It is an understatement to say that the late Nintendo president Satoru Iwata had a big impact on the company during his life. Not only did Iwata have lots of influence on multiple Nintendo franchises, including Pokemon and Star Fox, but a lot of the people he worked with have lots of respect for him and it even inspired them going forward.
One of those is Masahiro Sakurai, the creator of the Super Smash Bros. games. He recently participated in an interview with the Japanese site Hoshino, where he revealed that he might not have joined HAL Laboratory if it weren’t for Iwata. Not only that, but if Iwata hadn’t made a prototype for Smash Bros., the game may never have been released at all. Sakurai even says that, had Iwata not asked him to make Brawl after his departure from HAL Laboratory, Smash “might have died out” entirely.
