10th July 2018, 11:13 PM
https://nintendoeverything.com/sakurai-b...p-with-it/
New Smash game, same old story: once again Sakurai is saying that he doesn't want to make a Smash game that competitive players would love, eg a new Melee, because that'd alienate casual audiences. Melee's too hard! Sigh... and this is why Melee will stay alive in the competitive scene, because Sakurai is openly hostile to making a fighting game the way you should make one. I'm not saying that a new Smash game needs to be exactly like Melee, but his whole attitude towards competitive gaming has always been way off the mark! He's making fighting games, you need to consider what the fighting game community wants. Ot herwise, well, once again nwe'll be in a situation where Melee continues to be in lots of tournaments.
You see the difference between Sakurai and any other fighting game creator when you look at the kinds of games playing in major tourneys -- it's almost all modern games... and Melee. Great classics like SF2 or 3, SF Alpha 3, any classic SNK game, what have you, none of those are main-list Evo games. Melee is, and it's like over a decade older than anything else. Part of that is just because of how dedicated Melee's fanbase is, but I do think that if Nintendo was more responsive to what the games' most dedicated fans want, Melee wouldn't need to be in Evo anymore. I am far from a big competitive-gaming fan and rarely watch any of that stuff, but still, this stuff does matter no matter how much Sakurai wishes it didn't...
While this clearly is Nintendo's philosophy, how is it a good one? They could be doing all the same things they are to attract mass audiences, and also trying more to keep the attention of important parts of their core base! And with the popularity of competitive gaming now, this attitude is getting more and more dated...
New Smash game, same old story: once again Sakurai is saying that he doesn't want to make a Smash game that competitive players would love, eg a new Melee, because that'd alienate casual audiences. Melee's too hard! Sigh... and this is why Melee will stay alive in the competitive scene, because Sakurai is openly hostile to making a fighting game the way you should make one. I'm not saying that a new Smash game needs to be exactly like Melee, but his whole attitude towards competitive gaming has always been way off the mark! He's making fighting games, you need to consider what the fighting game community wants. Ot herwise, well, once again nwe'll be in a situation where Melee continues to be in lots of tournaments.
You see the difference between Sakurai and any other fighting game creator when you look at the kinds of games playing in major tourneys -- it's almost all modern games... and Melee. Great classics like SF2 or 3, SF Alpha 3, any classic SNK game, what have you, none of those are main-list Evo games. Melee is, and it's like over a decade older than anything else. Part of that is just because of how dedicated Melee's fanbase is, but I do think that if Nintendo was more responsive to what the games' most dedicated fans want, Melee wouldn't need to be in Evo anymore. I am far from a big competitive-gaming fan and rarely watch any of that stuff, but still, this stuff does matter no matter how much Sakurai wishes it didn't...
Quote:“I think the philosophy behind them doesn’t go in line with Nintendo’s philosophy in that some of these players are playing for the prize money. It comes to a point where they’re playing the game for the money, and I feel that kind of direction doesn’t coincide with Nintendo’s view of what games should be.”
While this clearly is Nintendo's philosophy, how is it a good one? They could be doing all the same things they are to attract mass audiences, and also trying more to keep the attention of important parts of their core base! And with the popularity of competitive gaming now, this attitude is getting more and more dated...