Games

Masahiro Sakurai Reveals How Super Smash Bros. Got Its Name

Published

1 month ago

October 13, 2024

Christoph Rediske

Key Takeaways

Table of Contents

Satoru Iwata played a key role in how Super Smash Bros. got its name.
Iwata chose “Super Smash Bros.” to convey characters settling a disagreement.
Iwata helped with coding the original game and fixing bugs in Melee.

Masahiro Sakurai, the esteemed director behind the Super Smash Bros. series, reveals how Satoru Iwata contributed to it getting its iconic name. Masahiro Sakurai is an incredibly well-respected person in the gaming industry, having worked on a number of Nintendo franchises, like Super Smash Bros. and Kirby. Following the conclusion of his work on Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Sakurai has been working on his YouTube channel, “Masahiro Sakurai on Creating Games,” which covers a wide range of topics from his time in the industry.

The videos he uploaded to his channel have him sharing his various principles about working in the industry, as well as stories about the development of various games. Some of these stories include how some of the Fighter Reveal trailers were made for Super Smash Bros., and releasing never-before-seen footage of Dragon King: The Fighting Game, an early iteration of the original Super Smash Bros. on Nintendo 64. With Sakurai’s YouTube uploads coming to a close fairly soon, one of the last videos in the “Grab Bag” category is him reminiscing on his career and how he worked with the late Nintendo President, Satoru Iwata.

The Original Super Smash Bros Almost Had a Different Pokemon Fighter

Super Smash Bros. 64 gave players two Pokemon to play as, but one of them almost didn’t make the cut in favor of another Pocket Monster.

In the video “Mr. Iwata,” Sakurai remembers how he first met Iwata when he was interviewed for a job at Hal Laboratory, along with other fond memories, such as how he would help jump in with various other production teams and their programming. Sakurai recalls the only time that Iwata personally wrote the code for a game he was working on was the Nintendo 64 Dragon King fighting game prototype, which would eventually become Super Smash Bros. as we know it today. Sakurai also reveals that Iwata was also a big contributor to how Super Smash Bros. got its name, with Iwata picking the title himself.

Satoru Iwata’s Wholesome Reasoning for Choosing “Super Smash Bros.”

Sakurai recalls how various team members were suggesting a bunch of possible names and words that they could use for the game, which were then brought into a meeting between Sakurai himself, Satoru Iwata, and Earthbound/Mother series creator Shigesato Itoi. Iwata was the one who went for the “brothers” angle, reasoning that, while the characters weren’t literal brothers, the usage of the word implies they weren’t fighting for the sake of it, but rather friends who were settling a small disagreement.

Sakurai also reminisced on how Iwata personally came to help out with the development of the original game, recounting how Iwata was having a lot of fun programming it. Iwata was also brought on to help program Super Smash Bros. Melee, as the game frequently came across crashes and bugs that needed to be fixed. “Mr. Iwata” is the last one in Sakurai’s “Grab Bag” category, as Sakurai’s YouTube series will end on October 15. A special finale episode will be released afterward.

Super Smash Bros.

Can Link beat up Mario? Can Yoshi deck Donkey Kong? Can Kirby punch out Pikachu?

Before Super Smash Bros Melee for Nintendo Gamecube, these and other age-old questions were first answered with Super Smash Bros, the original all-star Nintendo tournament fighter for Nintendo 64. Crossing multiple universes and alternate dimensions, the most popular of Nintendo’s characters grace this bare-knuckle Pak.

The 12 superstars are Mario, Luigi, Donkey Kong, Link, Samus, Yoshi, Kirby, Fox McCloud, Jigglypuff, Ness, Captain Falcon and Pikachu. Each has a specific 3-D fighting arena, with power-ups and obstacles scattered throughout the areas.

Two to four players can fight simultaneously on the same screen, or one player can battle through the tournament ladder to reach a secret boss at the summit. The goal is to knock your opponent out of the playing field as many times as possible within a specified time limit. If you dominate the competition, you can kick them so hard they fly into the sky and turn into a constellation. Link hacks away with his Master Sword, Yoshi slurps up enemies and turns them into eggs, and Fox McCloud is strapped with his trusty Blaster.

Systems