In the latest issue of Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu (translated via Siliconera), Sakurai stated that he’s currently hard at work on adjusting the the move sets for each of the fighters present within the upcoming pair of Smash games. More specifically, he went into detail about how the new and improved Bowser will be quite a formidable combatant in the new titles.
After going into detail about about the newfound power that Bowser has in his Smash attacks, special attacks, and aerial attacks, Sakurai proceeded to discuss making the game feel satisfying with each and every successful maneuver. Implementing these powerful feel-good assaults, as one would imagine, takes a lot of fine tuning.
One of the major challenges that Sakurai faces, and likely won’t be able to rectify, is the difference between one-on-one combat versus the likes of the four-player simultaneous mayhem that Super Smash Bros. is so well known for. Some attacks just don’t prove as effective during the one-on-one bouts, with one such example that was brought up being Captain Falcon’s iconic ‘Falcon Punch’ since it’s much harder to successfully land with fewer fighters on-screen.
“Rather than directly weakening an attack’s advantageous parts, we’re putting effort into keeping them strong, while adding other weaknesses to them. Like giving the attacks punishable openings, or weakening the character’s mobility or recovery rate. We’re making comprehensive adjustments to characters, even for parts that might seem completely irrelevant.”
Many fans are usually concerned with the characters that’ll be included, but Sakurai spends copious amounts of time just trying to find what he believes to be the perfect balance. He even revealed that balancing Super Smash Bros. Brawl kicked off six years before it was released — meaning he was working on it before the game was green-lit.
While balancing is a crucial element to the Super Smash Bros. experience, fans of the series will be paying close attention to the games’ official website for more updates on the final roster. So far in the past month Nintendo has confirmed that Zelda will be returning and that Rosa and Luma will be debuting, but there are still plenty of other spots on the roster awaiting to be claimed — and balancing for those unannounced characters to be done.
Which character do you think needs to be balanced the most, Ranters? How many more fighters do you think there are left to be revealed?
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Source: Siliconera
