Despite the overwhelming success of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, it’s possible we may never see another Super Smash Bros. entry again as creator Masahiro Sakurai is semi-retired and aiming to do something else with the next chapters of his life, but he’s still sharing interesting bits and pieces of his Super Smash journey on his YouTube channel.
In a recent upload, Sakurai explains how he and his team initially planned to take advantage of the extensive crossover appearances only found in Smash by creating a bunch of cut scenes that saw these Nintendo favorites interact in interesting ways. They did this a bit in Brawl, but then decided to put the kibosh on it.
“I had the idea to create movie sequences that showcased each individual fighter,” he starts. “Smash Bros. contains crossovers you can’t find anywhere else, so I thought it would be fun to present them in a more concrete, charming way. I also thought they’d make a nice reward for pushing on in the adventure mode…
“We put a lot of money and effort into making them, but before the game even came out, people were posting them online. Even overseas media outlets were doing it with the pre-release copies we provided. So I decided to stop making movies that cut in during gameplay,” he concludes.
Leaks are an unfortunate reality all developers have to wrestle with in the modern age, and it isn’t at all hard to see how painfully draining it’d feel to have something an entire team spent tons of time on spoiled before it was supposed to be revealed.
The good news is the magic that could have been in-game cut scenes was redirected to a (somewhat) safer avenue: character reveals. From Mario being murdered to the King K. Rool/Banjo Kazooie misdirect, Ultimate boasts some incredibly memorable reveal sequences and now we know exactly where the inspiration for them came from.
Check out Sakurai’s full talk on fighter reveal videos in the embed below and let us know your favorite Super Smash Bros. sequence in the comments afterwards.