No, I'm not making Super Smash Bros. Brawl, but Masahiro Sakurai is! Over at Smash Bros. Dojo, the official Smash Bros. site, they've posted a story called "I Will Be Making Smash Bros.". The tale, pieced together from a few of Sakurai's Weekly Famitsu columns, whimsically details how he became involved with the project, despite having left the comfort of second-party Nintendo developer HAL Laboratories a couple of years ago.

Here's an excerpt:

"I was surprised when I saw the GameCube controllers [my newly assigned development team] were using. The coating on the analog stick was worn down like an old eraser...
"Our guys have played Smash Bros. more than 10,000 times!"

It had to be a lie.
But when I saw their battle records, it showed a terrible number of matches that were not fabricated.

This was the result of years of uninterrupted playing of Smash Bros. during lunch breaks. There are often cases where your team doesn't understand the content of the game you're making, but that wouldn't be a concern this time.

It was promising.
This had to have been fate."

It's definitely worth a read, even if you aren't a rabid Smash Bros. fan.