The newest Iwata Asks is all about the Smash Bros. series.

During their conference at E3 on Tuesday Nintendo pleased fans with the news that Super Smash Bros. was coming to the 3DS and newly announced Wii U. Masahiro Sakurai has since tweeted that they may have announced it too soon as not much has happened with it.

However, in a new Iwata Asks Nintendo's president Satoru Iwata chats to Mr. Sakurai all about the series and thanks to Andriasang we have some insights into what to expect. The discussion took place prior to the announcement, on May 11th to celebrate the opening of the Project Sora office, but the newly announced games are alluded to.

Apparently the idea to create a new Smash Bros. title was shortly after the release of Super Smash Bros. Brawl on the Wii in 2008. At this time Nintendo asked Mr. Sakurai to make a 3DS game but Mr. Iwata feared that while fans would want another Smash Bros. game Mr. Sakurai may not be ready to make one having just finished Brawl. They decided that he would make Kid Icarus Uprising first and use the experience as a learning tool.

The development of Kid Icarus Uprising was kept a secret from even the people being hired to work on it for some time for fear of a public leak. The fact that they would follow it up with Smash Bros. was also kept secret from everyone but Satoru Iwata and Masahiro Sakurai as wel.

When Mr. Iwata approached Mr. Sakurai about the Wii U he was going to ask Mr. Sakurai to make either a Smash Bros. game for Wii U or 3DS but he wanted to work on one for both. Masahiro Sakurai discusses the importance of not just adding in new stages, fighters and better graphics as he wanted to create a new experience. This is part of the reason he wanted to work on a 3DS version, although he did acknowledge it would also limit some of the things they could do.

Masahiro Sakurai talks about how the 3DS allows for a more personal and individual relationship with the game as you take the hardware with you. He wants to make the 3DS version a personal experience but is aware that in the past the series has never focused on rewards or developing characters. Satoru Iwata and Masahiro Sakurai hope to make the Wii U and 3DS versions unique but connected by focusing on making the 3DS one a personal portable space and the Wii U title a public stadium.

Mr. Sakurai states that the aim of the 3DS version of Smash Bros. is to provide a slightly different experience from before. He believes there is a benefit to skilled and unskilled players battling together and he hopes to allow players to help each other out.

Undertaking this project is no small feat, particularly for a new studio, and as such a lot of the staff from Kid Icarus Uprising will work on the new Smash Bros. titles, although they will need to expand. Mr. Iwata makes the, hopefully joking, threat that if the team doesn't expand they'll either only make one version or take years to make it.