Super Smash Bros. for Wii U & 3DS is no doubt one of the biggest games to arrive next year and is surely sitting at the top of everyone's list for most anticipated titles of 2014 and the Director, Masahiro Sakurai knows this all too well. In fact, he was already considering the 3DS as a viable option for the next Smash Bros. game during the development of Kid Icarus: Uprising when Satoru Iwata approached him. Sakurai had this to say in his interview with IGN's Richard George (Executive Editor, IGN Nintendo).

Sakurai: “Back when I was working on Kid Icarus Uprising, I was already getting a feel for the 3DS performance and the features in that hardware. Mr. Iwata came to me and asked which platform I would want to put the next Smash Bros. on. Looking at those two platforms and seeing their individual styles and uniquenesses – I saw with the 3DS that it would be good for one flavor of the game, but there was also the other end, getting the grand scale what was possible with the Wii U. So with that in mind, we decided to go ahead and put the game on two platforms.”

Even though Sakurai and Co. are working on two different platforms, one of the key functionalities behind the game is that both pieces of software will be able to interact with each other in some way. Despite the lack of detail in his response, Sakurai is clearly working hard in order to make sure this interaction is not only achieved, but fits well with both games on both platforms.

Sakurai: “We’re currently going through a lot of trial and error, seeing what fits best for the game. Eventually that will come to fruition in some form or another, but right now it’s a little bit early to say exactly what that will be.”

Sakurai was then asked about some of the innovations that would be introduced to the next Super Smash Bros. games, clearly just adding new characters to the roster isn't nearly enough as Sakurai alluded to back in 2012 and it seems that he has plans to put the 3DS' StreetPass functionality to use.

Sakurai: “What’s unique about the 3DS is that you have your own screen. There are things we can do that are unique to having a personalized experience for yourself. Also, having your own data that you can carry around in your own personal device creates a lot of neat opportunities. That’s something we want to take advantage of – without going into too much detail.”

Sakurai previously mentioned that due to the 3DS' limitations the final character roster would be similar to that of Brawl, bar a few additions. Although having said that, no characters have been cut out thus far in the development process. However, "multiple character" fighters such as the Ice Climbers, are finding it tough to implement on the 3DS at the moment. So then you can imagine Sakurai's response when Rich asked him about the current status of balancing the roster.

Sakurai: “We’re not at a stage in development where we’re going through those fine sorts of adjustments. When we get towards the end of development, we will have what we call monitor playtests, where we watch people play the games. We perform thorough analysis based on those observations. There have been cases in the past, admittedly, where we didn’t gather sufficient data for certain characters, and that resulted in certain game imbalances. Patches are something we’d definitely like to be able to do, if possible.”

When you consider the depth of Kid Icarus: Uprising's customisation options you can only admire the amount of quality and dedication that was put into its development as it truly enhanced the game's replayability by a large degree, especially in the multiplayer mode and it seems that Sakurai and the team are certainly planning some sort of customisation for the next Smash Bros. as well.

Sakurai: “We’re planning for a level of customization to some degree and in some form. It’s not completely decided at this point. But it’s very important to point out that we do this in a careful way that doesn’t affect the strength and balance of the characters. One thing we’d like to do is to be able to customize the direction of attacks. But not give characters a stronger jump or a stronger or weaker attack. You can consider customizations like that possible.”

What about the Single Player mode? Subspace Emissary was a welcome change but Sakurai is intent on taking a different route which doesn't involve special character movies. However, they are looking at alternative "rewards" when players complete certain aspects of the solo game.

Sakurai: “At the very least, we’re thinking of maybe not implementing that sort of single-player experience like Subspace Emissary, where you play through to a conclusion and you’re rewarded with something like a movie. We found that if you wanted to see those movies, you could just go to the internet. That sort of thing loses its appeal as a reward for the player. I can’t say concretely, but we’re thinking about removing that sort of element and coming up with a way to provide a more rewarding single-player experience in which players will be rewarded in different ways.”

The Smash Bros. series is well known and admired for its intense fast-paced multiplayer action, but when it came to Super Smash Bros. Brawl, it was the first time in the series that a game also had an online multiplayer mode. However, there were numerous issues such as lag, input delays and a bare-bone match making system that took away from the experience leaving a lot of players unhappy with their time online. Now it seems that those worries can be thrown out the window. Sakurai said that Nintendo has “significantly updated” its network and that it's providing them with a “good base for what we’re going to do”. The Wii U's improved online infrastructure seems to be helping the situation, but perhaps Namco has also used some of their top-level industry experience on the network side of development too.

If Nintendo's network has been given a big boost, then what about other online features such as a ranking system? are we going to see that included too?

Sakurai: “We don’t want to have a type of situation where you have a ranking pyramid, and only the people at the very top can enjoy it. I think there are other unique ways to be able to implement a system where people can get satisfaction out of performing at a skill level relative to their peer group.”

So it seems that Masahiro Sakurai is intent on providing the best experience possible for players of different levels. He previously said the the next Smash Bros. games would fit in between Melee & Brawl so that it was accessible to everyone. Then why was there such a big difference between Melee and Brawl?

Sakurai:“Quite simply Melee was something that was targeted more towards hardcore, advanced players. With Wii, on a platform where you were getting experiences like Wii Fit and there was an audience that tilted slightly more towards beginning players, we slowed down the gameplay. This time around, we don’t see a situation where we’ll be encountering as many beginning players, and so as far as the speed and the feel of the game, I think you could say confidently that we’re targeting something right in between those two versions.”

There's a long way to go until Super Smash Bros. arrives next year for the Wii U and 3DS but Sora Ltd. and Namco Bandai Games are clearly working hard to provide us with the best that this series has to offer. Fans are known to be impatient, but one can only feel at comfort by Listening to Sakurai's words and knowing that they are taking extra care into every aspect of development.

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