In a recent video, Masahiro Sakurai highlighted the value of using elementary school children as play testers when developing a game. Sakurai notes that you’ll only get honesty from children if you sit back and listen to their feedback.
“Compared to us jaded adults, children are the purest of the pure!” declared Sakurai. “When they’re playing a game, you’ll always get their honest reactions.”
Rather than interacting with kids directly, the development team will instead just set up a play session between the kids. They’ll even have snacks in the area to make the kids feel more comfortable.
Sakurai himself would be off to the side, taking notes on how the students reacted to the game that they were playing. This included the parts that they liked, any difficulties with the controls, and the boring aspects of the game.
However, Sakurai notes that these type of sessions aren’t really possible anymore. As such, they don’t do them anymore.
“Unfortunately, though, we now live in the age of social media,” continued Sakurai. “Even without that, dev teams tend to want higher confidentiality and with the increase in concern for children’s well-being nowadays, these sessions became difficult to arrange.”
Of course, Sakurai states that these type of sessions are worth doing if you’re able to get the permission to do so.
Regardless, Sakurai would then go on to recount a story about how an elementary school child playtesting Captain Falcon’s Falcon Punch in Super Smash Bros. 64. Thinking back on the subject, Sakurai notes that this kid was probably the first member of the public to ever land the Falcon Punch, a signature attack for Captain Falcon that actually made its debut in the Super Smash Bros. series.
“As an aside, when we had elementary schoolers try out the original Smash Bros., one of them shouted when he saw how far a Falcon Punch knocked someone back,” explained Sakurai. “‘Whoa! Look how far he flew!’ He was so excited.”
Following this, Sakurai noted how this elementary school student is now an adult, creating his own path in the world. Reminiscing about this caused Sakurai to pause a bit and reflect on how he’s getting old.
Fortunately, we’ve already heard from Sakurai how he’s still creating games for the time being despite previously declaring that he was semi-retired.
It’s likely the desire to continue creating memories like this one that keeps Sakurai involved with the Super Smash Bros. series, as even he admits that he doesn’t see the series continuing without him at the moment.
Needless to say, it’s suspected that he’s currently working on the next entry in the Super Smash Bros. series for the unannounced Switch successor.