Game Freak on why Pokemon Gray never happened, still interested in remakes
Posted on 6 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in DS, General Nintendo, News | 57 Comments
Following Pokemon Black and Pokemon White, Game Freak created a sequel to the two games. At the time, that was a bit surprising. Many fans were anticipating that Game Freak would make a third version as opposed to Black/White 2.
In this month’s issue of Game Informer, Game Freak co-founder Junichi Masuda explained the studio’s mindset at the time. Many staff members were interested in expanding on the original story, and they thought about creating “a game that was set a couple years after Black and White wrapped up to kind of show how things changed and expand on the events of the previous one”.
More: interview, Junichi Masuda, Pokemon, top
The World Ends with You character designer shares new art as game celebrates 10th anniversary
Posted on 6 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in DS, News | 7 Comments
The World Ends with You is celebrating its 10th anniversary today. The game originally appeared on DS in Japan on July 27, 2007.
To celebrate, Gen Kobayashi – who worked with Tetsuya Nomura on character designs – shared a new piece of art. We’ve attached it above.
Level-5 CEO on why Layton has been a success in the west, continued popularity, series’ origins, more
Posted on 6 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, DS, General Nintendo, News | 5 Comments
A new interview has appeared with Level-5’s CEO. Glixel recently spoke with the company’s Akihiro Hino.
Hino had plenty to say about the Layton series, including its success in the west, continued popularity today, and how it came to be in the first place. He also commented on other topics as well. These include how Level-5 is different from other developers and how it has changed as a company, and more.
You can read up on notable excerpts from the interview below. Head on over here for the full interview.
More: Akihiro Hino, interview, Level-5, Professor Layton, top
Dylan Cuthbert worked on a DS game that was 90% complete before being canned, was “one of Miyamoto’s pet projects”
Posted on 6 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in DS, News | 16 Comments
It took more than two decades, but Star Fox 2 is finally seeing the day of light after so many years. Nintendo will be including the game on the Super NES Classic Edition later this year.
Dylan Cuthbert was among the developers who worked on Star Fox 2 way back in the day. As it turns out, that isn’t the only game Nintendo put on hold after it was so close to completion.
In an interview with Gamasutra, Cuthbert vaguely spoke about a DS game – apparently “one of Miyamoto’s pet projects” – that was 90 percent complete:
“There is a game we worked on with Nintendo, one of Miyamoto’s pet projects for the DS, but apart from that I can’t divulge anything. It got canceled at about a 90% state of completion but didn’t go through Mario Club or the QA process. It was a pretty interesting project!”
Sadly, Cuthbert didn’t say anything else about the project. That only leaves us to speculate as to what the game was and why Nintendo put the breaks on it.
More: Dylan Cuthbert, interview, Shigeru Miyamoto, top
Mario Kart is the all-time best-selling racing franchise in the U.S.
Posted on 6 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, DS, GameCube, General Nintendo, News, Switch, Wii, Wii U | 23 Comments
Another piece of significant information has been reported stemming from the April 2017 NPD report. According to Mat Piscatella, an analyst for the company, Mario Kart is the all-time best-selling racing franchise in the U.S.
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe was the best-selling game in the U.S. last month despite being on the market for just two days. In that short period, over 460,000 physical units sold. With digital sales included, the total exceeds 550,000 units.
More: Mario Kart, NPD, sales, top
Dylan Cuthbert on Switch, Star Fox old-school re-make pitch, Star Fox Command, “X” staying in Japan, more
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in DS, General Nintendo, News, Switch, Wii U | 35 Comments
Q-Games founder Dylan Cuthbert conducted a new Reddit AMA today. As a Star Fox developer who has played an influential role in the Star Fox series, he had plenty to say about the franchise. He spoke about an old-school re-make pitched to Nintendo, working on Star Fox Command (and its endings), and his own personal ideas for a new game. Cuthbert also weighed in on Switch, Nintendo’s Game Boy title for “X” and why it never left Japan, and more.
We’ve collected a number of important responses from the Reddit AMA below. You can read the full thing right here.
More: Dylan Cuthbert, interview, Star Fox, top
Former Nintendo dev on working at the company, Miyamoto wanting Pikmin to be the next Mario, Mario 64 DS, scrapped Wii Play games
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in DS, General Nintendo, News, Wii | 6 Comments
Today, Gamasutra published a big interview with Motoi Okamoto. Okamoto spent a decade at Nintendo beginning in 1998, and contributed to games like Pikmin, Super Mario 64 DS, Wii Play, and Wii Fit.
Gamasutra spoke with Okamoto about his experiences at the company in its interview. He touched on Shigeru Miyamoto’s high aspirations for Pikmin, rejected Wii Play games, and more.
Head past the break for notable excerpts from the interview. You can read the full thing here.
More: interview, Motoi Okamoto, top
Suda51 on why The Silver Case’s DS port was cancelled
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in DS, News | 1 Comment
The Silver Case is being revitalized on new platforms. However, some of you may remember that a DS port was planned many years ago. Sadly, it never came to fruition.
Game Informer caught up with Suda51 recently and asked about why the plug was pulled on The Silver Case for DS. He explained to the site:
“One reason was the issue of an English localization. We wondered if a game with this much text could be localized correctly to be able to bring it to the West.
Another reason was the quality of the port. We actually had a full, working version, but we just couldn’t figure out a way to make use of the DS’s main feature, the dual screens. Since we were working on several other games on the time we just didn’t have the energy to figure it out. We actually thought about just handing the DS version out at Tokyo Game Show for free, but even that would have cost a lot of money, so we couldn’t even do that either! Unfortunately, we then had to cancel to the project.”
More: interview, Suda51, The Silver Case
Aonuma shares his top three Zelda games, most underrated entry
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, DS, GameCube, General Nintendo, News, Wii, Wii U | 92 Comments
In conjunction with its month-long coverage on Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Game Informer asked series producer Eiji Aonuma about his three favorite games in the series.
He ranked Twilight Princess third “because I wanted to create something better than Ocarina.” Ocarina of Time was next, which he says “is a game that gave me the opportunity to create a 3D world.” Finally, he picked Phantom Hourglass as his top choice.
More: Eiji Aonuma, interview, The Legend of Zelda, top
Former Nintendo designer on the creation of Game & Watch, Game Boy, DS
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in DS, General Nintendo, News | 4 Comments
This month’s issue of Retro Gamer features an interview with Satoru Okada, a former designer at Nintendo. Okada worked at the company for about 40 years, and was directly involved with the creation of various hardware.
Some excerpts from the interview are now available. Below, you can read excerpts from Okada about the Game & Watch, Game Boy, and DS. You might be surprised to learn that late Nintendo president Satoru Iwata wasn’t initially interested in the idea for dual screens…
