Super Smash Bros was playtested in a way that’s not possible today, Sakurai reveals 

Masahiro Sakurai recently revealed that Hal Laboratory used to playtest games in a very effective way that is not easy to do nowadays. 

Speaking in the latest episode of his YouTube series, “Masahiro Sakurai on Creating Games”, the Super Smash Bros and Kirby creator explained that having elementary school children play test games was a great way of getting feedback. “We’d have the dev team’s children, relatives and their friends come in and play the game during development.” Sakurai explains, adding that they created a fun, party-like atmosphere in the office so that it would feel more like a gaming session with friends rather than a test. 

Games like Kirby and Super Smash Bros are, after all, family games made to appeal to children, so having real elementary schoolers test the games made sense. Sakurai explains that the children’s honest reactions as they played the game ended up giving the dev team lots of useful feedback. Just by watching how kids reacted to the game, the team could see what worked and what needed changing. Seeing kids having fun playing their game really helped motivate the devs too, Sakurai notes. 

One memory that stuck with Masahiro Sakurai was when they had some elementary school kids playtesting the first Super Smash Bros. game, released in 1998. One kid let out a delighted yell of “Wow, look how far he flew!” when his Falcon Punch made the opponent go flying across the screen. “Come to think of it, that kid might have been the first member of the public to land a Falcon Punch!” Sakurai muses. 

Although such honest reactions from children are valuable to developers of games aimed at a young audience, it is not easy to arrange such playtests today. Sakurai cites greater concerns about game information leaks in the age of social media, plus modern child safety measures that make it harder to casually arrange such a playtest. 

The full episode can be watched on YouTube with English subtitles.