Famitsu has published an online version of their recent interview with Super Smash Bros. Ultimate creator Masahiro Sakurai, where he revealed some behind the scenes tidbits about the game’s development.

During the interview, Sakurai discussed an interesting piece of cut content for the game: Aerial Smash Attacks. This idea was considered due to the heavy use of aerial combat in the Smash competitive scene, but was ultimately scrapped as they did not want to overcomplicate the game (translation via Siliconera):

During the initial planning stage for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, we were considering adding air smash attacks … As much as we think aerial combat is important, we did not add it because it overcomplicated things. Even so, combat options in the air are limited. Players end up checking each other using neutral or forward air attacks.

If we can change these things, I believe it will create a deeper level of strategy. But we did not, because I believe that there should be a line drawn between casual and competitive play.

Building on from this, Sakurai also revealed that many of the DLC fighters were designed with aerial combat in mind. This design choice is of course most obvious with Sora, who Sakurai admits was designed so that casual players could have fun with aerial combat.

When I saw all the DLC fighters, I thought I should prioritize aerial combat. There is no such fighter so far, and aerial battle is a very important factor for “Smash Bros.”…

In the production of Sora, I did my best with the concept of enjoying such aerial combat casually.

The full interview is available in Japanese on Famitsu’s website here.

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