Fans of the Kirby and Super Smash Bros. franchises are well aware of Masahiro Sakurai, a mainstay name in the gaming industry. Both series have seen huge sales throughout the years, and Sakurai has been the brain behind at least 15 published games. The success of Super Smash Bros. in particular has catapulted Sakurai into the history books for acknowledging other legendary designers and their contributions to the industry. While the success stories of Sakurai is well-known, few might know their favorite designer also has unreleased projects.
Recently, footage of a Nintendo 64 game designed by Sakurai was circulated through the designer's new YouTube channel. Dragon King: The Fighting Game served as a blueprint for the Super Smash Bros. series. There previously wasn't a lot of information available about the game and its prototypes available online, with the only sources being interviews and images from the early days of development. It was intended to be the first installment in a series of fighting games released on the Nintendo 64 using its joystick; a contrast to other popular titles at the time which used analog sticks. Sakurai detailing more about this unreleased title on his YouTube channel has caught plenty of attention online over the last week.
Masahiro Sakurai Teases Rare Footage of Dragon King
Sakurai showed fans new video footage of Dragon King, displaying its smash attacks, midair jumps, and detailed aerial attacks while confirming no special combat moves or items were added to the prototype. Dragon King: The Fighting Game was planned to be a four-player experience when other fighting games were content with proven 1v1 combat. Unfortunately, the game's plans got scrapped due to Sakurai's dissatisfaction with its ability to convey a proper fighting game atmosphere. A major source of his concern was that his characters were too similar to each other, a flaw that would fail to capture audiences' attention at home.
Nobody knows if Dragon King: The Fighting Game would have turned out to be a commercial success, especially under a great innovator like Sakurai. Yet it seems likely the bones would have been right given Super Smash Bros. kept some elements from its muse. For instance, the percentage smash damage meters located at the top of the screen were directly inspired by this unreleased game. The platform-based fighting arena and the iconic character entries before a fight in Super Smash Bros. are also clearly carried over from the game, though adding Nintendo characters obviously gave them more of an appeal.
Inspiration Behind Features in Dragon King: The Fighting Game
Dragon King: The Fighting Game also incorporated features from real life. Screenshots show the game's background being a photo taken by Sakurai of a neighborhood in Japan's Yamanashi prefecture that served as HAL Laboratory's headquarters. The unreleased game also featured stage layouts akin to the Battlefield stage in most every Super Smash Bros. games.
His decision to scrap the game was proven right when he retooled it into Super Smash Bros., which would grow to become a massive success in Japan and beyond. Super Smash Bros. became a iconic gaming franchise of its own despite largely pulling its roster from other series, leading to multiple installments after the original game that continue on to this day.
Super Smash Bros.Ultimate is available now on Nintendo Switch.