Last night, Iwata announced that Namco Bandai would be providing development support for Smash Bros. on Wii U and 3DS. This goes along with the team Nintendo already has in place for the game, Sakurai included.
Some people were not happy to hear that Namco Bandai were involved. One person actually tweeted Sakurai to tell him that Namco Bandai were 'incompetent' and should be removed from the project. Sakurai had this to say in response.
"Knock off looking down on them with narrow-minded thinking."
I don't think Sakurai is about to let his baby become an abomination at the hands of Namco Bandai. I think the franchise is in capable hands. I also look forward to seeing how Namco Bandai's input makes for a fresh experience.
Link
Some people were not happy to hear that Namco Bandai were involved. One person actually tweeted Sakurai to tell him that Namco Bandai were 'incompetent' and should be removed from the project. Sakurai had this to say in response.
I don't think Sakurai is about to let his baby become an abomination at the hands of Namco Bandai. I think the franchise is in capable hands. I also look forward to seeing how Namco Bandai's input makes for a fresh experience.
Link
Categories: Interviews, Portables, Consoles, Top Stories | Tags: Smash Bros., Sakurai, 3DS, Wii U | Rating: 
+34
+34
RSS Feeds:
Just quoted for true.
Namco Bandai has increidible talent on their company, and Sakurai and Sora company are also helping and supervising, so there is nothing wrong for me in this news.
But make Lloyd and Mega Man cameos a reality, Nintendo!!!
@edgeblade
@Artistic_Anarchy
And that would be fine because he'd fit right in with the rest of the roster just like Sonic did.
The thing is, Nintendo is doing it this way in part to get the games out there that much sooner than they would be if it were strictly developed solely by Nintendo themselves. This is for the benefit of the impatient gamers who want everything ASAP. You can't expect Nintendo to do everything on their own and still expect timely releases year after year. As good of a development house and team as they have and are, it's just not possible. They need some help.
If Nintendo had merely handed over the license to Namco/Bandai and said, "Here make the next Smash Bros. game for us." Then I could see the outrage, but with Sakurai himself still the director and head of the operation and actively involved in it's development, (translation: It's still his baby) people just need to chill the hell out and see what comes of this. Who knows, it may be all for the better. We'll see.
I don't think they will over a series they currently still support [like Tales], sadly.
if Smash Bros WAS more like Grandia I think I'd be happy with that anyway.
Grandia 1 and 2 are two of the greatest games I've ever played.
As for Namco Bandai, I think it's a beautiful idea, and that I personally believe they will add a brilliant edge to the project.
Good on ya' Sakurai
So I can haz Zelos/Lloyd in my Smash Sakurai?
I come in here seeing most comments from people saying that they "trust Namco because they develop Soulcalibur and Tekken".
So are you the fighting game fanboys who hate on Smash Bros. because it's not a traditional fighting game, but now that Namco's fighting game characters that have no business being in Smash bros. have a chance, it's all rainbows and sunshine and can be considered a real fighting game?
If this game sucks balls because Sakurai and his "special team" starts butting heads because Namco wants to add some creative changes that make it in, does that mean I get to break the world like a Kit-Kat bar?
i don't doubt the game will be as good as the previous one because sakurai is still the director and namco is at least as good as game arts in the technical department . I'm just not that excited for the namco characters , i wanted only sonic to came back and megaman to appear . But now it's going to be at least pacman , maybe no sonic , no other third parties , and probably those awful tekken characters. Soul calibur is ok but tekken really i don't like that series , it's the last 3d fighter games that i would play .
Oh well too bad , no virtua fighter in any form on wii u as of right now . I would settle for doa or soul calibur but it looks like it's going to be a tekken only deal .
And it's not that smart from nintendo because as soon as the deal is over , namco is going to be hard at work of namco smash featuring capcom sega characters , and/or sony ms one . Ubisoft tried with GameArts , but namco is a bigger deal , and the smash bros hungry sony is surely going to act on that . And unlike the ubisoft game it's not going to be on wii u , since that's going to be the selling point ("true" something gen) .
Nintendo has to know that , so i'm guessing that subcontractor deal is the reason for wii u to have a main tekken , while the others just had to do nothing . Third parties nowadays are really trying to squeeze as much as they can from nintendo , it's not a viable way to do it . Nintendo is not going to lose 20% of their revenue every year in third parties relationship , it's stupid or at the very least nintendo think it's stupid. All they get is ONE meager main ip and the guarantee that the actual game is going to be used to sell more games .... on others platforms. Nothing close to what microsoft got in exchange of the 50millions they gave rockstar for gta ( loan / advance whatever it's still a lot of money , more than most games actually do)
All i want is for them to expand on the subspace emissary part , but if the namco characters have to take a bigger role , that's not going to be pretty . I'm glad i'm not a big fan of that series.
I could not care less about "e sports" or even "competition" let alone the online fighting scene . I'm under no delusions that online gaming is something more than everyone playing the same character the same way all the time when it's not the "exploit" mentality . The infinite ai through online gaming idea is dead . That gamer cred i could see the use . It's a real thing to have the main website take nintendo seriously , but that's also never going to happen . It's always going to be the "lol nintendo" treatment , and thus the lack of third party title due to self fullfilling prophecies .
This won't happens, and I think you misjudge everyone here... I don't see anybody WANTING this to happens. The happy ones understand it won't happens... the majority of the unhappy ones actually think like you.
@internet
Seriously... this won't happen. You make up the WORST situation in your head and actually think it'll happen?? Why suddenly there woould be only Namco characters? If Sonic is not in there, it WON'T be because of Namco... Also, I don't think there will be many namco characters. If there is more than two, I'll be VERY surprised... In fact, two would be surprising.
To be honest there's nothing to worry about. Sakurai is leading the project so nothing will go wrong. To be honest, Namco Bandai has 2 studios and a LOT of important people working on it. If anything, they'll not only make the process go faster, but they can probably add something that brawl was missing as fighting goes, since you know, they have a lot of experience with fighting games (Naruto, DBZ, Soul Calibur, Tekken, more if I forgot)
@Chosenoneknuckles
I guess that's why Pac Man isn't in Street Fighter vs. Tekken or as items in Soul Calibur V.
OH BUT WAIT.
Trying to remember the last game Bamco made that was not disappointing, and I keep blanking out. Time Crisis 4?I do not know why you seem so offended; Smash Bros is not a fighting game. Nor is it it supposed to be, as no less an authority on the game than Sakurai himself has said so. Including Bamco characters is not going to change any of that.
If Smash Bros is not a fighting game then what is it? a racing game?
A party game, obviously.
How is that "obvious"? I guess then all multiplayer games are party games. So is Mario no longer a platform game either, is a party game now too?
http://www.smashbros.com/en_us/
The official website says it's an action game.
heck yes, sakurai! stick it to those cynical d-bags!
I don't know if you are serious, but if you are thanks for proving my point that people look down on smash bros. because of how it's played.
To some people a fighting game is a game where characters are in a closed area and hitting each other regardless of how many people play in a match. Smash Bros.' main attraction fits that bill perfectly.
If you lived in my area you would hate Namco Bandai being the developers too, especially with how two faced most "hardcore fighting game" fans are. Except one guy I know he's pretty cool because we both know the problems with the games and doesn't have a bipolar switch like some people I know in my area.
You get One Piece games.
Actually, Cress is much closer. Seeing how he was from the first Tales game and it debuted on the Super Famicom.
Don't feed me that "We [Nintendo fans] didn't get a Tales game outside until Symphonia" $#^& either, that doesn't make Cress any less significant in his role since chances are Japanese Tales fans are the main preferred fanbase of the games to begin with. Naturally they'd listen to that side of the globe first and our thoughts/impressions are an afterthought.
Could you please explain why you hate Namco Bandai being the developers? It's not really clear... Is it because you think the "hardcore fighting game" fans will bash it more? Your comment about them confuse me. Is it because of the fans that you hate Namco Bandai?
They won't change SSB4 if that's what you fear. Sakurai will be the one that will do all the final decisions, and he have been asked to do a Smash Bros game, so it'll be a Smash Bros game. He want it to be fun. He himself just want to make a game fun to play in family and with friends. His goal never was to do a game for tournaments.
*PS: I don't say it CAN'T be played in tournament. I play in tournament! xD But it's not the main goal.
Like, the main goal of doing mashed potatoes is to eat, but I still do castles and other sculptures with mine! :O
*sigh*
And my friends wonder why I ignore the Smash Bros. community.
It's because they mostly consist of jerkwad smartasses like these folks who can't keep their mouths shut.
Smash Bros can be played both as a party game and as a tourney fighter. The media sees it more as a party game and that's since been the series' main focus...but they still cater to those who want to play it as a tournament game by giving options to disabling item drops and having fair battlegrounds. Shut your yaps.
We have yet to see what Namco will even bring to the table. At least give em a friggin chance to do something.
Have you not paid even a modicum of attention to what Sakurai has said about the series in the past decade? No, just the ones that place an inordinate amount of emphasis on luck rather than on skill and whose creators explicitly talk about removing competitive elements. If you want to take a random PR website's word over that of the man who created the series, that is your prerogative. You are incorrect, of course, but you are entitled to be that way. Not really. Calling it a party game is not meant as an insult. I do not 'look down' on people who play party games. That Smash Bros is designed to be a party game where winning and losing has nothing to do with coordination and everyone is just supposed to have 'fun' is simply a recognition of objective fact. Your argument is puzzling, as your issue is clearly not with me; your issue is with Sakurai. He is the one who said in response to a question about the series retained its longevity, and I quote, "I think it's because it is, in fact, not a fighting game." He is the one that intentionally introduced mandatory mechanics based on pure random chance, saying "You can't let yourself get preoccupied with nothing but gameplay and balance details."
No need to go after the messenger merely for stating the truth.
Smash and Melee arguably *can* be played as tourney fighters, but Sakurai's position is that they should not be because he views the possibility of skillful players consistently beating unskilled players to be a negative. Hence why when creating Brawl, he intentionally left out stuff like Leaderboards.
Right, and the fact that in progressing to Brawl, Sakurai made it impossible to disable tripping was his way of discouraging people from playing it as a tournament game.
Uh... Skills and coordination DO have an impact. If not, I would be better at it. If someone is clearly better at Smash Bros than others, it's pretty evident. Hell, I wouldn't have lost my fight in less than 30 seconds at the last tournament (I was against the previous one's champion) if it was really only about chance.
And, well, even when we play with friends, with items and all, I still lose MUCH MORE often than if it would be only based on chance. Some times I win by pure luck, but I won't attribute all my loses (and my wins) to luck. Luck helps to level the field a bit, but skills still is important. I have some friends that even by luck haven't won a single match.
But yeah, it's more of a party game... yet I think many places and people don't recognize "Party game" as a genre, and it gets filed under "Action game"... So this could explain the official site. :O Still, it's not classified as a Fighting game, so it kinda prove your points. :O "Action game" is really just a bag to put all the games nobody know how to classify. xD
Hence why I said 'designed to be'. Coordination matters in the Smash Bros. games mostly to the extent that Sakurai fails to get what he intends.
Ever time I checked the Smash Dojo I hoped I'd see Lloyd, this might be the time.
It is "Bandai Namco" in Japan, "Namco Bandai" in English. If there is a more detailed explanation than this, I haven't been able to find it yet. I've found references to company names like Namco Bandai Holdings (parent) and Bandai Namco Games (subsidiary), but even these seem interchangeable depending on who is talking/where the conversation is taking place.
I've done a bit of translation work related to Tekken recently and had to be careful to not get confused about the company name. I don't think I ever noticed the difference before then.
View the full discussion!