super smash bros Creator Masahiro Sakurai recently shared one of the early versions of the series on his YouTube channel.
If you haven’t heard, Sakurai now has a YouTube channel which is really cool! He talks about all things game design, even the history of some of his games, like the Kirby series. More recently, though, Sakurai shared what we’ve never seen before in Dragon King: The Fighting Game. never heard of that? Well, you’ve actually done it: this is what the first Smash Bros. game used to be.
It’s nothing new that Smash Bros. was known as the Dragon King during the prototyping era, but we’ve never seen footage of this early build before. While Sakurai is himself, he certainly has the right to share the footage, and it’s a very interesting observation for what is now one of the most iconic gaming franchises of all time.
Following the release of “Kirby Superstar”, the next work by Sakurai et al. His focus was on the Nintendo 64, Nintendo’s first foray into 3D. Sakurai explains in the video that he designed two projects for Nintendo, a stealth and explore RC robot adventure game, and a four-player free-to-play fighting game with no health bars (sound familiar?), so he designed two projects for the two The creator made a prototype, but went on to make Smash Bros. mainly because other projects at his company had failed and he needed a game that he could make quickly.
You can easily see the base of Smash Bros. in the Dragon King prototype footage. Heavy hits, shields, sprints, aerial attacks, and even the classic battlefield stage layout.
The whole video is worth watching, from a historical standpoint, but also because Sakurai explains the way behind many of his thought processes, why Smash Bros. is the way it is. We rarely get such insight, especially from such a high-profile person, so even if Smash Bros. isn’t your thing, if you’re interested in game design, check it out.