Smash Bros. Ultimate director discusses 3rd-party characters

Nintendo's Super Smash Bros. Ultimate director, Masahiro Sakurai, has given details regarding the process of which Nintendo go through to get third-party characters into the Smash Bros. series.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate director Masahiro Sakurai has sat down with EDGE to dive into the process of which Nintendo and himself, go through to include third-party characters in the Smash Bros. series. Sakurai says that the process is sometimes met with a physical meeting with the characters creator and lots of communication with Nintendo. "There are cases where I will meet with the original creators myself once or twice, but in general communication is carried out through Nintendo."

Sakurai further details that no matter what third-party character is chosen they are always developed in the Smash Bros. style first. "Character movements are also developed with a Smash Bros. style first. The end result from this is then passed on for review by the other companies, so they can point out any problems for us to fix." The third-party companies will then point out "differences in what is regarded as acceptable in terms of Smash Bros. and in terms of the original series, in the end we try to find something that both sides will be happy with." A recent example of a surprise third-party character coming to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is Persona 5's 'Joker', more on that story here.