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Masahiro Sakurai has not claimed that a conventional version of Super Smash Bros. was statistically doomed. His comments express a design judgment: a Smash built around only one-on-one matches, fixed fighting-game conventions and expert-focused competition would lose the qualities that made the series distinctive. He designed Smash so first-time players could participate, while leaving room for serious high-level play.
What Sakurai actually said
A March 23, 2016 translation of Sakurai’s Famitsu column, published by Source Gaming, says: “If you want to enjoy the strategy or competitiveness in playing against another person, then maybe normal fighting games are more suited for you.” In the same passage, Sakurai explains that he wanted new players to have fun and wanted to avoid a structure in which stronger players could completely dominate weaker ones.
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That translation carries an important qualification: Source Gaming identifies it as a fan translation and warns that it may not reproduce Sakurai’s opinions perfectly. It is useful evidence of his design reasoning, but not a statistical prediction about commercial success.
In an interview about Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Sakurai made the identity issue more direct: “If Smash were a fighting game where you could only play one-on-one matches, it’d become just like any other fighting game.” He also said he was receptive to Smash being part of esports, while rejecting the idea that esports is the only valid way to enjoy it.
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- New stages and fighters are joined by the combined rosters of every past Super Smash Bros. Game
- Challenge others anytime, anywhere, whether you're on the couch or on the go
- Play any way you want—locally, online, in TV mode, Tabletop mode, Handheld mode, or even with GameCube Controllers
- Fight faster and smarter with new and returning techniques, like the perfect shield and directional air dodge
- Face off in 2-4 player battles, or play against the computer
Nintendo’s Iwata Asks development archive likewise presents the goal as making Smash approachable to people playing for the first time while still retaining the structure of a fighting game.
Why a conventional format would change Smash
| Design question | Traditional fighting-game emphasis | Smash’s intended approach |
|---|---|---|
| Who can participate? | A higher skill floor can make matchup knowledge, timing and execution prerequisites for meaningful play. | Simple entry points let newcomers act immediately, even when experienced players remain stronger. |
| How many players? | Primarily one-on-one rounds, with the duel as the central competitive unit. | Multiple players, changing targets and stage situations are part of the core experience. |
| How are attacks connected? | Players often build reliable, practiced sequences and punish windows. | Percentage damage, knockback, stage position and changing opponents create more improvisational interactions. |
| What ends a round? | A health bar is reduced to zero, usually within a bounded arena. | Damage percentage increases vulnerability, and a launch beyond the blast zone can decide a stock. |
| What is the social goal? | Focused competition and mastery of a duel are usually the organizing priorities. | Party-style variety and accessibility sit alongside optional tournament-level competition. |
Accessibility without removing depth
Sakurai’s aim was not to make everyone equally skilled. It was to stop the rules from making beginners irrelevant before they could understand what was happening. A new player can move, attack and interfere in a match without first learning a long command list or a complete set of matchup-specific responses. Experts still gain advantages through spacing, recovery control, timing, stage awareness and adaptation.
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Multiplayer as an identity, not an extra mode
For Sakurai, removing multiplayer variety would do more than simplify the rules. It would alter the game’s purpose. Free-for-alls, teams, items, stage hazards and changing targets produce situations that a strictly controlled duel cannot reproduce. Those elements can be disabled for tournament rules, but their presence helps define what Smash is designed to be.
Percentage damage changes the interaction model
Smash does not treat damage as a conventional bar that simply counts down. Each hit raises a percentage that generally makes later attacks send a character farther. The result is a shifting relationship between attack choice, launch angle, stage position and recovery options. A move that is safe or weak early in a stock may become a setup for a knockout later. This reduces reliance on one universally fixed sequence and rewards reacting to the current situation.
Did Sakurai think a traditional Smash would fail?
The careful answer is that he doubted the fit, not that he proved failure was inevitable. No authoritative numerical study cited for these comments estimates sales, audience size or a probability of success for a one-on-one-only Smash. The available evidence is qualitative: Sakurai believed conventional rules would make Smash resemble existing fighters and undermine its accessibility and multiplayer identity.
That distinction matters. A traditional version might have attracted players who prefer tightly structured duels, but it would also have competed more directly on the terms already established by conventional fighting games. Sakurai’s concern was that changing the format would remove the reasons Smash appealed to people who did not normally play those games.
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- -Disc only. Original case and manual not included. Will come packaged in a generic case.
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Casual and competitive play are not opposites
Smash’s accessible foundation does not make serious play accidental or illegitimate. Competitive players can impose strict rules, select particular stages, remove items and study character-specific strategies. Execution, neutral-game decisions, advantage-state pressure and recovery management support deep mastery.
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One free scan finds every outdated or missing driver and matches the right update for your exact hardware.Free scan · exact hardware matchWhat Sakurai rejects is the claim that tournament play must define the entire product. A match can be played casually with several people, or under demanding competitive rules, without either use invalidating the other. The same underlying systems support both because accessibility concerns the entry point, while mastery concerns how far a player chooses to develop.
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- International Version. ESRB rated. This game is tied to the USA region and any DLC content is available on the USA regional Nintendo eShop. Works on all systems worldwide. (Middle East / Southeast Asia -- Official Nintendo Product).
- New stages and fighters are joined by the combined rosters of every past Super Smash Bros. game
- Challenge others anytime, anywhere, whether you're on the couch or on the go
- Play any way you want—locally, online, in TV mode, Tabletop mode, Handheld mode, or even with GameCube Controllers
- Fight faster and smarter with new and returning techniques, like the perfect shield and directional air dodge
What this means for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate follows the design balance Sakurai described: it supports one-on-one matches and organized competition, but also retains team battles, free-for-alls, items, varied stages and other ways to play. Turning off those features can create a focused competitive environment; keeping them enabled preserves the broader multiplayer game Sakurai considered essential to Smash’s identity.
So the headline should be read as a counterfactual design argument. Sakurai doubted that Smash would remain meaningfully “Smash” if rebuilt as a conventional, one-on-one fighting game. He did not present a study showing that such a product could not sell or succeed.
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