Why Mii Fighters are coming to Super Smash Bros., and why they didn’t before

Masahiro Sakurai, director of the Super Smash Bros. series, addressed the addition of Mii Fighters to the brawler in his most recent Weekly Famitsu column.

When initially considered for the roster of Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Sakurai decided that the cute, caricaturized nature of Miis wasn’t suitable for an all-out brawl, if only because they didn’t fit the fighting scene. Moreover, he was concerned that they could lead to bullying among players, presumably by way of offensive portrayals.

“Incorporating Miis was explored in the previous game, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, but I thought it over for about a minute and immediately decided against it,” Sakurai said.

But given the importance of Miis in the current Nintendo universe, he then decided that the characters were too integral not to include. On top of this, countless fan requests helped push Mii Fighters, while countless other character requests were impossible to meet due to copyrights.

Despite their addition to the roster, however, Mii Fighters will not be available in online play.

“We don’t want the online play to become a copyright free-for-all and it’s probably not as fun to play against someone using a character based on someone you may not know,” he added.

Super Smash Bros. Wii U/3DS will release this holiday season, with the 3DS version hitting October 3.

[via Polygon]