Masahiro Sakurai displays a prototype of the game that would eventually become Smash Bros

Masahiro Sakurai displays a prototype of the game that would eventually become Smash Bros

Dragon King was one of two games Sakurai was working on at the time. He described the other as an “RC robot adventure game where you hacked into security cameras to proceed.” Sakurai handled the design, graphics, modeling, and animation for both, while the late Satoru Iwata, who was also a great programmer before becoming Nintendo’s president, handled the programming. Sakurai eventually went forward with the fighting game since it could be done faster.