Sakurai: No DLC for Brawl, Nintendo rules veto in-game chat

For those of us curious about the details behind Sora Ltd.’s Super Smash Bros. Brawl, there’s definitely no better way to get enlightened than to talk to the game’s director himself, Masahiro Sakurai. Click on the Read More button below to find out just what the mind behind the series has to say about Super Smash Bros. Brawl, as well as the reasons behind some of its changes.

Ever wondered why there isn’t quite a full-fledged online chat option for Super Smash Bros. Brawl? Well, how about the rumors floating around about downloadable content for the upcoming title? Then this update, which is all about a very recent interview with Masahiro Sakurai, should answer those two questions and more. Read on and find out just what the mind behind the highly-popular smashing series has to say.

First, let’s talk about the chat option in Brawl. As we all found out in the daily Dojo updates, you can’t really chat with your fellow Smashers in-game – in fact, the only way of communication is via four assignable taunt buttons and not much else. It’s a shame, since a game as competitive (and as absurdly fun) as Brawl needs a way for players to talk to each other. So why isn’t there a fully-developed option for that?

Sakurai explains that yes, he did want a full-fledged chat option for Brawl. In fact, not only voice chat, but keyboard-based chat, too. But he pointed to the many rules and regulations regarding communication on the Nintendo Wii – so he and the team decided to cancel the feature. It’s to note that Nintendo has been quite strict in regards to communication between its consoles – the Friend Code system being quite a prime example of this.

Next up, downloadable content. If you were expecting any extras to pop out for Super Smash Bros. Brawl anytime soon, then you’re going to be pretty disappointed. Sakurai has just deconfirmed it: There will be NO downloadable content for Brawl. Here’s a direct quote:

No. There are no characters that can be unlocked via connecting to WiiConnect24 or interacting in that fashion. And I may be mistaken here, but the Wii doesn’t have a hard drive — it’s a disc-based system — so I don’t think we’ll be doing that, I don’t think it’s going to happen.

Ouch. Well, that certainly doesn’t leave any room for speculation. But we can all still hope, can we? In any case, hit up the via link for the full interview for more info.