It's been nearly a month since Steve from Minecraft was revealed as the latest DLC fighter for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and a little over two weeks since he was actually released. In that time, numerous fans of the series have taken to giving their thoughts on the new addition to the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate roster. Though, as Masahiro Sakurai, the creative director behind the Super Smash Bros. series, details in a recent article, he was unable to properly receive feedback on the new character.
For those that don't know, on top of being Smash Bros.'s creative director, Masahiro Sakurai also serves as a column writer for Japan's Famitsu magazine. He has written many articles in the past describing multiple aspects of his work and life. In fact, in the beginning of the year, he wrote an article talking about how 13 Sentinels is a game that everyone should play.
In his most recent column, translated on Twitter by PushDustin and Sephazon, Sakurai opens by talking about how on the day Steve from Minecraft was announced as the next DLC fighter, Twitter actually crashed, and he was unable to see what fans thought of Steve's inclusion in the game. Once Twitter was back online, Sakurai was able to see what everyone thought of the new character.
Sakurai later goes on to explain how Steve made his way into Smash Bros. in the first place. According to Sakurai, coming up with Steve's move set and abilities was actually pretty simple, given that Sakurai is apparently well versed with Minecraft and its mechanics, amazingly so. As a result, he had many ideas, including having players build Smash Bros. levels in Minecraft and then import them into Smash Bros. Ultimate, which turned out to be quite difficult to accomplish. However, Sakurai later mentions that most of the time, relying on the source material any given character is based on actually makes the process of developing the character much harder depending.
Originally, Sakurai wanted Steve to be a much more accessible and easier character to pick up and learn comparatively, given how massive Minecraft's fanbase is. Though, given the complexity of Minecraft itself, Sakurai felt that it only made sense for Steve's character to be much more complex.
As always, it's interesting to hear Sakurai's commentary on various aspects of game development, especially for a character that's as unique as Steve from Minecraft. For only being 50 years old, Sakurai is quite wise and knowledgeable when it comes to video games, even outside of Super Smash Bros. Hopefully, people will be able to hear more of what he has to say in the future.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is available now exclusively for the Nintendo Switch.