|
The Game Developers Conference
has just come and gone. Of
course, it had all kinds of news
and previews of upcoming games,
but the main focus was on Super
Smash Bros. Brawl, as expected.
Masahiro Sakurai, the
creator/developer of the game
and the renowned Kirby
franchise, finally opened up and
answered our burning questions
about Brawl.
And that's when I lost all
respect for him I ever had as a
person.
Before continuing, I would like
to point out 2 things. The first
is that yes, I realize he is
Masahiro Sakurai and I am Super
Mallow. Don't worry, I'm not
confusing our places or skewing
our respective positions
accordingly. Secondly, just
because his name is Masahiro
Sakurai, it doesn't mean he
automatically gets respect. Like
everyone else in my eyes,
respect is earned, not given.
Not even I can bend that
information!
With that said, I would like to
point out one thing: I still
respect him as a game designer.
I have no major reason to
complain about his games: I am
an avid fan both of Kirby and
the Smash Bros. series. However,
any designer that makes a game I
am highly interested in would
get my respect based solely on
the game, so it's not like I'm
holding him with higher regard
than any other game designer out
there.
Anyways, that's besides the
point. When Super Smash Bros.
Brawl was announced at E3 2006,
everyone was in a frenzy,
including myself. The specific
date was May 10, 2006, when the
first trailer was shown. It
looked incredible, and as it is
now, is expected to be
incredible when it's released in
2 weeks or so.
But the main thing that caught
me was the idea of the
suggestions page. For those who
are in the dark about it,
Nintendo created a form where
fans could suggest characters,
stages, and other things to
appear in Super Smash Bros.
Brawl. That, to me, was the
greatest thing of all - let's
get real: Super Smash Bros. is a
fan service, as it should be.
The idea that the fans were
going to have input on such a
mega title was absolutely
thrilling to myself and many
others.
So I immediately started acting
on this possibility. Hundreds of
thousands of people suggested
their characters. Myself and
others became big in promoting
Geno and/or Mallow to make an
appearance. We were able to get Geno to be a
highly suggested character,
according to numerous lists
about a character's popularity.
Fast forward to early February,
2008. Brawl has just been
released in Japan, and
everything is now known about
the game. Geno didn't make the
cut, much to my disappointment,
and there were a lot of
characters that I would redeem
as questionable choices. Still,
I was hooked on the leaks, and I
became excited for the game once
more, especially after America
getting numerous delays.
Now it's late February, and
Sakurai has started to comment
and answer the endless questions
regarding the game. One of the
comments he made absolutely
disturbed me, and that was his
acknowledgement of the final
character roster. I don't know
the exact quote, but he
basically said the following:
"The final roster, outside of
Sonic, was done by July 7, 2005"
Immediately, there was a huge,
huge problem for me with that.
2005? Really, 2005? No,
seriously, 2005? That's when the
roster was finalized? I was in
shock, because it didn't make
sense. After all, didn't they
start opening up the suggestions
page in May of 2006?
Oh yeah, that's right, They did,
10 months later after the final
roster design. See a problem
here?
So, what does that mean? Well,
to me, it meant two things.
First off, Sakurai and Nintendo
were able to pull a fast one on
millions of fans. That's a no-no
in my book. Secondly, Sakurai
and Nintendo gave millions of
fans, including myself, a false
hope that was completely ignored
by them; the outcome of the
roster was predetermined.
With retrospect, it's easy to
see what has happened. All of us
fans, who put millions upon
millions of dollars in these
guys' pockets, were tricked for
almost 2 years now into
believing that we would have an
impact on the game. Don't get me
wrong, I'm not saying that they
had to include anything from the
fans' suggestions, but the mere
thought that the fans had to
jump through hoops to feel
important enough in a way that
it didn't matter because the
outcome was already
predetermined is absolutely
absurd and ludicrous and
unforgivable.
For a moment, take it from my
perspective. I don't claim to be
some sort of special person or
anything, but I can claim to do
more than the average fan. For 4
years now, myself and others
have been trying to find some
way to revive Super Mario RPG -
Brawl was our best shot to have
something including, mainly with
Geno. We, after all, were the
leading vote-getter for Geno in
Brawl in terms of having people
submit their suggestions through
the before-mentioned form. Until
the form was closed, we worked
continuously, and it turns out
that it never, for one moment,
mattered what any of us thought
or did.
And don't get me wrong - Plenty
of other people and groups did
the same with other characters
such as Ridley and Dixie Kong. I
can just relate to the Geno
cause, so it was worth
mentioning. No matter the group,
they never had a shot, just like
us or any other person who spent
their time to suggest something.
But also take this from my
perspective: When all the leaks
were coming out, every time I
got a rumor about a possible
Mario RPG related thing in
Brawl, I reported it. If it was a
rumor, I said so every time.
Yet, since it never turned out
to be true about possible
inclusions in the game, I was
absolutely slammed all over the
Internet, especially in
communities dedicated to Smash
Bros.
That's the difference between
being Super Mallow and Masahiro
Sakurai. Nintendo and him can
lie for years to all their fans
putting money in their
ever-so-rich pockets, and no one
mentions a thing. Again, I'm not
comparing us two, because unlike
him, I'm not accomplished. But I
won't let him off the hook.
After all, I don't think I'll be
getting the return of my time
spent covering any possibility
of Mario RPG in Brawl.
Of course, being Super Mallow,
I'm going to get both sides of
the argument - Fair is fair
after all. I know people have
told me that this may get them
into a potential Super Smash
Bros. 4. Still, I don't buy that
- the suggestions were for
Brawl, not for Smash Bros. 4.
And even if fan requests get
into Smash Bros. 4, that's still
years and years away. It's just
not good enough.
People have also told me that
I'm just like this because Geno
did not get it. Absolutely not.
None of this is the fact that
nothing I wanted missed the cut.
It's the fact that the roster
was determined almost a year
before the suggestions opened.
We, the fans, do not deserve to
be completely tricked out of our
minds like that. We were all
given a false hope that they
knew would never matter, yet
they did it anyways.
It's just absurd and ludicrous.
It's low class. I don't care if
he's Masahiro Sakurai and I'm
Super Mallow, he shouldn't be
praised as golden guy he's being
seen as because he is the
creator of the series.
I just can't respect someone
like that. |
