendo in the past. Some character inclusions were obscure, but, they were still Nintendo. In the third entry, Brawl, that changed, for Solid Snake from Metal Gear Solid, and Sonic The Hedgehog were brought into the game. The Wii U/3DS titles added even more 3rd party characters, and now, Super Smash Bros Ultimate has done the same.

All told, Nintendo is now working with Bandai Namco, Capcom, Square Enix, Konami, Atlus, and SEGA in order to bring all of these third party characters to Ultimate. Leaving many to wonder how this all comes together. In an interview with Edge Magazine, Smash Bros co-creator Masahiro Sakurai spoke about the process:

“There are cases where I will meet with the original creators myself once or twice, but in general communication is carried out through Nintendo.”

Sakurai went on to note that one of the hardest things to do is make a character and have them fit both the style of Smash Bros, all the while, being true to who they are as characters:

We’ve made various changes so that both cartoonish and realistic characters can appear on the same screen together with it seeming natural, and the characters still looking cool. Character movements are also developed with a Smash Bros. style first. The end result from this is then passed on for review by the other companies, so they can point out any problems for us to fix. Though there might be differences in what is regarded as acceptable in terms of Smash Bros. and in terms of the original series, in the end we try to find something that both sides will be happy with.

Given the popularity of the series, and the already million-fold sales of Super Smash Bros Ultimate, it’s safe to say that Sakurai, Nintendo, and these 3rd parties have done a good job.