Super Smash Bros. focus is on gameplay

The next Super Smash Bros. title will focus on gameplay instead of a bigger roster.

Super Smash Bros. games have typically featured a larger number of characters with every installment.

Director Masahiro Sakurai has told fans that gameplay is the biggest concern for developers and that the roster might have reached its limit.

Sakurai told NintendoEverything: “It isn’t a matter of ‘if the next game has 50 characters, that’ll be enough.’ There is a certain charm to games that have huge casts of playable characters, but they tend to have issues with game balance and it becomes very difficult to fine-tune each character and have them all feel distinctive.

“In terms of quantity, we’ve probably already reached the limit of what’s feasible. I think a change of direction may be what’s needed.”

Super Smash Bros. was originally released on the Nintendo 64 with 12 characters. The GameCube version contained 25 characters and there were 36 characters in the Wii version.

The next Super Smash Bros. will be available on the Wii U and 3DS. A release date hasn’t been confirmed.