Last year, Nintendo released Super Mario All-Stars 25th Anniversary Edition in honor of Mario’s 25th anniversary. Zelda’s turning 25 this year as well, but Nintendo has no plans to introduce any sort of compilation.

Despite Nintendo of America’s interest to release another collection disc, both Satoru Iwata and Shigeru Miyamoto denied the proposal. Apparently they didn’t want to copy their plans from last year. Instead, Nintendo of Japan was interested in doing something more unique.

Nintendo is celebrating Zelda is a rather big way. Four Swords is heading to DSiWare later this year and both Ocarina of Time 3D and Skyward Sword will be out before the end of 2011. Additionally, concerts will be held in North America, Europe, and Japan. Two CD soundtracks will be made available – one for the concerts and one for Ocarina of Time 3D – and Nintendo is also preparing a special, golden Wii Remote Plus for the upcoming release of Zelda: Skyward Sword. Not too shabby, if you ask me!

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List of GamesCom 2011 publishers/developers thus far

Posted on 13 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 0 comments

Electronic Arts
THQ
Take-Two
Bethesda
BigBen Interactive
Capcom
Asus
CD Project Red
Sony
Ubisoft
Konami
Koch Media
Namco Bandai
Hama
Alternate
Valve
Razer
Parrot
City Interactive
Microsoft
Nintendo
SEGA
Warner Bros..
Rondo Media
dtp Entertainment
Avanquest
Vidis
NCSoft
Gameforge
Frogster
Trion Worlds
Nexon
Wargaming.net
Ubisoft
GamersFirst

Nintendo is on the list, though I’m not expecting much from them. I remember the days when they used to have conferences at the show… but times have changed! The company will likely bring some of the games they showed off at E3 to GamesCom.

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Nintendo on Ocarina of Time’s opening scene

Posted on 13 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, General Nintendo, News | 0 comments

This information comes from the latest Iwata Asks…

Iwata: Among the real-time demos, the opening scene is particularly striking. How did you make that?

Kawagoe: Today, you can use a CG tool to move the camera, but back then we couldn’t do that because of how the game was constructed, so we asked to make the system to enable Nintendo 64 console to move the camera and we used that.

Iwata: First there was the music by (Koji) Kondo-san, and you made the images to match that?

Kawagoe: No, the music came later. The landforms of Hyrule Field weren’t originally made for cut scenes, so even if you think, “I want to film a scene like this…”

Iwata: The right place for it might not exist in the game.

Miyamoto’s Zelda idea that took thirteen years to realize

Posted on 13 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, General Nintendo, News, Wii | 0 comments

Thanks to the 1:1 functionality of Wii MotionPlus, players will be able to raise Link’s sword in the air for a charge attack in Zelda: Skyward Sword. Did you know that Shigeru Miyamoto wanted to implement the idea was thought of thirteen years ago?

As was stated in the latest Iwata Asks, Shigeru Miyamoto was looking to include sword raising in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. But it wasn’t until Skyward Sword that he was able to accomplish his goal.

Aonuma: That’s right. Apart from the horse, ever since The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Miyamoto-san has said that he wants Link to raise his sword over his head.

Osawa: He said that to me, too. We couldn’t do it on the Nintendo 64 system.

Iwata: But you can raise the sword in The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, right?

Aonuma: Yes. It uses the Wii MotionPlus technology, so we’ve finally done it.

Iwata: After 13 years, you’ve fulfilled another wish.

Aonuma: So to Miyamoto-san, all the games in The Legend of Zelda series are connected.

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Nintendo explains Epona’s history, name, more – horse idea popped up during Super Mario 64 development

Posted on 13 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, General Nintendo, News | 0 comments

This information comes from the latest Iwata Asks…

Iwata: So Young Link was going to show up. Riding Epona is also a distinct characteristic of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. How did the idea for a horse come up?
Osawa: It just arose all of a sudden.
Koizuma: No, I don’t think it was sudden. Actually, we’d been talking about a horse even during the development for Super Mario 64.
Osawa: Oh, I didn’t know that.
Koizuma: But it didn’t happen for Super Mario 64. I was certain we would do it for The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, so I got ready. By the way, Epona was a girl.

Nintendo’s trick to cut down on work for Adult/Young Link, N64DD difficulties

Posted on 13 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, General Nintendo, News | 0 comments

This information comes from the latest Iwata Asks…

Iwata: Partway through development, one and a half years before release, you had to do modeling and motions not just for Adult Link but for Young Link, too. Koizumi-san, how did you solve that?
Koizuma: We solved it with a simple trick. We realized that by applying a scale of a certain value to Adult Link’s model, we could double-up use of all the same things.
Iwata: You realized that you could use the motions of Adult Link for Young Link, too.
Koizuma: Yes. We could solve it technologically, so I said, “We can make Young Link,” and gave it my approval.

Zelda: Ocarina of Time originally left out Young Link

Posted on 13 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, General Nintendo, News | 0 comments

Those who play The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time start off as Young Link. Later, switching between the boy and Adult Link becomes a crucial gameplay element. But things weren’t always planned that way.

According to the latest Iwata Asks, the developers originally planned on just including Adult Link. Their thinking was that it was a natural decision since the one focus of the title was sword-fighting. Eventually, however, Shigeru Miyamoto requested that Young Link be added.

Iwata: For example, was the division into Young Link and Adult Link something you were thinking about from the start?
Osawa: No, at first there was always Adult Link.
Iwata: Only Adult Link showed up?
Osawa: Yes. At first, we were just going to have him in an adult form. If you think about the chanbara element, that only made sense. With a child form, the sword would be small and his reach too short, so he would be at a terrible disadvantage, especially against large enemies.
Iwata: And it wasn’t like you could just make the enemies small.

Nintendo comments on Navi’s origins, overcoming N64 limitations

Posted on 13 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, General Nintendo, News | 0 comments

In The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Navi is central to the game not just for story reasons, but also because she offers advice and takes part in Z-targeting during battle. Originally, a triangular marker would appear above an enemy’s head to indicate what you were targeting, but Nintendo swapped the symbol out with Navi to make it a bit more special.

Satoru Iwata, Yoshiaki Koizumi, and Toru Osawa discussed the origins of Navi on the latest Iwata Asks, even noting that the fairy idea helped to tackle hardware limitations with the N64.

Read on for more.

Nintendo discuss how Z-targeting came to be

Posted on 13 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, General Nintendo, News | 0 comments

This information comes from the latest Iwata Asks..

Koizumi: Yeah. (laughs) Thanks to him, we were able to show Link the whole time, but it got really hard in ways that would have been extremely easy in first-person, like how to handle the camera and battles.
Iwata: You tied your own noose. Koizumi: Yeah. In order to solve those problems, we had to create a bunch of new devices, one of which was Z-targeting.
Iwata: How did Z-targeting come about? Osawa: In Super Mario 64, for example, when you tried to read a sign, sometimes you would just go around it in circles.
Iwata: The axes wouldn’t match up.
Osawa: Right. We wondered what we could do about that, and when Koizumi-san joined the team, I said, “Since we’re going to include chanbara-style action, let’s go to Toei Kyoto Studio Park!”
Iwata: Huh? Going to Toei Kyoto Studio Park…because you were including chanbara-style action?

Nintendo elaborates on first-person perspective idea for Zelda: Ocarina of Time

Posted on 13 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, General Nintendo, News | 0 comments

A few years ago, Nintendo revealed that they considered making The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time with a first-person perspective. The latest issue of Iwata Asks, featuring members of the original development team, have elaborated on the idea. Satoru Iwata, Yoshiaki Koizumi, and director Toru Osawa took part in the interview:

Koizumi: First, I talked with Miyamoto-san about how we should make The Legend of Zelda for the Nintendo 64 system, and he asked, “How about making it so that Link will not show up?”
Iwata: Huh?! Miyamoto-san said that?!
Koizumi: Yeah. He wanted to make it a first-person game. Iwata: Oh, he wanted to make an FPS (first-person shooter).
Koizumi: Right. In the beginning, he had the image that you are at first walking around in first-person, and when an enemy appeared, the screen would switch, Link would appear, and the battle would unfold from a side perspective.