Though the fervor around Super Smash Bros. Brawl has rather quickly died down in North America (a strong argument for DLC and better online, if ever there was one), Europe is only now legitimately (as I’m sure plenty imported) seeing the game released throughout its countries (and even meriting a new update to the Smash Bros. DOJO!! to boot). And to that end, the UK’s Official Nintendo Magazine has scored an interview with Brawl developer Masahiro Sakurai, which will arrive on store shelves this Friday.

On their website, they have elected to share some of the secrets and insights offered by the man, whose name is often shouted to the heavens whenever something goes wrong in the game– and occasionally in others, just because.

Sakurai tells that though development took three years, they tried to cut out new ideas early in development. “What happened in the next year and a half was that we distilled the game down,” he says, “worked out which ideas we had time to include and which we didn’t. Sadly, we had to trim out many great concepts just to keep within the time contraints. I had a lot more characters, for example.. but sadly I can’t discuss which ones didn’t make it.”

He continues, noting that he would not create a new game just to add those characters. “There are 39 characters in the game this time around and just adding a few more wouldn’t be enough to justify a new game in my opinion; I’d have to draw a line in the sand and have a new approach to make it worthwhile. As long as the fans enjoy it, though, that’s what matters and in the distant future, I guess that might be something I have to consider.”

One can only wonder who was cut– the rumored Animal Crossing character, perhaps?

Read more from the source here