Development of new Smash Bros. game impacted by Sakurai's right arm
Posted by Jon 'Catalyst' Grey • February 28, 2013 at 10:30 a.m. PST • Comments: 44
The creator of the Smash Bros., Masahiro Sakurai, is having trouble with his right arm, and it's impacting development of the latest entry in the series, he wrote in his Famitsu column.
Sakurai said he's getting "calcific tendonitis" and apparently they also found several ruptures in his arm. He notes specifically that there's a feeling of fatigue around the flexor muscles that turns into pain when he tries to use a keyboard or game controller with his fingers. He's now using a track ball and learning to do other day-to-day functions with his left arm.
Masahiro cites a hectic work schedule for contributing to these issues, noting that he often comes in on his days off to work on the project and catch up on things, but with his body giving out on him, he's likely going to have to cut out the extra days.
Until his right arm gets better, he's forced to gnarl his left hand around a game controller in order to do any sort of playtesting work on the current version of Smash Bros. "I've had to control two characters at once in a lot of game projects up to now," he said, "so as long as I keep it to simple moves, this works well enough. It doesn't go that easy with the Nintendo 3DS version, though, and the debug camera is pretty hard to control. Still, now I realize how important it is to have your health. I'm glad I'm still in good enough shape to work."
Sakurai ominously notes that if this disorder lingers, or if it never gets fixed, there's no telling what impact that would have on the project.Via Polygon and Famitsu.
