Super Smash Brothers to have no Paid DLC

If there was ever a game where DLC would make perfect sense, it would be Super Smash Brothers.  The fundamental nature of the game is that of a toybox—the more stages, items, and characters you have, the better the experience, and if your game only needs more toys to improve, DLC is one of the best ways to deliver that.  Getting a new fighter or a new stage is certainly a lot more satisfying, than, say, a new armor set or a new gun.

But while Nintendo has been opening up about the idea of DLC for its games (Link in Mario Kart 8 jumps to mind) Game Director Masahiro Sakurai is more than a little hesitant to bring it to Super Smash Brothers.

Speaking with VideoGamer, Sakurai had the following to say:

"I appreciate that a major part of the excitement for these games come from which characters will appear in the roster, so I think fans could really enjoy DLC that could keep this excitement going.  However, I think there might be criticism that we are cutting up content to sell characters one by one, or that we are adding things later that should have been there from the start."

“Now wait a second”, I hear you saying, “Wasn’t there already plans to have post-launch DLC for new fighters like Ice Climber and Mewtwo?”   Correct you are, but right now the only way to unlock him is to own a copy of both Super Smash Brothers on 3DS and Wii U, and register them both under the same account. Based on what Sakurai is saying, however, that may be the only way to get him—or any other DLC characters hinted at in leaks—in the foreseeable future.

I’ll grant you this much, his concerns are certainly valid: DLC has gotten a bad reputation thanks to abuse cases, and it is a nice feeling to know you have 100% of the full game right out of the box.  But when given the option between “more fighters” and “No more fighters”… I dunno, my sense of consumer righteousness falters when DLC means I can pulverize Little Mac with a psychic blast.

Still.  Sakurai is quite the joker.  I wouldn’t be surprised if he was just toying with us at this point…