Beautiful. This is one of my favorite tracks in the game. <3
As always, thanks 1000 times over for your translation. The entire English speaking Smash fanbase appreciates it. However, I think you may have misinterpreted what he said. The only way to have a 100% balanced fighting game is for all the characters to be the same. The more similar they are, the more likely and easier they are to balance. Little Mac represents a bit of a departure from other Smash characters in that he's so "extreme" so to speak. As such, he is harder to balance and has a higher chance of being Top Tier or Bottom Tier than a lot of other characters. Sakurai is more interested in selecting characters with interesting movesets that will "spice up the game" than more pedestrian movesets that are easier to balance. It's part of the reason a game like Marvel vs Capcom 3 has relatively poor balance (Capcom being rushed due to shitty licensing agreements and some degree of ineptitude contribute though

). When you have characters like Magneto next to Arthur, shit gets crazy.
Perhaps I misphrased my interpretation. Based on the article it sounds like Sakurai has his own tier list-of-sorts when it comes to developing games:
1) Fun to play
2) Unique and interesting characters
3) Balanced gameplay
In other words, I agree that it's impossible to have a completely balanced game so long as you introduce any variables into the gameplay (different characters, stages, etc.)--and I think Sakurai acknowledges this fact as well. He does make an effort to create a largely balanced gaming environment, but it sounds like he would rather spend his time creating a unique and enjoyable experience than slaving away at balancing out every character such that the playing field is perfectly even.
Re: balance as an afterthought: I totally agree!
The game should be fun to play in the first place, above all else. If this leads to imbalance, it doesn't really matter. If only one character is viable, the community can ban it. If 2 or more are viable, then that's enough variety for me.
It'd be exciting to see some of my favorite characters on the upper end of the balance, but there's no way to get everything perfect. Making the characters fun and exciting first is absolutely the more important thing to worry about.
I actually agree with Sakurai in that sense: there's no point in making (or playing) a game if it isn't fun. Lucas is at the bottom of the Brawl tier list, but I absolutely love the way he plays--and that's exactly what I think Sakurai wants people to get out of Smash. I had a blast bouncing off people's heads with Greninja when I tested out the 3DS version last month, and playing as Little Mac was truly a rush of adrenaline, so I have high hopes for the two upcoming installments of Smash.
I'm trying to see where he said unique characters are bad.
Are we saying Masked Man mistranslated this and what Sakurai really meant was that it's the most fun if all the characters are the same?
I'll clarify: he definitely did /not/ say that unique characters are bad. In fact, he stressed that unique characters are one of the aspects he focuses most of his efforts on when developing games. The translation itself is admittedly not terribly artful compared with what I do for work, but I feel confident that there aren't any glaring mistranslations.
Thank you so much for doing this. There's nothing I love more than hearing Sakurai talk about game design.
My pleasure. I'm likewise fascinated by Sakurai's in-depth discussions on game design.

He released two books back in 2012: one about playing games and one about designing them. Both are essentially anthologies of his Famitsu articles, but it would be nice to see those published in non-Japanese markets as well.