Have you enjoyed the “Creating Games” channel Masahiro Sakurai started on YouTube? If so, you’re not alone. Tens of thousands of people tune into every video that he’s made, and each video brings new excitement as he relays his thoughts on video game development as a whole. However, easily one of the more unique topics he does on his channel is talking about the video games he personally worked on. Through these videos, we see not only the history of video games but the process by which he made the games special and successful. The newest video from his channel had him focusing on the fan-favorite Nintendo Gamecube title Kirby Air Ride.
Right off the bat, Masahiro Sakurai reveals that this game was made the way it was for two reasons. The first was that Kirby had just gotten an anime over in Japan, and fans of it wanted more Kirby content. Nintendo was happy to facilitate this, so between the Gamecube and the Game Boy Advance, they planned to release several titles to facilitate demand.
With Kirby Air Ride, Sakurai felt it would be best to do something “different” so that it didn’t directly compete with the two Game Boy Advance titles in development. A very smart choice. But that didn’t mean that everything was smooth sailing for the title.
On the contrary, development could have been better. At first, Sakurai explained what he knew the game should be regarding the racing element and incorporating drifting in specific ways to enhance the gameplay flavor. He also noted how he wanted the team to bring many gameplay modes into the game so that players always had something to do and challenges to overcome. That desire led to the birth of the “checklist” system, which came well before achievements and trophies from other systems.
However, a year into development, the programming/gameplay barely worked. So Sakurai himself had to come in and right the ship. He did that, and the game was finished a little over three months later. That should prove to you how much of a boss he is.
Sakurai also revealed that, at this point, he was the head of everything Kirby-related. He even helped with the anime! But all that pressure led to him making Sora LTD and thus becoming an independent contractor.
As a result, the next game he will focus on that he made is one that you might not recall. So stay tuned for that!
Source: YouTube
