It is an understatement to say that the late Nintendo president Satoru Iwata had a big impact on the company during his life. Not only did Iwata have lots of influence on multiple Nintendo franchises, including Pokemon and Star Fox, but a lot of the people he worked with have lots of respect for him and it even inspired them going forward.
One of those is Masahiro Sakurai, the creator of the Super Smash Bros. games. He recently participated in an interview with the Japanese site Hoshino, where he revealed that he might not have joined HAL Laboratory if it weren’t for Iwata. Not only that, but if Iwata hadn’t made a prototype for Smash Bros., the game may never have been released at all. Sakurai even says that, had Iwata not asked him to make Brawl after his departure from HAL Laboratory, Smash “might have died out” entirely.
Look… props to Sakurai. Sakurai is amazing.
BUT… it seems like he feels like the Smash Bros franchise lives and dies with him. Each time they bring him back, he has the attitude like, “It can only be me. I have to do this for the world, even if I don’t want to.” And this attitude shows more here by saying that he thought Smash Bros would die if they didn’t hire him to make Brawl.
Sakurai, it’s ok to let someone else take over if you’re burned out on the series.
Yeah totally agree, smash bros is the Nintendo’s avengers. If you are a Nintendo fan you are bound to be interested in the series, sure maybe smash wouldn’t be as great without sakurai but it’s unlikely the series would have just “died out”, smash bros is a gold mine.
I’m sometimes imagining if Sakurai really had to take a full backseat on the series but still give some assistance if possible. Or a worse case scenario where the Smash series really does end when Sakurai is no longer in a position to be involved in the development. Would Nintendo really take his word and let Smash die and tarnish potential millions of buyers interested? There may still be an audience waiting for another “Smash Bros” game, and some other competitor decides to make something that millions would like, so I’m not even sure if Nintendo is willing to let that be and do nothing with the series.
They could start releasing remasters, but it’s not like I’m doubtful of a new game being done by a slightly different team. It would be pretty sad for Sakurai to lose his position since he’s been involved since the Nintendo 64 days, and I can see why he doesn’t want to let that go just yet.
…Did you even read the article?
Go ahead. State your contention, if you have one.
Iwata my GOAT, Sakurai my GOAT
After the success of Melee, Smash wasn’t going to just die out! The next Smash was a case of when, not if. Not to take away from Iwata’s achievements of course, which were many.