As a general rule, once I’ve decided I trust a particular content creator — be it a high profile game developer, Quentin Tarantino, or the guy responsible for character design in the latest Fire Emblem — I take an innocent until proven guilty approach. This generally saves a lot of unnecessary stress, as I have no need to pull my hair out over every seemingly bizarre or logically bankrupt decision that may happen along the way. Instead, I can simply worry about the end result. When Masahiro Sakurai wrote in Famitsu recently that the newest Super Smash Bros. will straight-up lack the awesomely nerdtastic cutscenes found in Brawl, I knew right away this was one of those decisions.
According to the column, Sakurai’s choice to remove any and all CG goodness from the upcoming Smash iterations stems from a feeling that cutscenes really only serve their purpose once, and that if they find their way to the likes of YouTube, then said purpose-count is cut swiftly to zero. You can read his thoughts below.
“You can only truly wow a player the first time he sees [a cutscene]. I felt if players saw the cutscenes outside of the game, they would no longer serve as rewards for playing the game, so I’ve decided against having them.”
Deep breaths. Actually, I’m not all that angry. Super Smash Bros. is about multiplayer after all, and I’ll admit that I only played through Subspace Emissary – the single player campaign for Brawl – two or three times tops. Still, the cutscenes did provide a wow-factor that something like a new Smash really ought to, and they will be missed.
In Sakurai we trust. Assuming the final product is great, that is. The Super Smash Bros. series is my favorite multiplayer endeavor by a long shot, so for now I’m keeping faith.