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Masahiro Sakurai GameCube scroll wheel

Masahiro Sakurai posted his latest YouTube video today, and includes an interesting tidbit of information that he wanted a scroll wheel on the GameCube controller when the hardware was being developed.

Sakurai said he was allowed to give input – which makes sense given his close relationship with the company thanks to the Super Smash Bros. series. As explained in his proposal for Melee, the scroll wheel – or jog dial – “is a knob that you can turn either up or down, and it also functions as a switch if you press it in.” The idea here is that players would more quickly make menu selections and it’d allow for smooth camera movement.

Viewtiful Joe Okami Hideki Kamiya

Hideki Kamiya has again expressed interest in working on Viewtiful Joe as well as Okami. Kamiya – who recently left PlatinumGames and was director on both projects – made a few brief remarks about both IPs in a new video published on his YouTube channel today.

As for Viewtiful Joe, Kamiya said that he “actually had the story for a third Viewtiful Joe all thought out.” He also feels that he left Okami “unfinished”.

Retro Studios Adept The Blob Game

Thanks to Did You Know Gaming, we have insight into a couple of short-lived Retro Studios projects – specifically Adept and “The Blob Game”.

Adept was playable in a rough state, but was ultimately just a pitch that Nintendo turned out. It was running in the Metroid Prime 3 engine and was intended to show off mechanics. In late 2007 and into early 2008, Retro was working on Adept that took inspiration from Portal while evolving on the premise – primarily by introducing combat.

Paper Mario Thousand Year Door graphics comparison

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is returning on Switch next year, and a new graphics comparison video shows how it stacks up to the original.

The first thing you’ll notice is that Nintendo has updated some assets. Textures have been enhanced for the HD era. Geometry has increased as well, which is something you can notice with certain objects like the trees. It doesn’t end there though, as with animations, some are brand new while others were updated. Other adjustments are improvements relate to the lighting, 16:9 aspect ratio (instead of 4:3), and more.

Baten Kaitos sequel

Bandai Namco is finally bringing back the Baten Kaitos series with remasters of the original GameCube games, but it sounds like there aren’t plans for a new entry entirely at the moment.

We asked producer Koji Nakajima about the possibility of a sequel during our recent interview. Regarding that, he shared the following with us:

dolphin steam emulator cancelled

The team behind the Dolphin emulator has cancelled plans for release on Steam following the initial announcement in March.

A lengthy post was made on the software’s website today. It was explained that, ultimately, “given Nintendo’s long-held stance on emulation, we find Valve’s requirement for us to get approval from Nintendo for a Steam release to be impossible.” Also reconfirmed is that Nintendo never actually sent a DMCA takedown notice, but Valve’s legal department reached out to Nintendo, and a lawyer for the Big N requested Valve prevent the Steam release.


Shigeru Miyamoto Pikmin 4

In a new interview published today, Shigeru Miyamoto commented on the Pikmin series and said he’s wondered why the games haven’t sold more and why people think they’re so difficult. 

For Pikmin 4, it sound like Nintendo wanted to make the game as approachable as possible. The company’s Yuji Kando said the team “prioritized ease of play and experimented with making the controls easy enough for those who aren’t used to playing games.” Camera and AI improvements were a focus as well. Miyamoto added that Nintendo wanted to “retain the depth of gameplay that makes Pikmin so interesting, while providing the functional support to address the challenges around controls.”

Here’s the full interview excerpt:

Pikmin origins concept art N64

The original developers behind Pikmin have discussed the game’s origins, including how it was originally being developed for the N64.

Masamichi Abe, who was director at the time, said in a new interview published today that “discussion of this project started during the transition from Super NES to Nintendo 64, so we had a strong aspiration to utilize its ability to display a large number of characters on screen.” Shigefumi Hino, who also was director, added that it was originally “envisioned a game that would control a lot of characters with AI.” The interview includes a number of concept art / images as well, and character designer Junji Morii talked about being inspired by Tim Burton.

Dolphin Steam emulator Valve statement

Much discussion has taken place after Valve took down the Dolphin emulator listing last week on Steam. However, new information has come to light revealing that the move was technically spurred on by Valve initially.

Rather than Nintendo filing a DMCA, the GameCube and Wii emulator was removed after Valve brought it to Nintendo’s attention. The Verge obtained emails showing how the Big N’s lawyers especially took issue with the use of cryptographic keys.

The email reads:

More:

Baten Kaitos III cancelled

Yasuyuki Honne, the director at Monolith Soft for the Baten Kaitos series, has again commented on Baten Kaitos III – which never released. He also once again confirmed that there were plans for a title on DS that was scrapped as well.

According to Honne, Baten Kaitos III was targeted for next-gen platforms – so if anything, it would have been on Wii and not GameCube. Unfortunately, things weren’t meant to be “due to Bandai Namco’s restructuring and budget review, as well as tri-Crescendo’s financial struggles”. Honne added that “Baten Kaitos is a complicated series with lots of circumstances involved.”


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