Masahiro Sakurai gives us a look at one of the earliest Super Smash Bros. prototypes
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Super Smash Bros. creator Masahiro Sakurai recently shared a rare look at one of the previous incarnations of the series on his YouTube channel.
If you hadn’t listened Sakurai has a YouTube channel now, and it is very good! He talks about all things game design, and even goes into the history of some of his games, like the Kirby series. However, more recently, Sakurai has shared a look at Dragon King: The Fighting Game that we have never seen before. Haven’t you heard of him? Well, actually you have: it’s what was once the first Smash Bros.
It’s not new news that Smash Bros. was once called Dragon King, back in its prototyping days, but we’ve never seen footage of this early build before. However, Sakurai being himself, of course he has the authority to share such images, and it’s an incredibly interesting look at what is now one of the most iconic game series of all time.
Following the release of Kirby Super Star, the next thing that Sakurai and co. He had his eyes on the Nintendo 64, Nintendo’s first foray into 3D. Sakurai explains in the video that he came up with two releases for Nintendo, one a stealth and exploration RC robot adventure game, the other a four-player wrestling game with no health bars (sound familiar?) and so on. that he made prototypes for both, though he went on to make Smash Bros. mainly because other projects at his company flopped and he needed a game that could be made quickly.
You can see the foundations of Smash Bros. in Dragon King’s prototype footage pretty easily. The smash attacks, shields, dashes, and air attacks are all there, and even the classic battlefield stage design was there.
The full video is worth watching, one from a historical perspective, but also for the ways Sakurai explains much of his thought process behind why Smash Bros. is the way it is. It’s rare that we get such ideas, especially from someone with such a high profile, so even if Smash Bros. isn’t your thing, if you’re interested in game design, check it out.
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