Super Smash Bros. has continued to be a massively popular fighting video game franchise. Since its launch on the Nintendo 64, multiple installments have been released, giving fans an epic brawl featuring iconic characters. Of course, over the years, we’ve seen more characters from other beloved franchises get invited into the game. So, when going through the game, it was always exciting to see just who might be popping up next.
Before, these reveals were featured in-game, but that changed. Recently, Masahiro Sakurai took to his YouTube channel and unveiled the history of these CGI clips. Essentially, these CGI video reveals were a means to get players interested in the adventure game mode. While you had several challenges before a character was unlocked, the CGI video was a means of rewarding players. Each video was carefully constructed and offered a unique look into the introduction of a character. There was hope that this would be enough to get players excited and pressing on with the solo game mode.
Unfortunately, there was one major issue that the developers were facing. It looked like people were uploading these clips and leaking them online. For instance, previous installments had these clips leaking online before the game was even released. Masahiro believes this was due to the game being handed out to media outlets early. As a result, the developers decided to refrain from going down this route for future games, which is what we saw in the latest release, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
Instead of having these CGI reveals happen in-game, the developers were able to add these characters post-launch slowly. Likewise, these reveals happened through various events like on a Nintendo Direct, where a CGI video would once again reveal the next character coming to the game. The famed developer went on to showcase just how the process of creating these reveal clips was handled.
Currently, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is the latest installment available for the game franchise. This title launched in 2018 for the Nintendo Switch. However, just what the future holds for this IP remains a mystery. We are expecting Nintendo to unveil their next console soon, and with it, we could eventually see the next installment of this beloved fighting game franchise. For those who would like to view the latest video upload from Masahiro, you can do so down below.
