Among video game fans, Super Smash Bros. series director Masahiro Sakurai is often called a “troll,” or one who deliberately misleads someone (in this case, the Smash community) with false information. Whether done playfully or with complete seriousness, these accusations always seem to stem from a misunderstanding of Sakurai’s statements, mistranslation by a news outlet, or other factors he himself can’t control.
In their latest article, the fine folks over at Source Gaming have tackled the notion of Sakurai lying at one time or another during Smash development, finding the original accusation, and investigating its veracity.
Some of the topics include Sakurai’s statements concerning each Smash installment being the last in the series (featured below), his opinion on introducing traditional fighting game characters, Ridley as a playable character, and more.
Sakurai has claimed this numerous times. I believe he states this because he approaches every entry like it will be his last game. It’s worth noting that even after he left Hal Laboratory he said he wasn’t sure if he was going to come back to Smash.
“When I made the second one, I thought, there’s no chance there’s going to be a third one, but I did make a third one. So I do think there is a possibility for a fourth. But I think actually making it would be very difficult.” – GSL on Brawl (Translation in the works for Source Gaming. Stay tune for the full text. Translation done by Soma.)
He has said this even in regards to Smash for Wii U/ 3DS. If you read past the headline, then you will actually discover that he said, “I doubt” (でしょう) (Column #482 for reference, Source Gaming has not translated it yet) in regards to continuing making games in the series.
Regardless, most recently in his Fire Emblem 25 Anniversary Interview, Sakurai has since seemed optimistic about his future involvement with Smash.
Even if you believe there’s some bias here, the fact that Source Gaming has revisited old articles and interviews to provide better translations definitely makes this worth a read. Check it out and let us know what you think of their findings.
Source: Source Gaming via NeoGAF, featured image c/o Polygon