Nintendo publishes an original Zelda webcomic
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 15 Comments
Nintendo has published an original Zelda comic on the official Play Nintendo website. It’s based on an original comic by Seitaro Komatsu, which was featured in the Japanese magazine CoroCoro Comics Special.
Part one of the comic is posted below. I’m sure we’ll be seeing part two soon as well!
More: comic, The Legend of Zelda
New A Boy and His Blob game in the works
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 2 Comments
Majesco Entertainment has revealed that a new entry in the A Boy and His Blob franchise is in development. While specific platforms haven’t been announced, it’s slated for “all next generation consoles”, which would hopefully include Wii U. A game titled “Glue” is also on the way.
Today’s news comes as Majeso has appointed David Rector as its new CEO. Going forward, the company will be focusing on digital games as opposed to packaged titles.
Company EVP says risk-taking is in Nintendo’s DNA
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 31 Comments
Examiner has put up another excerpt from its interview with Nintendo of America executive VP of sales Scott Moffitt. In these latest quotes, we get to see what Moffitt had to say about Nintendo taking risks, which he says is “in our DNA”.
He stated:
“It’s in our DNA, it’s what makes us tick, and it’s what brought all of us to Nintendo. We like to be a company that’s willing to take some risks on a franchise like Splatoon, propose new forms of gaming to gamers, and see what their reactions are.”
“Often times, those [ideas] work, sometimes they don’t, it’s always risky to be an innovator, but that is woven into our DNA and is a bedrock value for Nintendo.”
As for why Nintendo continues to take risks, Moffitt says that it’s all for the gaming community. He explained:
“I think gamers have come to appreciate that from us, but also to respect it and expect it. They want us challenging the norms and challenging conventions, and I think that’s part of our role in the broader industry.”
More: interview, Scott Moffitt, top
Sakurai talks about players who are bothered by extra features in games
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 35 Comments
Super Smash Bros. director Masahiro Sakurai has once again written a column in the latest issue of Famitsu. In this week’s magazine, he tackles the topic of those who are bothered by extra features in games.
You can find a summary of Sakurai’s column below. For the entire column, check out the full translation on Source Gaming.
– Sakurai mentions how a game review organization handed out high marks to a simplistic puzzle game
– He says that since it didn’t have extraneous features warranting demerits, it was able to earn the high score
– Sakurai feels this isn’t the right way to review a game
– He’s been looking at user reviews for Fire Emblem Fates, and noticed that there were many comments saying “I don’t need this; I don’t need that, either”
– Ex: inviting companions to your house and stroke their heads/faces to raise your affinity level
– Sakurai feels that players who are bothered by this sort of feature should simply ignore it
– Sakurai: “Developers include all sorts of bonus features simply because they want to provide a little something extra for the fans.”
– Even if bonus features were removed, that doesn’t mean they’d “make room” for something else
– Sakurai: “If you approach game development with a demerit-based mindset, it doesn’t leave much room for anything extra, and games become pretty dry—and that’s just no fun.”
– Sakurai points out that Smash Bros. has plenty of unnecessary content
– However, taking out features means you’re left with “a bare-bones, niche-market game”
– Sakurai understands that some people want a minimalist-type of game, but Smash Bros. isn’t targeted at that niche market
– While some believe that superfluous features should be removed, others feel the opposite way
– Sakurai points out that not all bonus features to “plump up a game” are designed with everyone in mind
– Sakurai: “At the same time, games are a form of entertainment, so I sincerely hope people realize that “user abstinence”—not using unwanted content—is also a valid option.”
– Ultimately, he thinks you shouldn’t force users to play extra features in order to complete a game
– As long as the above point holds, Sakurai believes developers should be able to make games the way they see fit
– Even if you’re not interested in a certain feature, someone else might be
More: Famitsu, Masahiro Sakurai
Chris Pranger of Nintendo Treehouse elaborates more on localization woes
Posted on 8 years ago by Dennis Gagliardotto(@LyonHart_) in General Nintendo, News | 97 Comments
A few days ago Nintendo Treehouse’s Chris Pranger appeared on the Part Time Gamers Podcast to discuss what it’s really like in the process of localizing, touching on costs, to labor, to decision-making from how the market in a particular region looks. Obviously, localizing games from Japan to America is a lot of work. Tons of translations have to go into it as well as heavy consideration into how lucrative a product can be for a particular market and if it’s worth it. Chris Pranger touched on why attempting to localizing the more obscure titles is always a tough sell, and the laborious and arduous nature of it all:
The hardest thing for everyone to understand and to accept — and I’ve seen this first hand in the company, that this is typified — people think that obviously they’re right, and what they like or dislike has to be the norm. Why would it be otherwise? And they just say the classic “Why do you hate money? Why do you hate money, Nintendo?”
And it’s like “What are you talking about? We’re trying to make…obviously it has to make calculated risks, but at the same time, one of those risks…and I mean they’ll bring up games that are very Japanese games, like Captain Rainbow for instance. They’ll bring that up like “Look how many people want this. Don’t you want money?” And we’ll be like “Yeah, we do want money, which is why we know it’s a colossal waste if we ever try to localize that in this current market, because look at you people. You don’t make up a big enough group.
The hardest part for people to realize is how much money it takes sometimes to make a game like…if it’s a Japense game, to bring it over the States. Not just translating and then localizing and marketing, but if it’s a game that has substantial voice text, oh my goodness! That is a collosal cost to bring that over. And some games you look at and you’re like “Well how are they going to bring that over?” and it’s like “Well, they can’t.”
You look at something like even Xenoblade Chronicles. People love that game, you know, within a certain group. That game is not the type of game that just pulls in enough to justify the costs on that. So that’s like, we got it in the States by luck, that NoE decided “Oh, we’ll take the fall. We’ll localize that.” Okay, cause someone is going to have to eat the costs somewhere, because that game is guaranteed to not sell enough to justify how big that game is. You know, hundreds of hours, all voiced. That’s a lot of money that goes into that.
And people are like “Why do you guys hate money?” We don’t. That’s why you literally can’t make everything. And people don’t like finding out that their fanbase is actually too small to justify the costs of the thing they want.
It’s unfortunate that a lot of games we’d like to see localized don’t see the light of day due to market appeal in a region, but at the end of the day – as much as it’s great to appease the fans – business comes first. If it makes sense, and it can be profitable, it’ll be done. If not, tough luck.
More: Chris Pranger, Nintendo Treehouse
Super Mario 30th anniversary soundtrack revealed, out in Japan next month
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 3 Comments
Super Mario Bros. is getting a soundtrack in honor of its 30th anniversary. In Japan, the two-disc set is due out on September 13. Pricing is set at 3,240 yen.
Here’s the lineup of games featured in the soundtrack:
Super Mario Bros.
Super Mario Bros. 2
Super Mario Bros. 3
Super Mario Land
Super Mario World
Super Mario USA
Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins
Super Mario 64
Super Mario Sunshine
New Super Mario Bros.
Super Mario Galaxy
New Super Mario Bros. Wii
Super Mario Galaxy 2
Super Mario 3D Land
New Super Mario Bros. 2
New Super Mario Bros. U
Super Mario 3D World
Super Mario Maker (bonus track)
There’s no word on this time about the soundtrack’s availability outside of Japan.
GameStop makes its amiibo pre-order event official
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Rumors | 0 comments
There has been plenty of talk over the past few days about GameStop’s amiibo pre-order event. This will be taking place on Saturday, and provides consumers with an opportunity to reserve the Retro 3 Pack containing the R.O.B., Mr. Game & Watch, and Duck Hunt figures.
GameStop has now opened an official page for the event. If you need to find a local store, visit this link.
Thanks to Austin G for the tip.
Nintendo’s Moffitt on embracing indies, says “never say never” to working with Playtonic
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 2 Comments
Speaking with Examiner, executive VP of sales at Nintendo of America Scott Moffitt spoke about the company’s commitment to indie titles and developers.
Moffitt told the site:
“We’ve really been embracing the independent development community and there is a lot of really great indie content coming to our platform, more so than [before] on Wii or predecessor systems. Our eShop is stocked with great indie games, so we try to rotate them through and promote them from time to time with developer support.”
Examiner also asked Moffitt if Nintendo will work with Playtonic when it comes time to promote Yooka-Laylee. Regarding this, he said:
“We’ve show a much more open stance to indie developers, so never say never.
More: indie, interview, Playtonic, Scott Moffitt, Yooka-Laylee
Mewtwo amiibo launching in Europe on October 23
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 1 Comment
The Mewtwo amiibo will arrive in Europe on October 23, Nintendo has announced.
Today’s news comes straight from the company’s official Twitter account:
Just revealed at #gamescom: the Mewtwo amiibo will launch on 23/10! #NintendoGC15 pic.twitter.com/UEoLrVt33k
— Nintendo of Europe (@NintendoEurope) August 6, 2015
Nintendo has yet to say when the Mewtwo amiibo will be available in North America.
Videos: Rare on the making of Banjo-Kazooie and Conker’s Bad Fur Day
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, Videos | 1 Comment
The new Rare Replay package contains a pair of interesting videos. We get to learn about the making of Banjo-Kazooie as well as Conker’s Bad Fur Day. Both videos can be viewed below.
As a bonus, we’ve posted one more video after the break. Staffers talk about what makes a Rare game in it.
