Smash Bros. development (Past games)

[The Qu]

So, due in no small part to the fact that I can't find a translated Sakurai interview on the subject of Melee's production, let's have a topic on how the Smash Bros. games were made.

There are some well known facts, like the cut characters from the original (King Dedede, Meta Knight and Pit are frequently cited, though I recall there being little evidence) or Melee (Mach Rider, Balloon Fighter.). Then some more obscure stuff, like the cut damaged character models from Brawl, or the reason behind clones in Melee (Not enough time to make more than one full character.)

So, anybody got anything else? Or that Melee interview?

[Shrikeswind]

I have this.

But seriously, I'm aware of a couple of rumors about the original's cut cast. I believe it featured Bowser, Peach, and Mewtwo as well. Further, there was the rumor about how Dedede didn't get into Melee because of the Side-B move. I don't give it much credit, given Brawl, but it's worth investigation regardless.

That is what this is about, right? Rumor investigation?

[The Qu]

Pretty much, yeah.

I've never heard the one about Dedede and the side B. I've heard Pit and Meta Knight were cut form the first game because of their flight, though. IIRC, the rumor was Pit became Jigglypuff. Not sure how much stock I put in that one.

[nocturnal YL]

Do you have the untranslated version of the said interview? I'm interested to read that.

From my experience, Google Translate isn't exactly good with Japanese. The result would be readable, but puzzling at points.

What I know:

With the original, I heard often that Dedede, Bowser and an FE rep were to be included but ultimately cut.

The Melee new characters are drawn partly from what the players want (in the SSB64 poll) and partly from what the developers wanted (the more random ones, like Ice Climbers). In that poll, Peach has beaten Wario by 1 vote. Sakurai didn't feel like adding so many Mario characters, so the cut off line was drawn there.

Dr Mario was in Melee because he's from a popular puzzle game and that "a doctor would serve well in a violent game like this" (source needed).

Sakurai considered about including Leaf, but ended up including Roy after IS recommended him to do so. (And, ironically, Leaf's game universe was never mentioned in Brawl.)

Dedede was planned for Melee. At first, Sakurai thought up some Dedede moves as a back up in case IS wouldn't allow them to use FE characters, and later on he was considered as the final character to be added before Sakurai ultimately thought that fans would prefer a larger roster than that, and went with clones instead. (1 character given up for 6 clones - I say it's worth it.)

Ganondorf was once considered, but ended up to be a Falcon clone. (Why Falcon? The reason was rather silly, but I forgot.)


I tried to find a post in some forum that had several Melee tidbits (the above-mentioned ones) listed out in a point form, but I couldn't find it.

[Leon]

I remember I once heard that Sigurd was supposed to be the Fire Emblem rep in Smash 64, however that always seemed like rabid FE4 fans making junk up.

[8bitretroshit]

I heard that it was that Sakurai really liked Sigurd, but nobody really voted for the guy in those polls which upset him a little.
And that Kirby was the only Kirby character in Melee because he didn't want 'his' franchises to hog all the spolight

Can't remember if these were from actual interviews or the usual bullshit hearsay though

[Leon]

No, it was Navarre that Sakurai loved, but people voted for his rival Ogma instead. I remember that very well.

[Koopaul]

I have a hard time believing that interview was real anyway.

[Da Robot]

Final Smashes were planned for the original SSB, and voices were recorded for them.




Ditto was going to be a Pokeball Pokemon in Melee but was cut leaving the PB Pokemon number at 29. Ditto would use transform, and become another cpu character, and fight against other players (except the one that summoned it) but was removed because the AI was too complicated or it would stuff up with Ice Climber transformations)

(I think there was the chance that since multiple pokeballs could be used it would increase the chances of having multiple Dittos, also maybe the game couldn't handle having to load up a cpu character in the middle of the match instead of the start).



It's possible to hack Melee to get a character select screen for 6 players instead of four, but of course it's doesn't work because the GCN needs 2 more controller ports. The 6 player setting is still used for certain Event Match fights (selected playable character against 5 kirby's) and the final level of All Star (selected playable character against 5 Mr Game & Watches). It's possible it's only for those 2 characters because of how visually/graphically simple Kirby/Mr G&W are.

[nocturnal YL]

Or, you know, any 6 characters of choice if hacks are used.

[Boo Destroyer]

Jigglypuff, Toon Link, and Wolf were the last characters to be added in Brawl.

The game itself goes out of its way to tell you that.

[nocturnal YL]

Whew, finally. I located this thread on Serenes Forest.

serenesforest.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=36534