Sakurai: New Super Smash Bros. Still 'Several Years' Away

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In case you missed it, there was new Super Smash Bros. game announced for both the Wii U and 3DS during Nintendo’s E3 press conference. This made fans begin to speculate that perhaps it would be a launch title for Nintendo’s new console, but then came the news from creative director Masahiro Sakurai that it actually isn’t in development yet – and won’t be for a while.

In an interview with Edge Magazine today, Sakurai spoke more about the zany decision to announce a game that isn’t in development yet, and the problems he now faces as a developer due to the early announcement.

“We’ve got no plans whatsoever. We’ve got two new games out in the open when there’s no extra time to work with them at all,” he said. “It makes me cringe, and I’m not sure it’s the smartest thing to make gamers wait for several years, but the early announcement was made chiefly in order to attract new team members.”

Now it seems that the quality of the finished product is at risk due to the rushed development Sakurai says will follow the release of Kid Icarus: Uprising. “The hardest part about game development is the burden it places upon me,” he said. “With previous projects I had a game design document in place before forming a team, but with this I don’t have time for that.”

Sakurai continued on with his fears about the fate of the title, saying that normally he takes a look at all of the mechanics and balances the characters himself. With this iteration, however, he won’t have time to do this, instead relying on his team to make sure the game is up to the standards of previous Smash Bros. titles. When it comes down to it, he says “The future of this project really depends on the people I can get involved with it.”

Hopefully that won’t prove too much of a problem, since as Sakurai says, Nintendo’s announcement was more to attract people to the project than anything else. I’m pretty sure I speak for most Smash Bros. fans, though, when I say that making us wait several years for a new entry in great series is much less cringe-worthy than delivering a mediocre rush-job just so can get it out sooner rather than later.

I guess we’ll be hearing more about this new Smash Bros. game once Kid Icarus: Uprising has hit stores, so don’t expect to hear much on this one for a while. Are you worried for the future of Smash Bros., or do you think Sakurai will be able to pull a great team together and deliver a solid game? Sound off in the comments section below!