Pac-Man Was Nearly Cut From Super Smash Bros.
Super Smash Bros. is the standard when it comes to putting numerous characters from beloved franchises into a fighting game. Tight gameplay, simplistic yet deep controls, and nostalgia galore, Smash Bros. is the place to be when it comes to fighting as your favorite characters, and each new version is bigger and better. In the latest generation, the titles for Wii U and 3DS, there were a lot of big inclusions, including some notable names from third party companies; mainly Mega Man, Pac-Man, and now Ryu from Street Fighter.
Though these characters are definitely iconic, and deserve to be in the game for one reason or another, there were times it seemed they wouldn’t be included. For Pac-Man, an interesting tidbit from Masahiro Sakurai (the game’s creator, translation from Source Gaming) reveals that though he was more than up for Pac-Man being in the game, there was a big caveat. The problem was due to Pac-Man’s character design in the game:
“Pac-Man’s design was updated in a 2013 CGI cartoon titled, ‘Pac-man and the Ghostly Adventures.’ This new design has been used in a variety of products. But in the end I felt that his old-school design was better, and used that in the design plan. If that was rejected, I thought about dropping Pac-Man altogether.”
Thankfully, Namco was more than willing to allow the classic look for Pac-Man. This line of thinking was also the reason for Mega Man’s design in the game. Sakurai wanted the original Mega Man to be represented, and not one of the later versions. Ironically, they all made it into Mega Man’s final smash, while Pac-Man’s final smash shows off his “true form.”