Sakurai's doubts about the implementation of dual-slider control ranged well beyond whether his team could have technically achieved those settings during the game's development. His reasoning extended to competitive equality and innovation as well. "I do have my doubts over whether it'd be that easy to provide support," Sakurai said. "I think any game needs to provide new experiences and stimulating things to discover, but if we provided run-of-the-mill controls for it, that cuts down on the game's potential. If a player used to touchscreen-based aiming played against someone used to right-analog control, the first player would probably dominate. The speed is on a whole different level."
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"If there are players who say that it makes their hand tired, that's because you're applying too much force," Sakurai told me. "Try to relax and work on building a rhythm to your control. Place the pen in the middle of the touchscreen; when you're flicking it, take the pen off the screen as you're sweeping with it, and stop right there. That's the basic idea."
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"Smash Bros. led to similar misunderstandings when it first came out," Sakurai said. "Some people, including within the company, commented that they couldn't imagine a worse game. The project was really saved by the fact that people "got" how to play it after it was released. If we had just listened to the complaints and instituted health gauges or command-based special moves, I don't think we would have invented a new style of play that way. The controls here really aren't that difficult, either, so I'm hoping that people will be able to get used to them."
