Every fan of HAL Laboratories'
Super Smash Bros. series knows how exciting those character reveal trailers can be — especially when it is a character that nobody ever expected to join the games' ambitious rosters.
From revealing a guest character like Solid Snake from the acclaimed
Metal Gear series all the way back in 2008 when
Super Smash Bros. Brawl released, to surprising every fan in the series with the announcement that every character from previous entries was making a comeback in
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
Needless to say, every reveal has been something very special that has simply made players happy due to the sheer unpredictability of the reveal itself and, recently, series creator Masahiro Sakurai has revealed some information about the process that goes into those exciting character reveal trailers.
In Sakurai's column on Famitsu magazine, the
Super Smash Bros. series creator has revealed that quite a bunch of people put those character reveal trailers together; taking care of various elements that go from the animation to the gameplay that showcases each fighter being revealed.
"
The number of people who are involved putting together these portions of the trailer are a great number of people. The models, animations, stages, effects, music, sound effects and sometimes UI are shown as much as possible, the gameplay shown in these trailers should be as close as possible to what final build will be," Sakurai revealed, adding that "
Generally speaking, the people working on the game are recording the footage. However, other parts of Nintendo like the Mario Club have helped in the past."
These character reveal trailers usually include both a CGI animation and gameplay footage, and there are some guidelines that must be followed in order for these bits of gameplay to be included in the trailer, as Sakurai explains that "
Footage that was recorded by the team that is good is used."
"
There are some guiding principals like showing the strong points of the fighter at the start, seeing the special moves, showing the stage from a distance, including a few gags and showcasing the Final Smash. After all that is done, it’s time to put the CG parts and the gameplay parts together and adjust the sound effects. Having the sound effects and music work together makes a huge impact."
Masahiro Sakurai knows that fans really appreciate these character reveals, and ended his weekly column on Famitsu magazine by saying that working on content that is appreciated by fans of the
Super Smash Bros. series is something that makes him "
deeply grateful".
Legendary game worlds and fighters collide in the ultimate showdown—a new entry in the Super Smash Bros. series for the Nintendo Switch system! New fighters, like Inkling from the Splatoon series and Ridley from the Metroid series, make their Super Smash Bros. series debut alongside every Super Smash Bros. fighter in the series…EVER!
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is currently available exclusively for the Nintendo Switch.