Sakurai feels the Super Smash Bros. roster is at its limit

7/3/12 3:00pm

We’ve already heard of the collaboration going on between Team Sora and Namco Bandai for the new Super Smash Bros. We also had a chance to get a sneak peak of the art thanks to a recent tweet in the banner above. But now it has come to light in Nintendo Power that the roster might not be changing as much as people expect. The game’s director Masahiro Sakurai admitted in an interview that “a change of direction may be what's needed”.

"It isn't a matter of ‘If the next game has 50 characters, that'll be enough… There is a certain charm to games that have huge casts of playable characters, but they tend to have issues with game balance and it becomes very difficult to fine-tune each character and have them all feel distinctive."

Where Super Smash Bros. started with a 12 character roster, Melee and Brawl topped 25 and 35 characters, respectively. Plus, with Namco Bandai playing such a large part in the games production, it seems like the opportunity for crossovers is endless. So it doesn’t look like you will be getting a huge roster, but if you could have one Namco Bandai character in SSB4, who would they be?

» Source: http://www.theverge.com/gaming/2012/7/2/3132507/next-super-smash-bros-might-not-have-a-much-larger-roster
» Tagged In: #brawl, #Hard News, #Mario, #melee, #Namco Bandai, #Sakurai, #sean hinz, #Super Smash Brothers

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g1 DISCUSSIONS

Iron

July 4, 2012 - 2:25pm

If Namco is getting in the mix the only character i'd love to see is Nightmare from SoulCalibur. Pac-Man would be nice to see to but, for a fighting game I could think of no one more deserving as a Namco rep than Nightmare. Plus it gives us another villain, and I'd love to see Link and Nightmare face-off again. As for the removing of clones Ganondorf and Luigi will definitely stay. Falco and Wolf might if only to give Star Fox more rep. Lucas probably won't. Toon Link I would like to see stay but he probably won't. Characters that would probably be removed if if they are not clones are Olimar, Lucario, and Ike just because they are characters that really only went along with what the gaming community was talking about and/or to promote other games and movies that people we not buying ie Pikmin, Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn, Fire Emblem Path of Radiance, and Lucario and the Mystery of Mew. Snake will probably be removed for a similar reason with the Metal Gear series getting less popular. Finally the only Melee character I see making a comeback is Mewtwo. Pichu and Dr.Mario will never come back unless made into alt costumes. Roy might but won't for the same reason Ike would me removed. Young Link I really don't think will come back but with Ocarina of Time 3DS and talk of a Majora's Mask remake he just may return. Yes I know I just voted in favor of having 3 Links and maybe 4 is Skyward Sword Link gets his own move set. I most likely thing however is that only OOT/TP Link will stay and Skyward Link could replace Toon Link since he could use The Grapple Claw instead of a boomerang since he didn't use a boomerang, Skyward Strike instead of arrows and maybe have a down b similar to peach's with the molga mits pulling out bomb flowers or other items. Honestly I think they'll cut it down to OOT/TP Adult Link and shirk the Zelda reps to 3. Sadly. Thoughts?

krazykid360

July 4, 2012 - 12:39pm

Pac-Man could be in it.

VanillaGuerrilla

July 4, 2012 - 12:07pm

If you essentially get rid of all the clone characters (Luigi, Ganondorf, Wolf, Falco, Ike, Toon Link, and Lucas) You have seven extra spots. Though many of these characters I think will be retooled, it's looking very possible to me that Ike, Toon Link, Wolf, and Lucas are destined to be trimmed.

jbulleit

July 4, 2012 - 11:42am

They could probably just give unique costumes to certain characters like Mario to make them look exactly like a similar character, like Luigi, but tweak their abilities along with the costumes. (Mario = F.L.U.D.D, Luigi = Poltergust 5000). Does that make any sense?

SuperSmashDrake

July 4, 2012 - 10:30am

So basically it's going to be Brawl with all the modes it should have had. And last time I checked other fighting games have way more characters! And how will it be hard to balance this time around if he is getting a team of balancers, rather than just himself. I'm a little upset.

Lanoraptor

July 4, 2012 - 7:45am

35 was more than enough.

Madhog thy Master

July 4, 2012 - 6:02am

Why, bring in Klonoa, of course. I would give them all my money if Klonoa is in it.

Metalliccookies

July 4, 2012 - 3:58am

To be honest 50 characters is more than enough (if it is even is 50) the problem is that balance is more important than people think... for example people will want to pick characters they will win with and not pick ones they will lose with... (play the 'Project M', its a smash bros hack that balances brawl and also alters some characters move sets) As for clones all they really share are similar 'specials' and animations, for example Ganondorf plays completely different from Captain Falcon. Personally I think they should look at the brawl hacking community and see what they are doing, for example there is a ton of Shadow and Mewtwo hacks meaning people want to see those characters... Personally I want more balanced stages, brawl had some bad stages (New Port City, Distant Planet, Ruble Falls, 75m and Mario Bros to name a few...) But you know, just keep Sonic in the game and i'll be happy (oh and Falco)

Stormshadow243

July 4, 2012 - 2:50am

Derrick Cole from Breakdown. Mostly because he'd be such a weird choice and he'd have some pretty fantastic moves since you got stupid powerful by the end of that game.