Namco Bandai Helping to Develop Next Smash Bros.

Even though I am not a fan of motion gaming, I bought the Wii for one reason: Super Smash Bros. Brawl. I always did enjoy the Smash Bros. games as I am sure many others have also. Playing as all of the classic and new Nintendo characters was and still is a blast. The local co-op allowed for great fun with my two other brothers and it was a game for everyone.

It seems that news is a brewing that Namco Bandai is helping to develop the next game in the series. The keyword here is helping since Masahiro Sakurai, the series creator, will still be heading up the project along with his original development team HAL Labratory. Apparently the art director from the Soul Calibur series will be helping along with the Tekken series developers and Director Yoshito Higuchi from Tales of Vesperia and Producer Kenya Kobayashi from Ridge Racer.

Lloyd Irvine and other Tales characters FTW!

While some maybe concerned about outside sources effecting the next Smash Bros. I for one embrace it. I embrace it because more developers under Sakurai’s Master Hand (I am punny) means the game can be completed faster and still be highly polished. With the Tekken developers helping out the game could be a more balanced fighter unlike Brawl which became more casual and had some balance issues with characters.

But the best part is that the roster may expand to Tales characters along with other Namco Bandai characters due to Namco Bandai’s involvement!