![]() ![]() ![]() series, Sakurai left HAL Laboratory in 2003 to start his own company, Sora Ltd., so that he could create games separately from the sequel-heavy schedules of HAL. By this point, the series' relevance as a potent advertisement vehicle for all of Nintendo's IPs represented within it, past and present, was apparent the representation of two characters from the then-Japan-exclusive Fire Emblem series, who were nearly cut out from international versions of Melee, prompted Nintendo's future decision to release almost all subsequent installments of the series worldwide.ĭuring what became a seven-year hiatus for the Smash Bros. The game became the best-selling GameCube game, with more than seven million copies sold worldwide. Melee, and received critical acclaim as both a strong fundamental improvement and a massive expansion of content over its predecessor. The game was released shortly after the GameCube's launch in both Japan and the United States near the end of 2001 as Super Smash Bros. The game would also exhibit an enormous graphical advancement beyond the Nintendo 64, and to this end, the game's opening FMV was developed by HAL in conjunction with three separate graphic houses in Tokyo. Unlike the first game, which was an experimental venture, Sakurai felt great pressure to deliver a quality sequel that would be lauded as one of the system's premier titles. Sakurai described his lifestyle during this period as "destructive", working on the game for 13 straight months with no holidays and short weekends, and he found it to be the biggest project he worked on up to that point. ![]() Despite some criticism toward its single player, it received praise for its unique take on fighting games its simple-to-learn, accessible, and responsive gameplay and above all else its mix of fan-favorite aesthetics, characters, and music, particularly with Pokémon, which had then reached the height of its initial explosion of worldwide popularity.įollowing the success of Super Smash Bros., Sakurai became the head of production for a sequel that was intended as a borderline launch title for the next Nintendo system, the GameCube. was released in Japan on January 21, 1999, and despite little promotion, the game was a surprise and breakout hit, ultimately selling nearly 2 million copies domestically, and after it was decided to localize the game, it was commercially successful internationally as well, selling nearly 3 million copies in the United States. The finished product's nearly-unique spin on free-roaming, multi-directional fighting on two-dimensional platform-filled planes is said to have been inspired by an obscure 1994 arcade fighting game by Namco titled The Outfoxies. Fortunately for him, the idea was approved, and Sakurai developed the game, Super Smash Bros., as a low-budget crossover fighter that was intended to be released exclusively in Japan. Sakurai knew he would not receive permission to do this by asking, and therefore secretly created a prototype of the Nintendo 64 fighter in advance and only informed his superiors of it after carefully balancing his first four character inclusions: Mario, Donkey Kong, Samus Aran, and Fox McCloud. When he presented the concept (provisionally called Dragon King: The Fighting Game) to his superior, Satoru Iwata - then the president of HAL Laboratory - Iwata helped Sakurai find ways to make the game original since many fighting games did not sell well, and Sakurai's first idea was to insert a wide variety of popular characters from different Nintendo franchises and have them fight in a crossover. From the outset, he did not have any ideas and used exceedingly basic character designs. During 1998, Kirby series creator Masahiro Sakurai, working at Nintendo second-party developer HAL Laboratory, pursued interest in making a fighting game for four players. ![]()
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