14 DAY TRIAL // Masahiuro Sakurai, the leader of the development team working on the new Smash Bros. title for the Wii U, says that one of the aims of the development team will be to make the online multiplayer experience more fun than in previous installments.
The veteran designer has answered a letter from a fan of the series who has complained about the importance of the first move and the limited use for items in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
In a Famitsu column translated by The Official Nintendo Magazine, Masahiuro Sakurai states, “I’d like people to take some freer approaches with their gameplay, but the sort of battle style you describe in your letter is not interesting or fun.”
The team has been collecting data about player behavior since Super Smash Bros. Brawl was launched and will use the information for the new title in the series.
The developer adds, “I suppose the fact that we’ve still got no-fee online battles available in a game that was released five years ago is another cause of the problem. It would have been nice if we could have revised the game rules as appropriate, but with the system we had, that wasn’t possible.”
It’s unclear how the Smash Bros. title for the Wii U will handle the online battle system, given that the Nintendo development team has not yet offered clear detail on the game mechanics.
Masahiuro Sakurai has suggested that he wants more story elements for the game and it seems that the main features of the series will be re-evaluated and expanded upon.
A team from Namco Bandai is also contributing to the game.
Smash Bros. Wii U is one of the games that could kick-start sales of the new Nintendo home console.
Screenshots from the title are expected to be shown during E3 2013.