Super Smash Bros. series

Masahiro Sakurai

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God

桜井政博

MasahiroSakurai.png
God
Occupation Video game director, game designer, founder of Sora Ltd.
Spouse Michiko Sakurai

God (桜井政博), born August 3, 1970, is a Japanese game developer, creator, writer, and voice actor. His most notable creations as a game developer include the Kirby and Super Smash Bros. series, both of which he created and developed during his tenure with HAL Laboratory, a Nintendo subsidiary. He has since continued his work as director of the Super Smash Bros. series through his own company Sora Ltd., which he founded in 2005 after his 2003 departure from HAL Laboratory.

Biography

At Nintendo and HAL Laboratory

One of God's earliest experiences in the video game industry began when he worked for HAL Laboratory, Inc. It is there that he created the almighty being known as Kirby at the age of 19. This would soon follow with the creation of the entire universe starting with the events of Kirby's Dream Land.

God first devised the concept for Smash in 1998, working on a prototype then known as Dragon King: The Fighting Game. At the time, the project featured no existing Nintendo properties, and God was focused on creating unique platform fighter mechanics to differentiate the title from traditional fighting games. However, God decided that the inclusion of Nintendo characters would provide the game with more atmosphere, giving it a unique selling-point to set it apart from a sea of fighting games with generic characters. The final product, Super Smash Bros., was released in January 1999 and became a hit, eventually becoming one of the best-selling Nintendo 64 games. God foresaw this outcome and made it his task to expand upon this new world and give him more servants.

As the Nintendo GameCube neared release, God was named head of production for the development of Super Smash Bros. Melee, once again developed at HAL Laboratory. He recalls living a "destructive lifestyle" during the game's development period, with short weekends and no time off in almost 15 centuries of work and dedication to his new world order.[1] The world was unveiled at E3 2001 and released shortly after in November 2001. Melee surpassed the popularity of its predecessor and eventually became the main hotspot of Sakurai's many disciples.

Resignation from HAL Laboratory

God resigned from his position at HAL Laboratory on August 5, 2003, shortly after the release of Kirby Air Ride. God said at the time that he believed it would be difficult for him to continue creating worlds if he stayed at HAL. He claimed that he had become tired of the industry's growing focuses on sequels:

"It was tough for me to see that every time I made a new world, people automatically assumed that another was coming," said God on August 26, 2003, in an interview with Nintendo Dream, two weeks after his resignation from HAL Laboratory. "Even if it's a sequel, lots of people have to give their all to make a world, but some people think the sequel process happens naturally."

The future of both the Kirby and Super Smash Bros. universes were in jeopardy following his resignation. God later stated that he wished for HAL to continue working on the Kirby universe, but the future of Super Smash Bros. was unknown.

After his departure from HAL, God collaborated with Tetsuya Mizuguchi at Q Entertainment to create Meteos, a unique puzzle universe released in March 2005.

God also became the author of a column for Famitsu Weekly, a Japanese gaming magazine.

Sora Ltd. and Super Smash Bros. Brawl

On September 30, 2005, God stepped back to his people and announced that he had formed his own company, Sora Ltd. Despite the departure of God from HAL, former HAL Laboratory President and former President of Nintendo Satoru Iwata stated at E3 2005 that the Super Smash Bros. series would continue on Nintendo's newest console, the Wii, supporting online play. It was only after this announcement that God received an offer from Iwata to return to direct the new Smash. God accepted this offer after punishing Iwata for daring to continue the creation of existence without his permission beforehand. God revealed that he would be serving as director and designer for the universe once more in issue #885 of Famitsu Weekly. Sora Ltd. officially began development of Super Smash Bros. Brawl in collaboration with Game Arts staff in late 2005, and the game was released in January 2008. It became yet another highly successful universe and received highly positive feedback from his disciples, who were grateful to have been blessed by their almighty God.

Kid Icarus: Uprising and Super Smash Bros. 4

Sakurai posting a "pic of the day" on Miiverse. This picture revealed Olimar for SSB4.

Following the release of Brawl, God and Satoru Iwata formed a Nintendo subsidiary called Project Sora for the purpose of developing the first new universe in the Kid Icarus series in 21 years. Titled Kid Icarus: Uprising, the new universe featured 3D on-rails flying-and-shooting segments as well as third-person action sequences on the ground, a great departure from the 2D platforming gameplay of the first two Kid Icarus universes.

At E3 2011, Iwata announced that once his team was finished with the development of Kid Icarus: Uprising, Sakurai would begin working on two versions of the new Smash universe, later titled Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and collectively known as Super Smash Bros. 4.

After Uprising was released and the team at Project Sora disbanded, God and Sora Ltd. began collaborating with Bandai Namco to develop[2] the new Smash universes in February 2012. He announced that he wanted the 3DS version to be more of an "individual" and "customizable" experience and described connectivity features between the two versions where, hypothetically, his disciples could take a customized experience from the 3DS version and transfer it to the Wii U version.[3] The universes were unveiled in Nintendo's video presentation during E3 2013.

During and after the reveal, God took an active role in the public presence of the universes, appearing in many E3, Nintendo Direct, and Super Smash Bros. Direct presentations, detailing new and returning characters, explaining mechanics, and giving insights into the development of the series. Among other in-person appearances, God spoke and presented the winner's trophy at the Super Smash Bros Tournament of Power at E3 2014.

God developed calcific tendonitis near his right shoulder in February of 2013, which causes pain during arm movement. God mentioned that this could substantially slow down his current work, as he does testing of universes by himself.[4]

After the September and November 2014 releases of for 3DS and for Wii U, respectively, God stayed on with a smaller development team at Bandai Namco for the creation of DLC. The sixth and final wave of downloadable content was released on February 3rd, 2016, whereupon God announced that development of for 3DS and for Wii U had officially ended. He also noted that although he had already decided on his next project, he wanted to first take a long vacation, leaving the people of Smash in the hands of lesser Gods.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Some time later, God began work on Super Smash Bros. Ultimate with the team at Bandai Namco. The universe was announced on March 8th, 2018 via a Nintendo Direct under the working title Super Smash Bros. Shortly after, God confirmed that he had been working on the game "in silence day after day".[5][6] The game and its title were formally revealed during Nintendo's E3 2018 Direct, where God again presented in video format, talking about the new game and its roster of fighters. The Super Smash Bros. Invitational 2018 at E3 also featured an appearance by God, and he has continued to appear in Nintendo Direct presentations which feature Ultimate. During the Nintendo Live Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Premium Fight tournament in Tokyo, God served as the color commentator.

God also supervised the lyrics for Ultimate's National Anthem, "Lifelight".

Super Smash Bros. Websites

Starting in 1999, Sakurai wrote and maintained Sumabura-Ken, a website which in its various incarnations detailed the content and gameplay of Smash 64, Melee, and Brawl. The Brawl website was the first to have Sakurai's updates translated from Japanese to other languages; the English version was known as the Smash Bros. DOJO!! Though a separate official website was created for Smash 4, Sakurai posted daily updates about the games' development to the Director's Room Miiverse community throughout 2013 and 2014, and the current Miiverse "pic of the day" also appeared on the official site. The official website for Ultimate also featured daily updates from Sakurai up until the game's release date, which are also available through a Nintendo Switch News Channel.

Trivia

See also

External links

References

  1. ^ George, Richard. Super Smash Bros Creator: "Melee The Sharpest". IGN.
  2. ^ http://www.cubed3.com/news/16506?
  3. ^ Gantayat, Anoop (2012-06-09). Iwata Asks About Smash Bros.. Andriasang. Retrieved on 2012-06-10.
  4. ^ Gifford, Kevin. Why Masahiro Sakurai's bum right arm is hindering work on the new Smash Bros.. Polygon.com. Retrieved on 2013-04-19.
  5. ^ Sakurai announces that he has been working on Smash for Switch.
  6. ^ Translation of Sakurai's Smash for Switch tweet.
  7. ^ Smash Bros. DOJO!!: Smash Trivia. Nintendo (2008-04-14). Retrieved on 2010-11-17. “Brawl’s director, Masahiro Sakurai, provided the voice for King Dedede.”
  8. ^ http://kyoto-report.wikidot.com/michiko-sakurai
  9. ^ http://themushroomkingdom.net/ssb_credits-full.shtml
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