"Ah, yes. I've gotten many complaints about Ganondorf. Why doesn't he use his sword more? Why isn't he as powerful as he is in Zelda? Well, when I decided to add him in Super Smash Brothers, of course he was a late addition included only because his physical appearance was easy enough to model swap over Captain Falcon. So I couldn't do as much justice as I wanted with him, but I worried people would be upset if I left out such an important and striking character.
Ganondorf is somewhat of a contradiction---in Smash Brothers, he's both powerful, yet sometimes comes across as a little worn down, a little tired. In a way, he was greatly influenced by my late father who passed away shortly beforehand. As a child, I viewed my father as a strict-disciplinarian, a man I both feared and respected. But when I grew up, I realized my father, that man I was saw as a powerful figure---a king---was often out of breath, and limped along. I wondered why I feared him so much? And in a way, that's how I've developed Ganondorf as a character. Personally I'm quite close to the character, and thus I find it difficult to bring myself to change him too much."
-Sakurai in a Famitsu interview