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Kid Icarus: Uprising Designer Feels His Games Are Hard To Understand

By Ishaan . February 22, 2012 . 10:32am

Kid Icarus: Uprising Designer Feels His Games Are Hard To Understand

Masahiro Sakurai has created some of Nintendo’s most successful games, but speaking with Nintendo president, Satoru Iwata, Sakurai says he feels like his games can be hard to understand at first. Sakurai says this is because he has a fondness for going against the grain.

 

The original Super Smash Bros., for instance, took a while before it caught on. Sakurai wanted to defy conventional fighting game wisdom and create a game that allowed for frantic battles without having to memorize and practise lengthy combos. Because of this unfamiliar approach, it wasn’t until Nintendo erected the original Smash Bros. Dojo website, detailing the depth of the game under its shallow exterior, that people paid attention.

 

“It took quite a lot of time and energy until Super Smash Bros. spread to a large number of people,” Iwata recalls.

 

Other examples of this phenomenon are Kirby: Air Ride and Meteos. In Kirby: Air Ride, a racing game for the Gamecube, you don’t have an acceleration button. Instead, you’re always moving forward, and the A button acts as your brakes. Holding down the A button also gives you a boost of speed after you let go of it. Similar to Smash Bros., this game took a while to catch on.

 

For this reason, Sakurai is afraid that players will misunderstand multiplayer battles in Kid Icarus: Uprising as well. For his part, Sakurai says he’s developed the game as something for hardened gamers to enjoy, with both land and air battles, and a deep level of customization using the Fiend’s Cauldron and loot drops.

 

Sakurai feels Uprising is similar in concept to a first-person shooter, but uses far less inputs than the standard FPS. In fact, Iwata reveals, Sakurai constantly pestered him for information on 3DS games by other developers, just so he could be sure no one else was creating a title similar to Kid Icarus: Uprising.


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  • http://twitter.com/#!/Leafy_Cam Leafhopper

    “Hard to understand”

    Super Smash Bros.: Nintendo characters (and a few guest characters) beat the crap out of one another.

    Deep. :P.

    • http://twitter.com/Laith_Rem Laith Rem

      Kirby: Pink ball protects dreams by eating everything in its path.

      Way2deep

      • HeatPhoenix

        2deep4u

      • http://twitter.com/#!/Leafy_Cam Leafhopper

         3deep5you

    • SetzerGabbiani

      I think he’s referring to the systems underneath the surface.  If you watch Youtube tutorials made by hardcore smash players, this makes sense.

      • HeatPhoenix

        Even then, they’re mostly just abusing glitches not intentionally put in the game.

    • http://www.siliconera.com Ishaan

      I think what he means is that the underlying appeal is hard to understand. Nintendo characters beating the crap out of each other doesn’t necessarily sound very appealing by itself until you get to see what it looks like and try it out for yourself.

      • http://twitter.com/#!/Leafy_Cam Leafhopper

         Very true, I see the errors of my statement.

      • Asura

         ”Nintendo characters beating the crap out of each other doesn’t necessarily sound very appealing by itself”

        I completely disagree.

  • Asura

    At least the first two smash games had intentional L-cancelling.

    Had Sakurai’s crew realized the potential of wavedashing when they discovered it in Melee and ended up taking it out rather than leaving it in, we would not have one of the richest fighting games in existence.

    I think Sakurai doesn’t understand his own games and that’s what makes them good. When he does understand them (when he is fully aware of which mechanics are in them and what they do) we get party fighters like Brawl instead of complex fighters.

    Please Sakurai, do us “hardened gamers” a favor, and fail to understand the potential of your future games, so they can turn out much better than you envisioned.

    • HeatPhoenix

      Nonsense, wavedashing adds literally nothing to the game. I’ve played the game against many people who use this wavedashing yet I don’t feel it gave them any kind of advantage over me.

      • RPGRocker

         For some characters, it really is useless. For others, it’s absolutely essential. Characters like Mewtwo and Luigi would be slow as hell without it.

      • Asura

        Nonsense my butt. I hope you’re having fun being proud of your own ignorance. Apparently you’ve never been to an ACTUAL tourney, nor watched professionals play. Go watch some footage of the Genesis tourney or something.

        This is a typical “Oh look at me! I beat people without using ‘this wavedashing’, it doesn’t matter in the metagame!”

        People like you are a dime a dozen, and completely laughable.

        Yes, some characters like Bowser or Puff don’t need WDing. Others require it. It’s overall significance to the metagame is huge.

        • HeatPhoenix

          But can you deny that it is merely abusing a glitch that was never meant to be in the game? They can patch games now, that shit’s not gonna fly anymore.

          Also, it’s not particularly cool to call people ignorant and attempt to ridicule them just because you don’t agree with them.

          And then people find it weird that I dislike the competitive crowd, as if their way of playing is the only way of playing the game.

          • RPGRocker

            It’s not a glitch. The developers chose that when you airdodge into the ground you slide. It’s part of the game’s physics. You can do the same thing in Brawl — you just don’t slide as much. I don’t think the developers intended it to be used as extensively as pros do… But that’s what gamers do — they play the game to its fullest capability. 

          • HeatPhoenix

            It was an unintended programming fault, the DEFINITION of a glitch. It just helps players, you can explain every single blue screen in Windows down to the conflicting programs and code but that doesn’t make it less of a computer crash.

          • RPGRocker

            Abusing physics does not make something a ‘glitch.’ From Wikipedia:

            “In video games, a glitch is a programming error which results in behavior not intended by the programmers.”

            As I said, when you airdodge into the ground, you slide. That is intended. This is the way it was programmed. Think about it: SOMETHING has to happen when you airdodge into the ground. Sliding was the programmers’ way of dealing with the change of momentum involved with it.

            What the developers did not intend was HOW players would use it. That’s not abusing a glitch — that’s called playing the game to the fullest.

      • raymk

        I’m going to take it that you hate the competitive community.  Wavedashing adds a lot to the game on a competitive level.  Even on a casual level some characters are complete garbage without it like mewtwo and bowser.  Also it matters who you play, if all your playing is scrubs(no not newbs scrubs) then it won’t seem like a big deal when you fight them.

        • HeatPhoenix

          Yeah, you’re right. I’m not a fan.

  • AuraGuyChris

    I understand…that he wants our money.

    And I’ll gladly do it. *Throws money*

    • theworldofnoboundries

      TAKE MY MONEY U THIEF!!!!

  • jugun

    Kirby Air Ride was one of the best games I played on the Gamecube alongside Melee & Pokemon Colosseum,and it was because it was easy to play with just the A button,I would like them to consider a sequel on the Wii-U if possible,or just a HD reboot,because the game look good on my old small tv. 

  • http://twitter.com/arlrex Jesus A. Roman

    So far all his games have been quite enjoyable for me and I’m looking forward for Kid Icarus. The game-play looks a bit like Sin & Punishment which I liked so no way I’m not getting this. Plus it has all those nice bonus stuff and freebies =p

  • theworldofnoboundries

    Well i love how Sakurai hopes to create something new that others have not tried.

    Good for him as he already won my money lol. Hope he will be able to come out with more great games.

  • neetyneety

    Don’t worry Sakurai, even though I don’t think I’m a “hardened” player, I’ll still gladly willingly give you all my money. And no, I won’t do something silly like throw my money at the screen, years of doing that have made me realize it’s uselessness. Instead, I’m going to send him a letter with my cash! (or I could just buy his games, but w/e)

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