Sakurai hoping Kid Icarus: Uprising multiplayer will be online, NES game possible on eShop, much more
Sakurai on the new direction gameplay-wise and thematically for the game…
“Interestingly, the genre came first and then Kid Icarus and Pit were fitted into that later. Initially, Nintendo and Mr Iwata came to me with a request to create a game for the new portable system. I had a proposal for a game where a character would fly – for air shooting, then would land and battle on the ground, in the same way the game is set up right now. In discussing that, we realised that Kid Icarus and Pit would be a perfect match, so that’s how it came about… we were able to use the design of Pit developed in Smash Bros; to incorporate him into the game.”
Sakurai on the elements from the NES game that have been carried over to Uprising…
“Probably the biggest thing is the game’s sense of humour. At the time that the original Kid Icarus came out, you had games like Zelda, Metroid, Dragon Quest. It was a time when these adventure games or RPG games were coming out, and were very serious. They were squarely about fighting through a crisis and a sense of adventure. At the time Kid Icarus had this humorous, almost comical sense of humour to it, and didn’t take the user too seriously, so that’s an area that has really reflected in this new game. You’ll notice in the new title that you have a lot of conversation between Pit and Palutena, and between the two of them they’re cracking jokes a lot. There isn’t a sense that Pit is overcome with the stress of a crisis and is fighting through that in his battles, but that he has a light-hearted approach to it. And so, I think that it’s not too serious is a big thing that we’ve taken from the original game.”
Sakurai discussing Magnus…
“The game is set up in chapters – going from chapter one to chapter two to chapter three, and Magnus is a guest character that appears in chapter two. So it’s very near the beginning of the game that he appears, and what we’ve done is we’ve set up this sort of ironic situation where you’re near the beginning of the game, but you’re set against what is made to be this ‘breaking the fourth wall’ final RPG boss type of character. So you discover that Magnus has some background history with this final boss character. Magnus is presented in the game as being the strongest of the strongest among humans, and all the humans have been fighting against the underworld and being defeated, but here’s this one character who’s stronger than everybody else. And when paired with Pit in the game, it’s a good way for the player to get a sense comparatively, of just how powerful Pit is too. And also to explore Pit’s character and personality by talking with another character in the game.”
Sakurai on what players will be doing between chapters…
“Between chapters what you’re doing is you’re returning to the heavens where Palutena is located, and when you return there that gives you an opportunity to prepare for the next chapter, to re-equip your character with different things. In that sense it’s sort of a hub, sort of a home… If I were to have to choose between those two I’d say it’s more like a menu.”
Sakurai on the AR functionality…
“The AR cards are actually totally independent from the other modes and I suppose you can think of the collectability aspect – like trophies in Smash Bros., where there are things unlocked in it. In that sense there’s some connection between the functionality of these cards and the overarching game, but I would say – to generalise – that it’s a separate mode.”
Sakurai on whether you can level up the characters in the AR game by playing the single-player game…
“Actually, no, sorry for the misunderstanding. The cards themselves and the characters on those cards have set abilities that are not affected and not related to your progress in the single player game.”
Sakurai on whether Pit obtains weapons at different points in the game or if he has them all from the start…
“There’s only one weapon that you can use at the beginning of the game, and that is this blade weapon [indicates AR card of Pit holding blade]. But actually, as you can see here [indicates other AR cards that have Pit with a variety of weapons] there are these other weapons, and these are actually weapon categories. In other words, within the cannon category, there are a number of different cannons, or within the bomb category, there are a number of different bombs. And in that sense there are many more weapons in the game than perhaps you had imagined. In addition, even within the same weapon – perhaps the blade that you have versus the blade that I have, those may have different stats and different skills. By playing through the game, even, for example, playing chapter three, a number of times, if you play those at different difficulty levels the weapons that you find as pick-ups in the game could have higher, more powerful stats, the higher the difficulty level you play at.”
Sakurai on whether players can custom-design weapons…
“In the sense of there being customisation by the player, you’re going to be picking up weapons all the time. Lots and lots of different weapons, and each of those different weapons, in addition to having just – for example – stronger abilities or weaker abilities, will also have certain characteristics attached to them, like one giving faster foot speed or one providing extra range, and given the great wealth of weapon variety in the game, there are so many individual characteristics for each weapon that it becomes almost like the weapons are fighting game characters – the weapons themselves are the characters you play with in the game.”
Sakurai’s favorite weapon…
“I’m sorry, I like them all! Given the great range of individual characteristics and styles that are built into the weapon variety, each obviously suits different player styles differently, each have, maybe, a quirky little thing about them that players might find interesting, so it’s really hard – probably for anybody – to narrow it down to which is the best, because it’s not about one being stronger than the other.”
Sakurai on whether multiplayer will be online…
“We’re still in the middle of looking at the options for the wireless multiplayer mode, and I would say it’s not totally out of the realm of possibility that we might end up not being able to implement the Wi-Fi online mode, but we’re moving forward in development with the understanding and intention of making that a feature.”
Sakurai on whether you can customize your character in multiplayer…
“The main mode in the multiplayer is this mode called Light Versus Dark. During that game, Pit and Dark Pit will appear for each of the respective teams. In this mode the light team is light and the dark team is dark, as far as their colouring [goes], but there is also a free for all mode in which the colour of each avatar will be customisable.”
Sakurai on whether the original NES game will appear in Uprising…
“No comment.”
Sakurai on the possibility of a 3D re-release of Kid Icarus on the eShop…
“As far as it appearing on the Virtual Console, it’s very possible and I’ve been in some talks regarding that recently.”
