>>19303423>>19303258I wish you would people would think about this for five seconds.
Mirroring a sprite is as easy as two clicks in MSPaint. Not mirroring would require you drawing entirely new frames for the character's back, literally doubling the amount of work you have to do.
In 3D, the entire model is created. A three dimensional model. As in, viewable from every angle. Having the character show its back when it faces a different direction is just a matter of ROTATING the model. It involves creating NOTHING new.
Now, having the character always face the front may or may not take a lot of work; it depends. If the model is just mirrored, it isn't too hard. However, if you want to retain consistent asymmetries, you'd have to create new tweaked models, like how the way Greninja's tongue fold is different on either side.
But mirrored or not, it's still more work than just ROTATING the goddamn model. If you think it took MORE work to show Kirby's back in previous smash games, are you also astounded when you rotate a camera in any TPS game? Are you amazed that you can see mario's back AND his front in M64?
