A portion of a PN interview with Sakurai...

PN: on the occasion of the E3 2011, Satoru Iwata has surprised everyone by announcing that the next Super Smash Bros. game. beyond on Wii U and Nintendo 3DS. What are the main differences between the two versions? Can we expect a few surprises, especially at the level of connectivity?

Masahiro Sakurai: While the development of Kid Icarus: Uprising was at its end, Satoru Iwata came me propose to develop the new Smash Bros game, and asked me if he should be on 3DS or Wii U. We were arrived at a point where the series could not evolve too, and we wondered if the passage on handheld console was the solution. In the past, we have increased the number of characters and arenas, but this was not enough.

At that time, we could have chosen to develop a 3DS version only, but we realized the presence of several limitations. I am referring to the fact of playing a game like Super Smash Bros.. on a small screen. Thus, even if it is not easy to develop two versions simultaneously, we chose to adapt the game experience to the specificities of each platform.

Even though the characters will be the same in the version Wii U and Nintendo 3DS, the arena will be completely different. In the 3DS version, they are based on games released on portable consoles, while Wii U, arenas are based on articles on home console games.

PN: Several months ago, in Famitsu magazine, you express the regret of not being able patcher Super Smash Bros.. Brawl, especially at the level of online. But with the Wii U and the 3DS, it is now possible to modify a game after its release. What are the aspects of the new Super Smash Bros. game. which will be the subject of scrutiny, for possible patches?

Sakurai: It is difficult to say at present, but rather obviously, we always try to keep the best balance. Nevertheless, I do not yet know if it will be really easy to patch these games once they will be released. For example: you have a person with a patched version of the game, and another with a non-patched version. If these two people play together, do they meet no problems? We will have to do extensive research about it.

That said, I think the patches are an important tool to maintain the balance of a game, once this last released. As you surely already know, the reputation of some characters, who are considered weak or powerful, is something to which players are very interested on the internet.

And sometimes, you have to ask if these perceptions are correct, or if people simply to join a popular opinion and to follow the movement. We really want to make our characters each have their specificities, with statistics that compensate their strengths.

We want to highlight these individual characteristics, but at the same time, players must also be asked whether they accept the reputation of a character on the internet. This is something that we will also have to take into account when creating patches.