Giving Smash Bros. A Story Mode Is Like Making Two Games, Says Sakurai

thegamer.com:

There's a reason why so many games these days are released with just their multiplayer components--it's because making a game that's both multiplayer and single-player is like making two games at once. Smash Bros. game director Masahiro Sakurai found this out the hard way while working on Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

In the latest episode of Sakurai's YouTube series, the Smash Bros. director dove into the creation of Brawl, perhaps the most beloved entry into the Smash series. Besides adding new features like Assist Trophies and Final Smashes, Sakurai also introduced Adventure Mode: The Subspace Emissary, a single-player game mode that "made up a significant part of the final game."

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In addition to cutscenes, unique enemies, and side-scrolling levels, Sakurai also noted that this was where Smash Bros. truly generated its own story.

"Most of the time in Smash, you're playing as tiny fighters knocking other fighters around, but that's a bit of a waste for a game all about bringing various franchises together. I wanted to make sure each and every character had their moment in the spotlight," explained Sakurai.

"But as you can imagine, that would take a LOT of work," admitted Sakurai. "Between stages, enemies, and cutscenes, it was almost like making another whole game. During the planning stages, I had hoped to have it developed by someone other than the main dev team, but we unfortunately couldn't find a suitable contractor to handle it. And so, everything but the cutscenes were developed internally by the Smash Bros. Brawl team."

There was so much work involved in Brawl's single-player mode, that it actually required the game to be delayed by almost two months.