Sakurai interviewed by Kotaku!

Another Interview with Smash Bros. creator Masahiro Sakurai has popped up, available here.

What we learn from the interview that we did not know before (with my comments in parentheses):

1) The 3DS and the Wii U version will have the same characters. (This was assumed beforehand, because we knew that the number of characters was the same.)

2) There will be very few third-party characters. (I'm guessing 2-3, including Mega Man.)

3) The Wii U and the 3DS version will not be able to do multiplayer with each other. (Not surprising, since the stages are different, so there would be nowhere to fight.)

4) The 3DS has a character customizer. (HELLO! You sure got my attention.)

5) Characters that are created on the 3DS version can be transferred to the Wii U version. (Assumed, since we do know that there would be some interaction between the two.)

6) This game will not be balanced for the tournament scene. Tiers will exist. Though it will be balanced for the casual gamer. (Not at all surprising, given Smash Bros.'s history with stuff like this.)

7) Kirby is probably gonna be low on the tier list, as Sakurai does not wish to appear biased towards his own characters. (Basically already known if you know how Sakurai thinks.)

Regarding tiers, I know that there is a lot of controversy over the existence of tiers. I should inform you that I do believe that they exist.

Looking at the returning characters from Brawl that we know are going to be in the new games, from highest to lowest tier in Brawl:

Pikachu

Fox

Pit

Kirby

Donkey Kong

Mario

Samus

Bowser

Link

Given the history of the Smash Bros. history when it comes to tiers, Sakurai seems to definitely overdo the balancing. That is, a high-tier character in one game will be pulled EXTREMELY low in the next, and vice versa for low-tier characters. If this remains true, I fully expect The bottom four to be pulled up and the top three to be pushed down, given how far apart they are on the tier list.

But all this is speculation. You cannot make a tier list unless you have in-depth knowledge of the game after playing it for several months. And no one has played the upcoming Smash Bros. game yet. Because it does not yet exist.