Nintendo's Super Smash Bros. franchise has seen astronomical growth since it first debuted more than a decade ago, in 1999. On the other hand, the series has remained relatively unchanged for the most part. Each iteration added new characters, stages and some graphical enhancements, but the core gameplay remained essentially the same since 1999. While this seems to have worked out quite well for the last 13 years, it may be time for a change.

Many consider the manic fighting series Super Smash Bros. one of the publisher's flagship franchises. Its latest iteration, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, is basically exploding with content. The franchise creator, however, has even bigger plans with the Wii U and 3DS versions.

New Strategy

"As you noted, there is a certain dead end we come to if we just expand the volume of the game," Masahiro Sakurai, the franchise creator, told IGN. Sakurai seems convinced that just adding more characters, items and stages will not suffice anymore. The Smash Bros. franchise enjoyed huge popularity and earned high praise from critics with each entry, but it has essentially followed the same formula since 1999. Each entry evolved the style of play, but it didn't quite shake things up. "I intend to change direction a little as we go," Sakurai commented in this regards. "The key to that's going to be its dual support for 3DS/Wii U."

Both Sakurai and Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has previously shown interest in associating the 3DS and Wii U versions of the game, both of which were announced at E3 2011. "I'm really just getting started on this so it's going to take time, but I'll come up with something that uses that link as the game's central axis, so I hope you're looking forward to it," Sakurai told IGN.

Sakurai's comments were part of a larger conversation about Kid Icarus: Uprising, a recently released game for the Nintendo 3DS. The developer said he is now focusing on the next two installments of Smash Bros. If development is just getting started, however, it may be a while before this becomes reality.

(reported by Alexandra Burlacu, edited by Dave Clark)