Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s impressive roster of 86 characters features representation from Street Fighter, Fatal Fury, Tekken, Final Fantasy, Persona, Kingdom Hearts, Minecraft, Dragon Quest, and many other third party franchises. Unfortunately, this cast of characters probably won’t be seen together again as the game’s director, Masahiro Sakurai, believes that a collaboration this big could’ve only happened just this once.
Along the way, there were a number of characters that were considered and scrapped. Had these challengers joined, the roster for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate would’ve ended up looking pretty different.
During the development of Super Smash Bros. 4, there was a time where Heihachi Mishima was considered for a base roster slot. This would’ve resulted in Tekken getting representation much earlier in the Super Smash Bros. series.
“We basically thought of all the characters at the start of development. We decided on characters we knew we could make. However, there were a few in consideration, such as Heihachi from ‘Tekken.'” — Masahiro Sakurai
While many believed that Heihachi was overlooked due to his presence in PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, which was released during the early portions of Super Smash Bros. 4’s development cycle, Sakurai actually cited difficulties in coming up with a moveset for the fighter. It seems that Sakurai wasn’t ready to implement a 3D fighting game character into Super Smash Bros. just yet.
“We basically thought of all the characters at the start of development. We decided on characters we knew we could make,” said Sakurai in an interview as translated by Masked Man (via Source Gaming). “However, there were a few in consideration, such as Heihachi from ‘Tekken.'”
When Super Smash Bros. 4 was launch, the third parties present were Mega Man, Sonic, and Pac-Man. If Heihachi was added successfully, he might’ve ended up replacing Pac-Man as the Bandai Namco rep. Otherwise, it would’ve been the first instance of two separate characters representing the same third party company, though that honor eventually went to Capcom when Street Fighter’s Ryu was added as DLC.
“That’s right,” continued Sakurai when he was pressed about details regarding Heihachi. “However, implementing Heihachi’s movement in Smash would be difficult…”
“However, implementing Heihachi’s movement in Smash would be difficult…” — Masahiro Sakurai
At this point, the interviewer joked about how one of Heihachi’s alternate outfits could put him in his fundoshi — a traditional sumo cloth. Sakurai took the time to poke fun at the Japanese rating boards for video games, which is something he’s been known to do from time to time.
“If we did that, we’d end getting in trouble with CERO again,” responded Sakurai while apparently laughing.
Of course, the fact that Heihachi Mishima was playable in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate never even got acknowledged by Sakurai. Still, this wouldn’t be the last time that Heihachi was considered for a spot on the roster in Super Smash Bros.
Ultimately though, Kazuya, Heihachi’s son, would join Super Smash Bros. Ultimate instead of the original final boss of Tekken. According to Sakurai, the reason he went with Kazuya over Heihachi was because of the rep’s connection to the Devil Gene.
“In Tekken, there’s this thing called the Devil Gene… Kazuya inherited the Devil Gene… Heihachi does not have it. This is the main reason why we didn’t go with Heihachi as a fighter.” — Masahiro Sakurai
“In Tekken, there’s this thing called the Devil Gene. It’s something Kazuya’s mother, Kazumi, carried. As the name implies, it allows one to draw out the power of the devil. Kazuya inherited the Devil Gene,” explained Sakurai.
“It’s something Kazuya’s mother, Kazumi, carried. As the name implies, it allows one to draw out the power of the devil. Kazuya inherited the Devil Gene.
“Kazuya’s son, Jin Kazama, carries this gene as well. Heihachi does not have it. This is the main reason why we didn’t go with Heihachi as a fighter… I thought Kazuya would work well in this game if we made his normal attacks as similar as possible to those in Tekken, while using the Devil’s Power for his midair jump attacks, smash attacks, and special moves.”
Essentially, Tekken is a fighting game series that focuses on movement in 3D spaces. On the other hand, the Super Smash Bros. series is well established for emphasizing its vertical movement options.
While it would be relatively simple to just have any Tekken challenger like Heihachi jumping and recovering as high as the other combatants, Sakurai believed that this just wouldn’t feel like Tekken. Through Kazuya’s Devil Gene, something that Heihachi does not possess, Sakurai felt that he could replicate the design philosophies behind both Tekken and Super Smash Bros. without too much contradiction between the two.
Ultimately, Heihachi had to settle for representation in the form of Mii Brawler DLC costume parts. These parts would actually end up returning for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
Of course, this doesn’t necessarily mean that Heihachi can’t someday join in a future entry. After all, the franchise has a history of returning to scrapped or considered concepts from previous games. This happened with Villager, Pac-Man, Ridley, Marth, Bowser, and many more.
Notably, Sakurai recently revealed that he has been working on a secret game project since April 2022. As of right now, it’s unknown what this secret game project could be, but it’s speculated that it could be a new iteration of Super Smash Bros. on the “Switch 2.”
With that in mind, Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa unveiled plans to announce the Switch successor within this fiscal year, which spans through March 31, 2025. We know that it will feature backwards compatibility, but not much else is officially known about the mysterious new console at the moment.
Considering how long this mysterious game has been in development for, it does seem likely that Sakurai was recruited to develop a game to showcase the new console’s features. If that’s the case, this title could be available at launch or early in the device’s lifecycle.
As mentioned before, it’s unlikely that we’ll see a repeat of “Everyone Is Here” unless the game Sakurai has been working on is “Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Deluxe,” which does actually seem like a possibility considering Mario Kart 8 Deluxe’s success. Regardless, we’ll probably see some new faces in the next game.
Heihachi has been considered and scrapped two times before. Could he someday finally get represented in a Super Smash Bros. title? Only time will tell.