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Sakurai Teases Smash Bros Fans With Elaborate Whiteboard Drawing

Super Smash Bros creator, Masahiro Sakurai Tweeted the above image and proclaimed “This is what our staff drew on the white board. It’s good!” Sakurai revealed a few weeks back that the team is collaborating with Namco Bandai to help develop the next Smash Bros game for both Wii U and Nintendo 3DS.

218 thoughts on “Sakurai Teases Smash Bros Fans With Elaborate Whiteboard Drawing”

  1. sakurai is a fool. what he’s doing with smash bros 4 is a big mistake, and with the team dicking around and drawing like this over working on the game shows you how he manages his development team. poorly.

    1. You’re right, because drawing has NOTHING to do with creating video games! ESPECIALLY not when it comes to creative development and marketing to pleas your target audience! Nooo, of course not.

      1. Yea it does, how do you think designs were created, this might be a initialception of the wallpaper art

    2. You’re a big mistake. – Namco Bandai will make this game good, and you can go suck on it, because you don’t have a say in who makes this game!!

    3. wow, Staff needs to have some fun too. Game Developing isn’t all fun, it’s stressbuilding. Things like these happen in almost EVERY company. STFU.

    4. Olalu the Aerosmith

      Yeah i never liked sakurai.. On top of the fact that he looks like a girl i never liked how he makes his games these days.. Fucked up controls and shit..

    5. Dude, the first step for doing a game is the artwork! :) We might see something made on a Computer soon! :D

      1. exactly, you gotta learn how to crawl before you learn how to run not run then crawl. besides the drawing will give them some inspiration and look back and think how they can improve. and agree i what Pokeneon7 says, goofing around promotes ideas and relieves stress.

    6. so here we have Masahiro Sakurai, extremely successful and loved game developer that made smash bros, kirby and more. you on the other hand know fuck all about anything worth knowing, why do you think anyone cares about you? stop being negative, look forward to this game

    7. If whiteboard drawings aren’t allowed from the game developers while they are working their games, then why are you not bashing Reverge Labs and their Whiteboard Wednesdays? They doodle WEEKLY while working on Skullgirls! Not that I’m complaining, I enjoy good teases like this.

      1. i was gana mestiont he skull girls white board thing but dotn think that most ppl on here no of it

    8. As a guy who has been in game development teams, I can tell that you truly do not understand how managing a development team works. You seem to be under the impression that Sakurai is a fool for letting his team express imagination and have fun while working. It sounds to me like if you were the one running the team, you would be way too strict with the team. True, you need to be strict to a certain extent, but not so much that it ruins the fun of making games. Game Development can be a very stressful job, take it from the guy who’s done it before. You can’t let the stressful part of the job overwhelm the workers. They chose that field because they enjoy it. Let them enjoy it. It only boosts the fun factor of making games, and the more the developers enjoy the job, the better the final game is going to be when it reaches gold.

    9. Have you ever been to any type of entertainment studio? There’s stuff like this everywhere. It’s not that easy developing when your under stress so sometimes you just need to let it go with some positive expression. I actually have a mutual tie w/ the movie industry and I’ve actually seen the inside of an animation studio and there’s a lot more than just fun drawings like this around.

      1. And sleeping? Forget about it. And don’t even think about seeing their family or general human interaction. Everyone should be handcuffed into an individual soundproof cubicle until the game is done.

        1. Might as well shove them into a matrix, so they can work 24/7, and bring the game out in 3 months

    10. Seeing as how these are all artists and probably draw on paper before they get put on a computer, this picture probably took around 15 minutes to do with multiple people…maybe.

      HOW DARE THEY TAKE A BREAK OR POSSIBLY DO WHAT THE WANT ON THEIR LUNCH BREAK!! HOW DARE THEY HAVE A POSITIVE WORK ENVIRONMENT!! CUUUURSE YOU AND YOUR FUNTIIIIIIIIIIIIMES!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!!!!

    11. Lol, fucking idiotic statement. They ALWAYS make drawings.
      They can’t simply jump into the character designs.
      Be glad they show you a little of what’s going on you fucktard.

    12. I’m starting to really hate piece of shit gamers like you that do nothing but complain about a developers work. Do you have a bachelor’s or Master’s degree in gaming? Do you do anything to create a video game. No so Shut th Fuck up you ungrateful shithead cuz none of these developers have to make games for us

    13. It’s a little sad that in this day and age, dozens of people *still* don’t know not to feed the troll. :(

      In any case, I guess the reason the first three Smash Bros. games were such hits is because Sakurai doesn’t know how to manage a development team. Yup, that makes perfect sense.

    14. And people wonder why I get so sensitive to criticism when people like this douchebag are allowed to be ignorant.

    15. This could be an idea for the box art, idiot, but I do agree that I think he’s making a mistake by the possibility of not adding new characters.

    16. PhantomBowser16 on twitter

      Yeah, because the couple of hours they spent making this whiteboard drawing would have had such a huge effect on a game that’ll take several years to complete!

      1. When something is so exiting it gives you a heart attack. Hnnggg is apparently the sound of someone having a heart attack.

        1. i still cant believe that sakurai wont put new characters.I was waiting for some brand new characters.Nintendo has dissapointed me again :(.

            1. i wouldn’t be surprised if they put in one or two as a nod to Namco Bandai, but if they can do something really innovative with the franchise, I would be willing to overlook the lack of new characters.

    1. They can change whatever they want to about luigi, but as long as I can see his goofy run and punc, I’ll be happy.

  2. Pingback: Zelda Sanctuary » Sakurai Teases Super Smash Bros. Fans With a Whiteboard Drawing - Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, Zelda Wii, Zelda 3DS, Walkthroughs, Guides, and News!

    1. ^ This

      Im excited to see what theyll do with the campaign, Subspace was okay, but they need to have more depth into it

      1. Agreed. Although Subspace really did have a lot to it. It just wasn’t all explained in the canpaign itself. I’ve started reading the wiki for the story and its quite a bit deeper than I originally thought.

        1. It doesnt help that NO-ONE TALKS. Seriously, Link andario dont need to talk, but they need to make every other character talk. Even Kirby talks in the awesome tv show

    2. Actually, instead of a super “epic” campaign, what I think would be the best for smash would an Adventure mode only based on levels from the actual characters games. Kind of like the side-scrolling levels from Melee (Mario, Zelda, F-Zero ones) only more expansive, more daft. Give me levels inspired by the unique moments in all Nintendo franchises, or atleast levels which would follow the worlds which the characters are from. Give me a Kirby level in King Dededes castle or in the clouds. A Star Fox level featuring running across a mothership or space debris. The obvious Mario ones, Zelda, Donkey Kong-preferrably from Country- as many Nintendo games as possible without being overkill. Maybe even more Niche levels like Toy Castle from Wario Land 4. And I’m talking about the enemies too. This may seem like alot to ask for, but this would be much more excellent then the Subspace Emmisionary campaign with generic enemys and enviroments. One of the focal points of the Smash Bros. franchise has always been uniting unique elements together from the plethora of awesome Nintendo games. The Adventure mode should do the same, even if it is short but sweet.

      1. Thats a point i was gona make but wouldnt taken too long haha i know though, the levels in subspace didnt even look like it was part of the universe, just cliffs. Grass. Cloud. Lab.
        I want to see the Mushroom Kingdom, and a Space station with Samus, and Hyrule.

        1. How about this? Combine the Nintendo-themed levels like Melee, yet give it a story and the Subspace enemies like Brawl? I actually like the Subspace Emissary for what it is.

          1. Didn’t I say this a couple days ago? Besides samus needs some partial nudity, you know, Ass, boobs, you know? Seriously sakurai I will fucking punch you if samus does not have larger thingies!!

              1. Like, really! If I wanna put my hand down my pants I have to have SOMETHING to look at! Not some tiny tittage!

                1. Talk about insulting Samus’s dignity. Even Team Ninja knew better. And yet you think Namco Bandai should do it even though Team Ninja does it more often? And yet Team Ninja left Samus still full of dignity?

                  Honestly, it’s like you want to forever tarnish Samus’s image.

                  1. Er no. As much as I hate to say it, if Team Ninja had Samus in a thong but still acting liker herself it would have actually been less degrading then what they DID do to her in Other M. Cause at least she’d still be in character. In Other M there was no fan service at all but they still ruined it by making her act way, WAY out of character and be weak instead of strong. In some ways it not only proves there are ways to be sexist other then “objectifying” women but it also proves you can do it in worse ways. They turned her into a little girl who freezes in combat. Again as much as I hate to say it it would have been less degrading having her run around in a thong if she was still acting like the Samus we all know and love.

                    And Samus isn’t a stranger to being sexy, Nintendo has been doing it for years, I mean her zero suit shows off the size and shape of her butt not to mention her curves. The difference between Nintendo and Team Ninja is Nintendo knows not to cross the line. Sexy is not sexist, it’s just harmless fun and cheescake, it’s when you go too far with it that it stops being fun and ends up being creepy and hateful.

                    It’s werid but in a way both use the sex sells thing but Nintendo knows sex sells when done well, I.E. don’t go too far. Make it sexy but not too much. Team Ninja sadly doesn’t know that line and in trying to avoid it in Other M they just proved that they have a bigger issue with women then just sex, they think they are all weak emotional.

                    And it’s not like Samus would never express herself sexually, there’s nothing wrong with a strong women doing that. Hell plenty do it in real life.

                    But there is a time and place, on a date yeah I can see Samus being a tease and enjoy the power of making men flustered, but on a mission she would not do that, she would be dead serious cause she knows its a life and death situation.

                  1. Yeah, well, even developers who’ve sexualized their own characters know better to respect others’ characters.

                    This is coming from someone whose played a majority of Metroid games in less than a year. (sans Metroid II, Fusion, Prime 2, and Prime 3)

                    Even Team Ninja knew better than those fan pictures. Talk about some undignified fans to ruin Samus’s dignity from their perspective.

                    1. That’s fan art, Nintendo has no control over what their fans draw. You can go out of your way to not sexualize a character at all (male or female) and someone out there will still find them attractive either draw draw dirty pics of them or ask or pay someone to do it.

                      Rule 34 is proof of this, men and women can be attracted to almost anything. You can’t control other peoples urges.

                  2. That’s fan art, Nintendo has no control over what their fans draw. You can go out of your way to not sexualize a character at all (male or female) and someone out there will still find them attractive either draw draw dirty pics of them or ask or pay someone to do it.

                    Rule 34 is proof of this, men and women can be attracted to almost anything. You can’t control other peoples urges.

  3. What would be funny is if this turns out to be the officially box artwork for the game. Now that would be pretty cool. Besides, I got a feeling that maybe someone like one of the new Captains from Pikmin 3 or The President of Hocotate Freight will replace Olimar in this game since there’s just a Red Flower Pikmin on there.

    1. i seriously hope sakurai doesn’t listen to the retards who thought ike was overpowered in brawl when he was actually underpowered.

      ima be very disappointed if they nerfed a character like ike when he was in more need of being buffed, seriously only retards get hit consistently by ike’s forward smash up smash and quick draw moves. these moves are so damn slow that it doesn’t matter hwo much “physical power” they pack behind em, they’re pitifully easy to dodge.

      if you get hit by ike’s forward and up smashes, and quick draws all the time, you’re a bad player and you should feel bad, learn to dodge the most easy to avoid moves in the game.

  4. He better put some damn good characters in this game! I want Ryu, and Ken, and he needs to get rid of Olimar! He sucks. I also forms for characters like Wolf link and paper mario.

    1. Ryu=NO!!! and who the hell is Ken? how can you say “Get rid of Olimar he sucks!”? Olimar is more unique than some of those clones that are in Super Smash….start by getting rid of them first!

      1. Ken is from street fighter idiot! He is a rival to ryu. Besides I heard sakurai said he may include capcom characters that’s why.
        And also, olimar is a bad character I never enjoyed using him, and I think sakurai can do better then an alien nerd playing with walking retard plants.

        1. If ryu’s in, there would be absolutely no point in having Ken. He’d be a clone like he is in SF and we should expect one character per third party game, or even third party companies.
          This isn’t a street fighter or Capcom game after all.
          And as much as I hate Olimar, he’s the most recent IP so he’s necessary.

          1. it gave him insane super armor frames, enough to avoid getting blasted away by a super strong attack such as ddd’s forward smash or snakes forward smash.

            and the obvious like pulling his pikmin back to him.

            but with the super armor trait it had, it definitely did something believe me

      2. I assume he means from Street Fighter. That would make Ken a clone of Ryu. If they add characters, I hope the stay away from fighting games.

        1. Yes but maybe just a form change like with zelda and that shiek. And the good thing is the move set!

          Up plus B is SHORYUKEN
          A move where the user propells themself high into the air in a skin of flames, this would be an uppercut.

          HADOKEN

          B
          The user uses a similar move to lucario but it is stronger and slower.

          Final smash: Ryu form 1
          A super charged HADOKEN attacks the enemy taking out everything in its path. Ryu will then take 5 seconds to rest.

          Ken final smash form 2

          A series of ninja like puches and kicks and then a slightly high power SHORYUKEN blasts any enemy who dares go near. This smash can kill up to 2 players. Ken takes no time to rest but is slightly slower and may slip and fall.

  5. So are these guys basically confirmed veterens? LOL! Thats what I a making it out to be!!! I also see a Pikmin in there!!! THAT MEANS OLIMAR IS BACK! YEEEEEES :D I love him, so unique and cool design. I also see Zero Suit Samus! She better be back cuz she is awesome too. Good to see this whiteboard drawing. It gives me hope for my favorite veterens!

        1. annnnd the sad part is link was pretty crappy compared to the rest of the cast.

          he’s ranked dead last on soul calibur2’s tier list by the greatest players in the nation, mostly due to the fact that a lot of his stance moves which so many people thought would be overpowered originally due to being projectiles, turned out to be relatively useless, the boomerang can just be ducked to avoided, arrows sidestepped effortlessly, bombs just as easily side stepped, and his overall moveset was pretty mediocre in terms of damage.

          most SC2 players never had a problem shutting down any link player that showed up in a tournament, most link players never made it past the first round/bracket.

            1. eh they stillll had tournies where he was playable, iirc they did have console specific tournies as well.
              and they also had for sc a controller converter or something(the last one i was around…i wasn’t in the tourney but it was held at the same place as a smash tourney that day so i sat around to watch the SC2 one as welll.) it let you use a ps2 controller for GCN/Xbox games and vice versa. so people who played on one console could still use their controller and main on another console

              and considering that everyone brought each type of console it didn’t seem that i big a deal to be playing on each one, and as i said, considering link wasn’t that good, no one really felt as if they were at a disadvantage due to lack of matchup experience against him, because he just wasn’t that threatening.

  6. I like how everyone is treating this like a roster confirmation when it’s just a silly doodle.

    *grabs a bag of popcorn* Please do go on. Don’t mind me.

        1. jesus are the marths you facing really that crappy? start facing some decent players.

          you realize he’s considered one of the best characters in the game right?(obviously you don’t realize it…)

          and if metakngiht was banned its nearly universally accepted by the best players in the nation that Marth would be the best character in the game due to his matchup spread.

  7. Dear Sakurai.
    Samus, Peach and Zelda are feeling extremely alone in this sausage fest. I recommand putting more female characters.

        1. Ooo possibly, they could cheat and have the next pokemon trainer (if they do), have a female option

            1. Rosalina, maybe, Ashely, would be a big surprise but Mona, nah they wont, Ashely has more oppertunity in a moveset.

              Tbh, i dont personally really want anything specific, except for one thing.
              They NEED to put Champion Cynthia’s battle theme from Pokemon D/P/Pt/B/W/2, its soooo good, and is a perfect fighting song

  8. Hey, you guys brawl: I dropped Ness ‘cuz I think he’s rigged/unfair (might replace with Dedede). Is Ness indeed rigged?

    Oh, and cool artwork!

    1. Ness is actually in the 15 ”worst” character in the tier list.
      He’s actually my main, and as someone who uses him a lot, he’s very far from unfair. Dedede is much cheaper.

  9. I WOULD SAY THAT SUPER SMASH BROS 4 WILL BE SHOWN AT E3 2013 AND COME OUT IN 2014 SO IT WOULD BE ITS 15th ANNIVERSARY

  10. Perhaps this is an early confirmation of the characters for SSB4:

    Mario, Luigi, DK, Wario, Link, Samus, Pit, Kirby, Metaknight, Fox, Pikachu, Marth, and Olimar.

  11. This is a really cool drawing! It makes me super excited for the smash bros coming to wii U and 3DS! Hopefully all of these characters are included in the games roster!

  12. Well Sony AllStar didnt waste time doodling….And the Game is Awsum. Btw How many E3s will we wait to play this game? 3 like skyward that was teased at e3 2009 and released after e3 2011 smh SLACKERS & the game had a huge glitch Lmfao xD

    1. The game had a glitch that was found almost a week after the game was released. This shows that it wasn’t easy to find, making it not so huge. One glitch does not make a game bad, it means that it wasn’t tested enough.

      1. hey guess what? brawl had about 10 glitches found within the week of its release. now with the game near its lifespan, roughly 1000(being dead serious here, nearly 1000) glitches both large and small have been found in brawl.

        nice try there infernal.

        1. I know that there have been many found in Brawl. Not thousands, but a lot. The game has been widely criticized for it, especially online. It’s pointless making a game look bad through its glitches when Skyrim has far, far more than Brawl, but is still called a great game. Shut up with your crap.

  13. I’m jealous. I can hardly draw a stick person on a whiteboard and make it look good. T_T
    Hey….do you think they’ll sell this on Ebay?!?! :O

  14. @clamstorm a week makes it actually worse! On xbox game glitches usally take a month or more. Also consider that some ppl cant complete a game in a day so by the time they reach the spot it was glitch time. Point is 3yrs=still bad smh unacceptable

  15. @celtic warrior Give nintendo a break JESUS they did remove their seal of quality for a reson you know -_-

  16. I Believe New Special’s For Example If They Put Majora’s Mask Young Link With Fierce Diety Mask`* Would Increase Ratings!

    1. Doubtful, they seem to base the characters on their most current renditions. Toon Link was in WW/PH/ST, and adult Link was TP link, so we’ll probably just have SS Link.
      Hope they change at least 1 more for every character, keep it fresh, especially seeing as they are addin many characters, i cant see Ike, Lucas, Rob, Falco or Wolf, Lucario, Pokemon trainer (least not Gen 1) making a return. But Sakurai seems determind to basically get rid of clone characters and make them all unique which is awesome.
      No more 3 landmasters…

  17. Here’s a question, what would happen if Sakurai forced these tier lists and the tourneys they support to be banned permanently? And not only that, it also has to be banned for the original, Brawl, and (especially) Melee, which Sakurai claimed he regretted the way it turned out?

    1. idiotic post is idiotic.

      I hope you realize that just about any game ever created that features multiple characters with different moves/vehicles/whatever, all have tier lists, as in a list rankng which characters statistically do better than others.

      so in other words attempting to “stamp out tier lists/ban them permanently is impossible, as so long as there are different characters, some will enevitably be shown to be better than others, and therefore a tier list wil be made.

      now do us all a favor go kill yourself for being an idiot.

      1. If you think this is an immature discussion, think again. This is a mature discussion. Now do us all a favour and make a mature response.

        1. practice what you preach.

          you’re the one who made a blatantly stupid immature comment about tier lists and tournaments.

          1. This is no immature comment. This is a serious question. This is nothing worth laughing at.

            I don’t want to argue with you. I only want an honest opinion. No insults, please. And this is the same person who scolded some of the others for trying to insult Samus’s dignity, just so you know.

            1. if it was a serious question then my god you need to educate yourself better about competitive gaming and what tier lists are, because just like i said before, any game that has multiple characters/vehicles with different properties is going to have a tier list, as there will always be characters or vehicles that are better or worse then the rest of the cast.

              Also to make a post so stupid as to say “They should ban those tournaments and tier lists that people come up with” is a pretty stupid and immature mindset.

              Not only is that impossible as there will always be tournaments and like i said, tier lists, whether you like it or not, but its also very narrow minded and childish to basically be saying “I don’t like how these gamers are playing the game >:( i want them banned and make it impossible for them to play the game like that now”

              1. Well, Sakurai himself that he despises the tourney scene. And I’m merely asking if he wants this banned forever.

                I don’t know much about tier lists, you’re right. But you still cannot insult about this factor. I’m just asking this because of Sakurai’s hating of the tourney scene. He said there will never be a competitive-only Smash Bros. like Melee. Melee is still newcomer-friendly, just like the other two, at least.

                So there, this isn’t my opinion. This is just thoughts on what Sakurai said long ago and the possibility of what might happen.

  18. Aren’t they supposed to be, you know, making a game? And they draw this.

    Meh. Not gonna delay anything. Got to say, it actually looks pretty cool.

  19. Pingback: Smash Bros Wii U & 3DS Is A “Big Priority for Namco”, Tekken Team Helping Out | My Nintendo News

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  21. Pingback: Super Smash Bros. for WiiU and 3DS: Who’s Going to Make it to Character Select? | Pixelvolt

  22. The sandbag is what Little Mac punched out of a window in his trailer. This had to do with that!

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