“I would ask you to go and look at some of your data, just to compare first party performance over the course of this lifecycle, because I think our first party performance in terms of quality bars and units per title this shift has been superior to our competition’s.”

Look, I’ll just be honest here. Personally, I wouldn’t say that Microsoft has the best exclusives… this generation at least. I much prefer the offerings on Nintendo’s console and I absolutely love some of Sony’s first-party games. Microsoft has had its fair share of fantastic titles as well, but there aren’t a ton of games that come to mind.

Again, that’s just how I feel! Perhaps you guys would like to weigh in as well.

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What is the “Nintendo Difference”?

Posted on 13 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in Features, General Nintendo | 2 Comments

It’s a pretty simple question, but for those of us who have been with Nintendo games for years, it can have anywhere from one simple answer to a millions of vague and undefined ones. For me, I find myself more on the latter side of things, which is why I’m coming to you: I’m going to be putting together a massively pro-Nintendo piece of video soon in the feature, and I want it to include not only the opinions of one lone “journalist”, but the thoughts of many Nintendo gamers young and old.

So what is it for you? Is it their focus on things like frame rate and graphical consistency over technical prowess? Is it their attention to little details like easter eggs? Their innocent-yet-deep nature? Or maybe something as simple as “they make their games fun to play inherently– not fun to play because you want to see the next cutscene”?

Whatever it is, I want to know what you all think so I can take them and make a massive list that we can all use the next time someone asks us why the hell Nintendo games are better than anyone else’s. Not to say that there aren’t other great games, but there’s just something about games made by the big N that have a special ring to them, and I think a lot of you agree!

Top 10 Japanese publishers for June ranked by revenue share

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

The information below is based on data taken from May 30 through June 26:

1. Sega: 20.9%
2. Nintendo: 14.8%
3. Level-5: 9.1%
4. Namco Bandai Games: 8.6%
5. Gust: 5.5%
6. Capcom
7. Konami
8. Kadokawa Shoten
9. 5pb.
10. Tecmo Koei

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Aonuma wants to make something new, Four Swords DSiWare local multiplayer only, Zelda online talk, more

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

IndustryGamers has posted a lengthy interview with Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma. Aonuma discusses some interesting topics, such as his involvement for Wii U, his desire to make something other than Zelda, and online gaming for the console (and talk relating to Zelda). Aonuma has also confirmed that Four Swords for DSiWare will not contain online functionality.

Aonuma’s thoughts on Wii U…

“First off… I’ve been involved in it in some capacity since the stage where we started to bring things all together and decide what to make of this new system. We had the idea already that we’re going to have this monitor in the controller. So that was about 2 years ago when I started to be involved in these meetings and we decided how we should further develop the system, and in what direction we wanted to take it.

“The way I was involved in many ways in the project was as the representative for how Zelda will evolve with this new console. That was the perspective I brought to those meetings. Obviously, Zelda is one of those games in which a lot of the gameplay is centered around the idea of items and tools that the player uses in various ways in their environment. And so, so far it’s just been me examining how I’d like to use that new controller on the interface there to allow additional control or easier control over the toolset that’s given to the player as well as how to open up new possibilities.”

Aonuma says it’s somewhat of a problem that Zelda games take so long to make, wants to get them out faster

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

It’s almost unbelievable to think that we’re getting the first, true Zelda game made for Wii in 2011. By the time the game launches, it’ll be around five years since the Wii launched around the world. Skyward Sword will finally be released this year, but it arrives as fans are starting to move on to Wii U.

The fact that it takes so long for console Zelda titles to be released is something that Eiji Aonuma finds to be “a personal challenge”. The Zelda producer would like to launch games quicker and achieving this goal is something that he looks into.

“I can’t really speak to Mario, obviously – it’s not my forte. But with regards to Zelda, the development process is typically around 3 years and that’s a pretty big timeline obviously. So you’ve got a timeline for a given Zelda game and you’ve also got a timeline for new hardware. So obviously when those two timelines can line up neatly, then, yes we’d love to have something out and available at launch. There have been times when we’ve realized how important that is. For example, when Twilight Princess was being developed, we started on the GameCube and it turned out the game was going to complete itself more or lese around the time of the Wii launch and I thought, ‘Well, it would be a real waste not to have that available for new players with that functionality in the forefront.’ So we did make a Wii version of the game as well as the GameCube version.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D soundtrack photos

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

Thanks to Tim for the tip!

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Capcom Announces Comic-Con 2011 Lineup and Panels

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

Capcom will be in attendance at San Diego Comic-Con 2011 with an incredible line-up of activities and special surprises. Capcom will once again be located at booth #4844 which is sure to be a can’t miss hub of activity for fans: playable demos of the upcoming 2011/2012 line-up of games, daily tournaments, signing sessions, and special deals at the Capcom store.

Namco Bandai opens new teaser site

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

Namco Bandai has opened a new teaser site for… something. What is it exactly? I honestly have no idea, though perhaps you guys can make something of the background image on the page.

Some fans are speculating that it might be .hack related, but of course, that’s nothing more than a guess at this point. All will be revealed in nine days.

You can check out the teaser site here.

Aonuma: Upending the tea table is necessary and useful

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

Ever since 2004, Shigeru Miyamoto has been connected with the phrase “upending the tea table.” Eiji Aonuma delivered a speech at GDC that year, partially discussing how Miyamoto can sometimes change the direction of a game’s development when it’s heading towards completion.

Aonuma was asked to reflect back on the famous phrase at E3 last month. Does the Zelda producer find the “Miyamoto Test” to be bothersome? Actually, no. Aonuma said that he thinks that it can be “quite necessary and useful.”

“Well, back at GDC, when that conversation was presented, I think it painted a picture of Mr. Miyamoto’s role inside the company as coming in and being a really disruptive force in the development process, but I view it a very different way and I think a lot of people do. It’s that his time to come in and flip things on their head is part of the development timeline. It’s an event that happens. It’s almost a ritual in that sense. And it’s a necessary process, because I find that when he offers that feedback, a lot of the time, he points out things that I, myself, was having trouble with and maybe felt that I couldn’t solve or didn’t have a good time for or felt like we didn’t have the time for and he comes in and really gives focus to everything. So I’d really like to reinforce that fact that I don’t view the process that people refer to as ‘upending the tea table’ as something unpleasant. It’s actually quite necessary and useful.”

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Iwata would be sad if all games were shooters

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

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata doesn’t like the thought of the gaming industry becoming filled with shooters. Actually, he told investors that he would be sad if that’s how things turned out to be:

“It is a reality that some of these [wartime shooting] games sell 10 million units per year in [the West], and this is one valid type of video game genre. I would personally feel sad if all video games became something like that, but on the other hand, I do not think such games should disappear.”

I can’t really blame him for making a comment like that. I, too, wouldn’t exactly be happy if all games just involved shooting. To be honest, it’s probably my least favorite genre, though I do appreciate and enjoy some of the shooters out there. We need our other titles as well, like the Marios (platforming) and Zeldas (adventure).

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