Game development legend Masuhiro Sakurai stopped making fancy character reveal cutscenes in Super Smash Bros. because they kept leaking online.
Sakurai, the creator of Super Smash Bros, released a YouTube video that explains why the beloved cutscenes never made it past Nintendo Wii entry Brawl.
"Smash Bros. contains crossovers you can't find anywhere else, so I thought it would be fun to represent them in a more concrete, charming way," Sakurai said. "I also thought they'd make a nice reward for pushing on in the adventure mode, Subspace Emissary.
"We put a lot of money and effort into making them, but before the game even came out, people were posting them online. Even overseas media outlets were doing it with the pre-release copies we provided. This meant they really weren't much of a reward, so I decided to stop making movies that cut in during gameplay. It's a tough time to be making story-driven games."
These dramatic character reveals emerged in a different form that, for the most part, let Sakurai release them when he wanted, however. Fighter Reveal Videos were premiered during Nintendo Directs and other events, bringing back the excitement of a fancy in-game reveal without players having to work for it.
There are now 37 of the now famous trailers that have presented characters from the entire gaming world, not just Nintendo. These include Dragon Quest 11's Hero, Persona 5's Joker, Arms' Min Min, Minecraft's Steve and Alex, Final Fantasy 7's Sephiroth, and more.
The Nintendo Switch's Super Smash Bros. Ultimate now contains so many characters, in fact, that Sakurai doesn't see how the franchise could ever get any bigger.
In our 9/10 review of the game, IGN said: "Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is Smash Bros. done right, and done bigger than ever before."
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.