In the latest installment of his weekly Famitsu column, Super Smash Bros. Director Masahiro Sakurai explores his childhood and various video games that shaped him. A translation of this column was provided by Twitter user Sephazon, who has translated Sakurai’s previous works.
Sakurai talks about his early school years when he would go shopping with his parents. “First, my parents would give me 200 yen. While they shopped, schoolboy Sakurai would go straight to the game corner. At the time, the Chujitsuya game corner was always bringing out the latest games. I could enjoy a variety of things to play.” He then begins to elaborate on what games were available, saying that, “Table cabinets were the main feature.”
The games that Sakurai enjoyed playing cost 50 yen per game, in his words meaning that he only “had four chances to play.” If he ran out of money, Sakurai discusses his other option. ”When I ran out of money, I went to a hobby shop on another floor, with demos of the newest games. The Famicom is seen as a founder, but many consoles preceded it — TV Vader, Atari, Intellivision, Arkadia, Vectrex. The first console I ever had was the Nintendo TV Color Game 15.”
It is always interesting to hear stories from the famous game developer. The full column delves further into Sakurai’s school years and his time spent at the arcade. Sakurai always has something fascinating to reminisce about and his columns have become fairly popular with fans.
