Sakurai explains how Super Smash Bros character reveals are made

As a part of his YouTube video series, veteran developer Mashiro Sakurai explained the making of those “momentous” Smash Bros character reveals.

Many Nintendo fans know developer Masahiro Sakurai as director of the Super Smash Bros series, as well as his work on the Kirby franchise, but now he produces a different kind of content.

With Super Smash Bros Ultimate finished, alongside a whopping 23 newcomers to the series, Sakurai currently creates a YouTube series dicing into his career called Masahiro Sakurai on Creating Games.

This YouTube series already has some fascinating insights into the development of Smash Ultimate, as well as titles like Kid Icarus Uprising, but the latest video takes a look at the incredible, and often viral, character reveal trailers.

Breaking down Smash Bros reveals with Masahiro Sakurai

During the insightful breakdown, Sakurai explained the process of storyboarding, pre-vis, and the CGI that combine to make character reveal trailers. Some even take nearly six months from start to finish.

The veteran developer explained that there have been 37 Super Smash Bros character reveal trailers, starting with Sonic the Hedgehog for Super Smash Bros Brawl, all the way to Sora’s addition in Ultimate.

One particularly revealing part of the video sees Sakurai discussing Super Smash Bros Brawl, and the in-game CG cut scenes that rewarded players during the ‘Subspace Emissary’ single-player mode.

According to Sakurai, journalists spiled these clips before the game was even released, so despite them originally being planned as a reward for progress in the game, he ultimately felt that their distribution online robbed players of that satisfaction.

This led Sakurai to create the fighter reveal trailers, a fun combination of characters and amazing CG models, that could be shared freely online without taking anything away from the player.

Reflecting on the success of the character announcement trailers, Sakurai said “these fighter reveal videos became a global sensation – shockingly so” before adding that he feels “truly lucky” to have the opportunity to create them.

While 37 of these amazing trailers are already available, hopefully, we see more in a future Smash game.