With the reveal of Kirby Air Riders for the Switch 2, we now know that it will still be a long time before the next entry in the Smash Bros. series after Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
Even Masahiro Sakurai himself doesn’t think the Super Smash Bros. franchise is in a place that can continue without his direct involvement, though he does acknowledge that it will at some point need to eliminate its dependence on its creator’s vision.
Regardless, it would seem that Sakurai is the only person that can oversee a new Super Smash Bros. project. What is it about his skillset that makes his involvement so crucial for Super Smash Bros.?
“But when it comes to my creativity specifically, I feel like I’ve been mostly self-taught.” — Masahiro Sakurai
Not too long ago, we started highlighting an interview that Sakurai participated in with Hoshinogen. To some extent, Sakurai credits his late friend, Satoru Iwata, for the existence and continuation of Super Smash Bros.
“Well, first of all, if Iwata hadn’t been there I may never have started at Hal Laboratories. If Iwata hadn’t created the prototype for Super Smash Bros. then the world would’ve never had Smash Bros. at all,” declared Sakurai. “When I decided to leave Hal Laboratories, if Iwata hadn’t asked me to make Super Smash Bros. Brawl, then it’s possible that the franchise would’ve ended then and there.”
However, Sakurai emphasizes that he’s actually mostly self-taught. This is especially apparent to him with regards to his own creativity.
“What I’m trying to say is that there’s no doubt that his presence had a great effect on me,” continued Sakurai. “But when it comes to my creativity specifically, I feel like I’ve been mostly self-taught.”
“That didn’t give me much so I had to figure out the differences on my own which finally led many years later to my YouTube video on how to present a business proposal best.” — Masahiro Sakurai
Following this, Sakurai highlighted an interesting story from his younger days. This gives us quite the impression as to why Sakurai wasn’t able to rely on a “mentor” or anyone else to develop the skills that he now has.
“Actually, when I started working at the company one of my seniors was a bit ill-natured towards me when I asked ‘Could you tell me the difference between a business proposal and a specification document?'” recounted Sakurai.
To this, Sakurai’s senior apparently gave him a particularly sarcastic response. It’s a bit difficult to imagine someone treating Sakurai like this nowadays, but even he had to start as a “nobody” at one point.
“He replied ‘a business proposal is a business proposal and a specification document is a specification document,'” continued Sakurai.
Of course, this was far from being very helpful. Sakurai had to uncover the differences by himself.
“That didn’t give me much so I had to figure out the differences on my own which finally led many years later to my YouTube video on how to present a business proposal best,” said Sakurai.
Indeed, one of the videos uploaded to Sakurai’s YouTube channel talks about the process of writing up a game proposal. It’s funny that Sakurai was able to use these odd experience as a teaching moment like this.
At this point, you could say that Sakurai has become a real pro when it comes to writing up proposals. During the aforementioned video, he mentioned that the game proposal for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate contained over 200 pages.
Meanwhile, Sakurai also claimed that he wrote up the game proposal for Kirby Air Riders (then known as his secret game project) at “lightning speed” while also still managing the development for Kazuya and Sora as DLC for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
Regardless, Sakurai suspects that there are probably better methods than what he’s had to develop on his own. Still, this is what he’s come to know through his own experiences.
“That’s why I’m always thinking that there are probably ways with a higher success rate than my own. There’s usually only one director and when you enter a new project it’s extremely rare to look at how the people around you are working on things,” said Sakurai.
“Because of that, I would say that there aren’t many techniques or ideas I’ve stolen or employed from my superiors. I think I’ve had a fairly unique upbringing overall.”
A special thanks goes out to Nicholas “MajinTenshinhan” Taylor for the translations featured in this article.