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Sakurai says securing Banjo-Kazooie for Smash Bros was ‘quite easy’

CyberPanda

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Super Smash Bros. Ultimate director Masahiro Sakuraihas explained how Banjo-Kazooie and Dragon Quest’s Hero ended up in the Nintendo fighter.
During the Nintendo Direct E3 livestream earlier this month, it was revealed that the two new fighters will be added to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as DLClater this year.

Writing in his regular Japanese Famitsu magazine column (translated by PushDustIn), Sakurai explained that Banjo and Kazooie were very highly requested by fans in the West. “Even after King K. Rool and Ridley, requests were still coming in,” he said.

However, the game director stated that it was difficult for them to join Smash due to the complexity of their IP ownership.
“While Banjo and Kazooie was originally an N64 game, and their inclusion should’ve been a natural one, they are now owned by Microsoft,” he wrote.
“In the early 2000s, Rare was sold to Microsoft, and Banjo’s games came out on the Xbox 360. Microsoft and Nintendo are rivals in the console space. It’s usually thought that you shouldn’t help our your rivals. However, this time [we] were able to get the character quite easily.”

Sakurai’s comments echo those recently made by Xbox head Phil Spencer, who claimed Microsoft has “always been open” to putting Banjo and Kazooie in Smash Bros.
In the Famitsu column, Sakurai thanked developer Rare for its assistance too. “Thanks to them, was able to satisfy many fans’ requests,” he wrote.

In an interview with VGC, Banjo-Kazooie composer Grant Kirkhope – who supplied a music track for the Smash Bros. DLC – revealed that Rare was likely involved in negotiations late last year.

On the subject of Dragon Quest, Sakurai said he initially felt nervous about including such a “legendary series” in Smash Bros. He decided that Hero’s Final Smash would feature past characters from Dragon Quest to showcase the series.
Sakurai has previously spoken of his satisfaction with the result of his collaboration with Kirkhope, the first Western composer on the series.




 

CyberPanda

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Sakurai explains how Banjo-Kazooie Smash Bros Video was made

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate director Masahiro Sakuraihas explained how the game’s popular CGI character reveal videos are made, such as those for Banjo-Kazooieand Dragon Quest’s Hero.

During the Nintendo Direct E3 livestream in June, it was revealed that the two new fighters will be added to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as DLC later this year.


Writing in his regular Japanese Famitsu magazine column (translated by PushDustIn), Sakurai explained that the CG videos have been created by Japanese company Digital Frontier since the Wii U and 3DS instalments of Smash.

While Sakurai writes and supervises the videos, film maker Yohei Shimozawa – who has also worked on the Tekken series and Metal Gear Rising – directs them.

“The reasoning behind these trailers is to first provide something that fans will enjoy, and secondly to create some buzz,” Sakurai wrote.

First, Sakurai writes the script for the trailers, he explained, including each scene and camera cut.

From there, Digital Frontier creates a storyboard and elements such as audio, character models, scenery and animation are created and approved by Sakurai.

After adjusting things like music/sound, work is done on updating the character models and the scenery.

If character models were just imported into the CG movie, they wouldn’t feel right, so work is done on making everything feel cohesive.

Sakurai checks at every step, he wrote in Famitsu, concluding that he is “very thankful for the work that DF has done” as he is “very busy with working on the game”.

The director said he will discuss the gameplay elements of the recent Banjo-Kazooie and Hero videos in his next Famitsu column.

Sakurai has previously spoken of his satisfaction with the result of his collaboration with Grant Kirkhope, the first Western composer on the series.

 
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