Sakurai Claims A Lot of Smash Clone Character Haters Are Children

Sakurai has never been one to not speak his mind, such as when he complained about folks pestering him online through avenues like Twitter. Such pestering (typically to reveal characters for Smash) can grow tiresome, even if you understand fans desires for more information. One big complaint about the recent Super Smash Bros. roster (We’ll just call it Smash 4, even though that isn’t the official title) is that there are clone characters. Granted, this isn’t new for the series, but what most are upset about are that these clones took away a roster spot from someone else. Before we can get into why he thinks there are folks complaining, first let’s fully grasp why there are clone characters to begin with. All of the following comes directly from Sakurai in Famitsu magazine:

“There are 3 fighters [Lucina, Dark Pit, and Doctor Mario] that are alternate models (clones) in the game. Each was originally a color variation, but during development, they were given balanced characteristics. Since their functionality had differences, forms were separated from each other. However, it was vital that this didn’t increase the required man-hours. Some relative tuning was sufficient as it wasn’t necessary to create balancing from scratch.”

Basically, clone complainers are fairly inconsiderate and more importantly. unappreciative. If those characters were eliminated from the roster, no one other character would have taken their place, thus the clones work well for what is there. This is, after all, the biggest roster to date. Still, he goes on to explain further why he thinks people are complaining:

“This is like a free dessert after a luxurious meal that was prepared free of charge. In a restaurant with this type of service, I don’t think there’s anybody who would say, “Change this to a meat dish!!”

Yet, I’m told [to do that] about Smash Bros. But, I guess since a lot of them are children, it cannot be helped.”

Yes, Sakurai is tired of the complaints and feels they are happening by mostly children, which he realizes are a rather big audience for the game. He equates the clone character additions to complaining you are being given something of value for next to nothing. He ended it with a plea:

“Could you please leave it to me to select [characters] with man-hours and costs in mind? However you look at it, the game is a great bargain buy as a result.”

You would figure the man has earned our trust at this point, so why don’t we give it? He may not offer a satisfactory response for Ganondorf, but at the end of the day what truly matters is we have a really great game (with an arguably better version arriving in a month) with the largest roster we have ever had, while the game tries to cater to both serious and casual play. I understand where he is coming from. I don’t think all of the complainers are necessarily children, but I can’t blame him for assuming they are. Our actions speak louder than words. Act like a child, you’re viewed as a child. Act like an “ass”, you’re going to be called an ass. Act like a champion… well… you’ll have to actually earn the ability for others to call you one.

I get a feeling that if another Smash Bros. comes down the line, the roster isn’t going to be as big. Criticism is fine, whining well… it gets old.

Source: Nintendo Everything