Smash Bros. creator Masahiro Sakurai explained why he chose not to make Ridley, the space pirate villain from the Metroid series, a playable fighter in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U

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“I definitely know that Ridley’s a much-anticipated name for fans, but if we made Ridley as a fighter, it wouldn’t be Ridley any longer,” Sakurai told IGN in an email interview. “It’d have to be shrunk down, or its wings reduced in size, or be unable to fly around freely.”“Providing accurate portrayals of characters is something I want to pay ample attention to,” he continued. “If I don’t stick to that thought, then we’d have to lower the quality or break the balance of the game. Something that goes way off spec could break the entire game.”Sakurai instead opted to include Ridley as a stage boss for Pyrosphere, a new arena debuting in Smash Wii U. “Instead of going through a lot of very convoluted hocus-pocus to make Ridley a fighter, I figured it’d be better to keep Ridley as it currently is, the correct way, and have it feel like a truly threatening presence,” Sakurai explained. “There are other icons, too, like Metal Face and the Yellow Devil, which help effectively portray each of their world settings. They go a long way toward deepening the game world, and I think it’s been fun to experiment with.”Nintendo announced more than 50 cool things coming to Super Smash Bros. for Wii U last month, including Mewtwo as a free download for anyone who bought both versions of the game . If you aren’t caught up with all of the latest info, make sure you check out IGN’s Smash Bros. Wii U, 3DS wiki.

Jose Otero is an Associate Editor at IGN and host of Nintendo Voice Chat . You can follow him on Twitter