Nintendo big boss Satoru Iwata recently brought PlatinumGames director Hideki Kamiya onto Iwata Asks to discuss The Wonderful 101. In a followup roundtable, a healthy chunk of the W101 development crew went into even greater detail about the upcoming Wii U title.
Right out the gate, Kamiya revealed the origins of W101 as a Nintendo crossover game. The idea, pitched by Platinum CEO Tatsuya Minami, was to gather a bunch of Nintendo all-stars into a single adventure à la Konami Wai Wai World or Famicom Jump: Hero Retsuden . Kamiya's team then conceived of having tons of Nintendo characters on-screen at once, forming into different shapes using what would later be known as "Unite Morphs."
When this idea was brought to Nintendo Software Planning and Development Group 2 leader Hitoshi Yamagami, he exclaimed, "This is impossible!" Getting characters from different games to work sensibly in Smash Bros. was already a challenge, but the way this new Platinum concept was presented would have been even more challenging. The plan was shelved for several months, then Platinum returned with the same idea but replaced Nintendo characters with completely original superheroes. Now the wheels were finally turning.
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via destructoid http://www.destructoid.com/the-wonderful-101-was-almost-a-nintendo-crossover-260725.phtml