During a new column in Weekly Famitsu, part-time contributor and Smash Bros. creator Masahiro Sakurai detailed the thought process behind the Mii’s addition to the games. According to the developer, the adorable avatars had previously been considered for the series’ previous iteration, Brawl, but he eventually decided against it. This time around, however, Sakurai felt that the character had built up enough notoriety to be considered a legitimate addition to the series.
While the addition of the Mii, which is completely customizable, is sure to make a number of fans happy, Sakurai reiterated that these characters will not be playable in random online match-ups. The famed developer stated that the reason for this is to avoid copyright issues with recreating characters from other franchises outside of the realm of Nintendo, but it’s also to prevent users from bullying other players and people.
“Since the release of Super Smash Bros. Brawl, the Mii has become an even more important figure as a personal icon through things like Miiverse. After all, it’s a character you see every time you start up your Wii U, and frequently with the 3DS, so it would be fair to say [the Mii] is quite a famous Nintendo character.”
With all of that said, custom Miis will still be playable when playing online with friends, so those that plan on heading online to pit a player-created version of Hank Hill against a friend’s Shrek-inspired Mii will still have that option.
With the Miis now confirmed, the number of playable characters in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and 3DS has already reached an impressive 33 fighters (35 counting all three of the fighter classes that are accessible when customizing a Mii), and there are sure to be even more combatants revealed leading up to the October release of the 3DS version of the game.
What do you think of the addition of Miis to Super Smash Bros.? Will you be playing as your Mii often or would you rather model avatar after an existing character or celebrity? Let us know in the comments below!
Super Smash Bros. on the Nintendo 3DS will launch on October 3, 2014, while the Wii U version will arrive in Holiday 2014.
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Source: Weekly Famitsu (via Kotaku)
