‘Smash Bros.’ Won’t Feature All Past Characters

Smash Bros. won’t have all of the past characters in it.

Developer Masahiro Sakurai has had to draw a line or two when it comes to the roster of Smash Bros., the upcoming title for Wii U and 3DS. Every new character that gets added only means past characters won’t be in the game. No guarantees are in place other than Mario, Link from The Legend of Zelda, Pikachu and other series mainstays due to time constraints.

Nintendo is trying to get the game out on time, and going out of their way to make it not end up a rush job, and so some sacrifices needed to be made. Megaman, Wii Fit Trainer, and the Animal Crossing Villager will be guaranteed, but if you’re looking forward to the full roster of past characters, you’ll probably have to settle for Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

Masahiro Sakurai says, “We don’t have the time to fully recreate every single character who’s been in Smash Bros at this point. … Adding new characters is not a simple addition – it’s really multiplication. The amount of work, adding a character is multiplied and becomes bigger and bigger as you go. We can’t because of the amount of work it takes.”

For every new character added to Smash Bros., all other characters need to be given alterations that make the entire game that much more complicated. If you want balance, you have to ensure every character has a fighting chance and none of them have a “cheap” advantage. If you want a bigger roster, you have to put that much more time into each character, and this game doesn’t have that much time to dedicate to too much extra.

Smash Bros. developer Masahiro Sakurai adds, “We’re going to put in as many characters as we can, we really want to do that, because it’s good for the fans and good for all of us. But in the event that we do have to cut some characters, I’d like to apologize in advance to those fans.”

What do you think of Smash Bros. not featuring all of the past characters? Are there any characters you wouldn’t mind doing without?