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Super Smash Bros. creator Masahiro Sakurai has released footage of the game’s original N64 prototype. A new video has revealed footage from the original game that Super Smash Bros. is based on, Dragon King: The Fighting Game. “There were no special moves, evasions, or items yet,” explained Sakurai. “But the rules of the game were basically the same as Smash Bros.”
“There were smash attacks, mid-air leaps, shields, dashes, and five-way aerial attacks,” he added. “There is also a Battlefield stage layout, but you can change it.” The Dragon King prototype received critical acclaim from Nintendo and was eventually incorporated into the beloved Super Smash Bros. “When I think of Smash Bros. now, I can’t help but think of different Nintendo characters,” he explained.
As you can see from the footage, the prototype featured generic fighting game-style characters, but Sakurai didn’t want to flood the market with new fighters that nobody cared about. “We didn’t want to put players on a signature roster that no one had seen before, and we knew we had to find an objective solution to this problem,” he added. “In the end, we convinced Nintendo to borrow our most popular characters.” The result was an instant classic where players had to contend with Nintendo’s most iconic heroes.
Sakurai also sheds light on the design process behind the game’s relatively simple controls. “He came up with the idea for this game in 1996 when the fighting game commands became very complicated.” Some of them were very intense. Often considered the antithesis of fighting games, Smash Bros’ controls allow most people to pick up a controller and start playing without having to learn long, difficult combos.
“There is also a smash input performed by ‘flicking’ the analog stick,” he added. “With just one quick movement, you can unleash more powerful attacks and jumps.