How Long Will Super Smash Bros. Universe Really be in Development?
Posted on September 20 2011 by Nathanial Rumphol-Janc
When I first heard that Super Smash Bros. Universe (yes, I know that name isn’t confirmed, but I like it so I’m using it anyway) would be a cross-platform effort for both the 3DS and Wii U, I wasn’t quite sure what to think. On the one hand, I distinctly remember something like “Holy canole, Super Smash Bros. is getting a portable edition? Marry me, Nintendo!” going through my head. But when the idea really sunk in, I started to get a little skeptical. Would cross-connectivity really benefit the game?
Looking back on Nintendo’s previous attempts at handheld-to-console connections, only a few efforts have really resonated – and all of them have “Pokémon” in the title. Other games like Four Swords Adventures or Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles really turned people off, especially given that you had to have multiple portable systems to really make full use of the connection features. But with Sakurai apparently reporting that Smash Bros. is still “several years off,” I have to wonder whether making a 3DS-Wii U crossover title is really a good idea, or if it’s just going to unnecessarily stall development while delivering only lackluster results.
Personally, I’m not so sure that developing the game from the ground up to feature cross-connectivity is such a good idea. The individual Wii U and 3DS editions have to be able to stand on their own in order for people to want to play them – I doubt very many people are going to purchase both versions, after all. This would mean that even if connectivity does exist, it couldn’t be the central feature of the game like we saw with the aforementioned examples. Yet from what Iwata said at E3 2011 it seems that part of their intention is for 3DS-Wii U connectivity to be a huge part of the game.
This would mean they’d have to get a cross-platform engine up and running, which theoretically shouldn’t be too difficult. But even though the 3DS outpowers the Wii, I’m sure it’ll still be miles behind the Wii U. Will an engine that can be shared across the two games really showcase the best both systems can do? One notable instance of a shared game engine in recent history was Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time – and the Wii edition was basically identical to the DS version despite being way ahead in terms of power. Would the Wii U version have to be similarly stripped in order to be able to work with the 3DS? Moreover, wouldn’t this seriously inflate development time as all the extra fine-tuning that goes into making sure the game can run well both on each individual platform and when they play together.
On the other hand, I could see the connectivity working more simply to alleviate these problems. Instead of having the game engine running both on the 3DS and on the Wii U, the 3DS could just link up as a standard controller, while the Wii U handles all the output. You’d still share the same TV screen with everyone else, but your character data, control input, and so on would all be channeled through your 3DS. That way everyone could share the maximum Wii U experience while still being able to use their 3DS content. This would also seriously cut down on cross-platform development, since playing the game on Wii U would use the Wii U engine, regardless of whether the 3DS was being used as a controller.
Either way, I’m concerned that focusing too much on adding 3DS functionality will drag down the development time. We know that good Smash Bros. games can be built relatively quickly based on Melee‘s release only two years after the original Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 64, so we know that quality doesn’t necessarily take the “several years” Sakurai has implied. So if getting a working version for both 3DS and Wii U is really going to make the wait for Super Smash Bros. Universe longer, I’m not sure the benefits are entirely worth it.
