Ever since Nintendo announced Namco Bandai would be helping with the production of Smash Brothers. Many people started speculating that Tekken characters would make an appearance in the game. I myself feel like something Tekken should be in brawl, but who am I to say. It seems like that decision is not coming easily for Namco.

KH: Obviously people are saying many things since we are developing the next Smash Bros. We’re very excited that Nintendo chose us, and most they likely did because Namco Bandai has a very good track record with fighting games such as the Tekken series. We have a lot of experience and knowledge regarding this particular genre, that’s probably one of the factors in their decision. That being said, although we’ll help provide support on technology and other things involved creating the game, I’m currently very focused on the Tekken series. Some people might say online that I’m going to be involved in the development process or not but that shouldn’t really be an issue because the game design is going to be handled Masahiro Sakurai. So I don’t understand why there would be any worries there.

I mentioned in a past interview recently that the Tekken characters are something that maybe long time fans of the Smash Bros. series don’t really expect, so maybe they won’t be in there. The feedback was very mixed, there were 2 camps, one said “Harada, you’re very right, we don’t need the Tekken characters in Smash Bros, good job.” It’s nice that they agree with me but on the other hand, they themselves don’t exactly need Tekken characters in Smash Bros. so it’s kind of complex. Then there’s the other half were people saying “No you’re totally wrong, we want Tekken and Soul Calibur characters in the game otherwise why does it need to be developed be Namco Bandai” so there’s really two different sides and it’s difficult to choose one. Obviously I’m not going to say to Sakurai, “We want Tekken characters, please put it in” that’s not the case so people don’t have to worry about that. The sole decision will probably be made in a way that if more people want Tekken characters in it then Sakurai might choose to do so, if not then so be it.

Full interview here