The magnificent game developer responsible for the Smash Bros series (among other things) was interviewed about Brawl four months after its release date. However, this interview appeared in Nintendo Dream, a Japanese publication. To my knowledge, this is the first time the interview was translated. Let me repeat that, this interview is old!

Anyway, there was one particular series of questions about Wolf's inclusion in Brawl over Krystal. It really gives an interesting behind-the-scenes look at how they had to make their decisions about which characters to include. I've quoted the relevant portions below.

Question: Why did Wolf become a playable fighter, and not Krystal?

Sakurai: Wolf was a character that barely made it in due to time constraints. He was added because there was high demand for his inclusion on places like "Smash Bros. Dojo!!", and he's a popular character. Of course, if he didn't have that backing him, I don't think I could have put him in. Among the characters with high popularity, I chose one who had a high possibility of becoming realized in the game, and as a result you could say Wolf was created.

Host: Does that mean even if you wanted to add more female characters, Krystal didn't have a realistic chance of being physically implemented into the game?

Sakurai: For Krystal, we didn't have any of the technical modeling knowledge that we had cultivated with Fox and Falco, so it was like making a brand-new character from scratch. And because of the limited amount of time we had, creating Krystal wasn't realistically possible. On that point, with Wolf we already have some knowledge of how to model his character, and would require about 70% of the effort required to create a whole new character.

Host: I see. But we did get a lot of questions like, "Why wasn't Krystal a playable character?"

Sakurai: It's not that I don't understand how that feels, but if you start saying that, it becomes "Why isn't Waddle Dee playable?" or Dry Bones, or Baby Peach. There'd be no end to it.

Host: Well, that is true (laughs).

Sakurai: In the end, the three playable characters in this game from "Star Fox" are Fox and Falco, and on top of that, Wolf, because he was popular and easy to create. On the other hand, if it was a situation where it wasn't easy to create this character, and we had to make him from scratch, "Star Fox" may not have had 3 representatives. So, please think of Wolf as a lucky inclusion.

Interpret that how you will, but at the very least, we know that...

• Krystal was considered for Brawl
• Wolf only barely made it into Brawl because he was popular and so similar to Fox and Falco as a fighter
• Had Krystal been in Brawl, she would have been a fighter very different from Fox, Falco, and Wolf

Source, thanks to thatveryweirdperson for the heads up.

For you video quality hounds out there, here are the original videos of Ayano's Highlights and GreyFireFox's Animation, both recently posted to YouTube.

• Highlights from Ayano's Krystal at Furry Fiesta 2015 (1.45 GB)
• Krystal Can't Enjoy Her Sandwich - GreyFireFox's Unfinished Animation (340.7 MB)

GreyFireFox has taken the time to send some of the last of the content he was working on before retiring from Krystal animations and artwork. It's a short, unfinished animation of Krystal waking up and trying to enjoy her sandwich (a meme from a few years ago). GreyFireFox will be working to finish up the final iteration of the Krystal rig, version 1.5, but he needs a bit more time.

It took longer than expected, but I think you'll find it was worth the wait. I have finally had time to edit a highlight video of the two and a half HOURS of footage I obtained at Furry Fiesta 2015 back in February. Both my highlight video and full footage videos are up and ready for viewing. Get ready for all the cute, funny, and memorable moments we experienced hanging out with Ayano and her new Star Fox Assault jumpsuit. Please enjoy!

The fourth playable demo for Star Fox: Event Horizon was released by UndyingNephalim yesterday. It features a bunch of test levels, including one allowing Krystal to ride a CloudRunner Skylord as she attacks a convoy. Please note that some of these changes are very early versions. They'll be a little rough around the edges.

Changes since last time:

• 9 new levels (2 mission, 7 "test levels")
• 5 new fight craft
  • Katina Stealth Fighter
  • Arwing X-02 Bomber
  • Gyrocopter (from Star Fox Zero)
  • Hovertank (from Star Fox Zero)
  • Cloudrunner Skylord

Download it and give it a try.

• Download from ModDB
• Download from Krystal Archive
  Out of date download removed. Check the Star Fox: Event Horizon Page for the latest version download.

Hours ago, Nintendo released some DLC they had promised just before E3, namely the Peach's Castle (64) and Hyrule Castle (64) stages. What was unexpected was a whole new round of Mii Fighter DLC costumes, one of which is free (K.K. Slider). King K. Rool, from the Donkey Kong series is officially released as both a head and suit costume for 75 cents.

The King K. Rool suit's significance is that he has been a requested character since Brawl, with a very similar popularity to Krystal. Now that he is being put in the game in the form of a Mii Fighter suit, that implies two things: Nintendo is still aware of long-time favorites, and King K. Rool's inclusion as a suit likely leaves open one more slot for Krystal as a fully-realized playable character. Of course, it could also mean that Krystal (and Wolf?) will show up as Mii Fighter suits, rather than new characters. No-one knows at this point, but I remain cautiously hopeful.

Source

Brian and I attended Furry Fiesta 2015 where we both recorded a ton of footage of Ayano as she walked around, posed for pictures, and interacted with con-goers. This was Ayano's first convention in the United States wearing her Star Fox Assault suit. Today Brian is releasing his footage: a short musical trailer and a video containing all of his footage, over an hour of fursuit paparazzi!

I will be releasing my footage in the next day or two. Look forward to that as well.

President of Nintendo and iconic figure in the entire gaming world, Mr. Satoru Iwata, has passed away at age 55. His worsening health over the past couple years worried us, but he seemed to be fine until 2 days ago when a bile duct growth suddenly took his life. He will be missed dearly. I can only pray for his family and friends while hoping he is at peace.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in.

Star Fox Command has been re-released on the Nintendo Wii U eShop for $9.99. I recorded a short video review so you can see what it's like. Enjoy!

Coming from a Polygon Interview, Mr. Fils-Aime talked about how games are developed and how perception changes over time. Those of you upset about the new Star Fox game or convinced that this is the worse E3 showing ever, you have very short memories.

"Splatoon is a game that people are loving right now, but if you rewind to E3 last year, Splatoon was being viewed as, 'Yes, it's innovative and it's different, but the controls are a little hard and I don't understand the mechanic of turning into a squid and going through the ink.' There were all of these complaints. But now you look at the finished product and the satisfaction is huge."

As a game developer myself, I have to reiterate a saying in the software industry: "Listen to your users, but don't do what they say." People are very good at expressing that they are upset, but they are absolutely terrible at saying what they actually want. It takes innovative and creative people to try (and fail, and try again) to figure out what is actually fun. Before the original Super Smash Bros. was released, if Nintendo had tried to explain that they were going to make a fighting game with no health bars or KOs, almost no-one would have understood why that could be fun. Players would have demanded complex combo systems and gore. Now it's its own sub-genre of fighting games, one of the most popular games of all time. Games like "Sonic Boom: The Rise of Lyric", "Shadow the Hedgehog", and the movie "Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace" were made by doing what the biggest fans and focus groups said they wanted.