Smash Bros. Creator Tells Tales Of Game Development Hell

The man behind Nintendo’s insanely popular fighting game series, Super Smash Bros., worked tirelessly to give fans their GameCube sequel to the Nintendo 64 original. He calls the making of that game “grueling” and part of a “really destructive lifestyle.”

Masahiro Sakurai, the game designer of Super Smash Bros. and its two sequels, writes in a new magazine column about the hardships of development of the GameCube entry, Super Smash Bros. Melee. He also says we’ll likely never see a Smash Bros. game that “hardcore”-leaning again.

“On a personal level, Melee had an extremely grueling development cycle,” Sakurai wrote in a new Famitsu column, translated by 1UP. “I worked on that game for 13 months straight, after all, without a single Sunday or holiday off that whole time. During parts of it, I was living a really destructive lifestyle — I’d work for over 40 hours in a row, then go back home to sleep for four.”

Sakurai says he considers Melee to be the “sharpest” of the Smash Bros. games, but one that was “just too difficult.” More from the game designer at 1UP.

Masahiro Sakurai Reflects on Super Smash Bros. Melee [1UP]