“When I joined the industry in 1990, it was an industry where anything was possible based upon the strength of your ideas. Since large amounts of financial capital have become necessary, the balance has tipped toward return on investment via extensive use of marketing and acquiring larger numbers of users. Because of this, I feel that the number of games made as creative challenges has decreased. I wish the market had more of an adventurous spirit. As a creator, my desire to challenge myself by making interesting things hasn’t changed a bit.”

Although I partially agree with Mikami, there are a great deal of games that step outside the box and take risks. Super Mario Galaxy, for instance, is conventional in the sense that it is another Mario game, but the element of gravity is creative.

Mario Galaxy cake puts other desserts to shame

Posted on 15 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 0 comments

Monster Games working on secret title for Nintendo

Posted on 15 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 5 Comments

Monster Games, creator of the niche Wii game Excite Truck, released the game way back in 2006. Since then, the company has been on the down-low. It has been confirmed today, however, that Monster Games is definitely hard at work on a new title. More specifically, this game is being made for Nintendo and has been in development for two years. Apparently, this game is so secret that “the designers must darken their monitors when the bottled-water deliveryman enters the office.”

As of now, most believe that Monster Games’ secret game could be an Excite Truck sequel, or even a new entry of the F-Zero franchise. News about the project should be revealed soon considering the game has been in development for a considerably long time.

Greenpeace takes a shot at Nintendo for “poor communication standards”

Posted on 15 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 2 Comments

This isn’t the first time that Greenpeace has had an issue with Nintendo. Today, Greenpeace has strongly criticized Nintendo for their “incredibly poor standard of communication.”

“Nintendo are not engaging at all,” said Iza Kruszewska, toxics campaigner for Greenpeace. “I have spoken to Nintendo’s sales people in the UK, and even they admit that Nintendo isn’t communicating enough, not just externally but internally, apparently…We’re in continuous dialogue with all the companies we speak to, apart from Nintendo. I’ve never been able to get an answer from them aside from a couple of marketing people in the UK who have been trying to forward the messages to global headquarters in Japan, but we get no response from Nintendo. The company has an incredibly poor standard of communication regarding this issue.”

And of course, Greenpeace still does not believe Nintendo is environmentally friendly, either. Kruszewska added, “What really struck me was Nintendo’s response when we asked them about this. They said that their products don’t create waste because… people hang onto them! It’s a very inadequate response, and I’m surprised a serious company like Nintendo would even respond that way.”

Nintendo ditches red logo for gray – For now

Posted on 15 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 5 Comments

“We are using grey but the racetrack logo can be represented in a number of different colours. You’ll often see it in black, white, silver or grey…[The gray logo is benig used] for the time being…This has been the case [black logo for DS packaging, gray for Wii packaging) on both hardware formats since their releases.” – Nintendo statement

I prefer the red logo, simply because it’s a classic representation of Nintendo. What do you guys think?

Source

The Zelda series will be supervised by Aonuma for the foreseeable future

Posted on 15 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 11 Comments

We’ve been posting snippets from the Nintendo Power interview with Eiji Aonuma over the past week or so, but there is one last significant response to be shared. When asked about the success and longevity of Ocarina of Time, Aonuma said, “I’m happy that a title I worked on some time ago remains highly praised to this day, but that also shows how none of the subsequent games in the series have surpassed it. As someone who is still working on the series, I have mixed feelings about that. Because I haven’t yet surpassed it, I can’t quit. Surprisingly, that simply motivation may be the reason I continue to work on the Zelda series.” As Aounuma explains, he will overseeing the Zelda series (alongside Miyamoto) for a longtime to come. Quite honestly, I can’t imagine a Zelda game without the two of them being involved in the game development, considering how much they have influenced the series.

Nintendo News: Nintendo’s Mario Lends His Voice to Help Holiday Shoppers

Posted on 15 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 2 Comments

If you want people to know what gifts you want for the holidays, you need to speak up. And who better to help you speak up about your love for Nintendo DS™ games than iconic Nintendo video game character Mario™ himself?
Starting today, people can visit http://mariowishlist.varitalk.com and check off the Nintendo DS items they hope to receive for the holidays. After users provide some other fun information, your friend, relative or special someone will receive a voice mail or e-mail with a personalized message from Mario about what Nintendo DS gifts you hope to receive.

What would Aonuma change in Ocarina of Time?

Posted on 15 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 1 Comment

“I would change the Iron Boots from equipment to an item. If they could be turned on or off at the touch of a button, the Water Temple would be more fun. I wish I could travel back via time warp and fix that.” – Eiji Aonuma

I completely agree with Mr. Aonuma. Most who have played Ocarina of Time say that the Water Temple itself was confusing, but if you ask me, if was more annoying that you needed to keep bringing up the menu to switch between boots.

Ocarina of Time led to the three-day cycle idea for Majora’s Mask

Posted on 15 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 2 Comments

“At the time we were developing Ocarina of Time, not many games had both day and night. In order to heighten the sense of reality within the game, we thought changing from day to night would be important, so we set some events to happen during the day and others to happen at night.

In the game, we were only able to completely differentiate day and night, and there was no in-between. But in planning these events to occur at different times of the day, we learned how to control the characters’ actions in real time as measured within the game. Afterward we wondered if other types of gameplay would be possible using that system, and the result was the three-day cycle in Majora’s Mask.” – Eiji Aonuma

Aonuma fully explains the origins of Z-targeting

Posted on 15 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 3 Comments

Ocarina of Time is considered to be a fantastic title for quite a number of reasons. One of the most important elements implemented in the game is Z-targeting. You may be wondering though, why did the developers decide to create such a lock-on system? Well, in the latest issue of Nintendo Power, Eiji Aonuma, who has been overseeing the last few Zelda titles, explains all.

“Everyone has probably experienced how hard it can be to go where you want to go when moving your character around in 3-D space. When an opponent is approaching, in order to attack with your sword, you’ve got to position yourself in such a way as to hit it, and that can be quite difficult.

Another problem in games with a third-person perspective is that the camera must follow around the player character. Opponents with a large range of movement soon fall outside the frame. Losing track of your opponent’s location happens much too often.

That was one obvious problem with Super Mario 64, so when it came to Zelda, which features a lot of swordfights, we introduced ‘Z-targeting,’ by which the player could lock on to an opponent. The opponent would stay in front of the player, all the player’s attacks would converge on the opponent, and the camera would always capture both the opponent and the player onscreen.

This lock-on system was developed by Miyamoto and Yoshiaki Koizumi, our 3-D system director. Together with the programmers, they worked directly on adjusting game operability, camera-rotation speed, and even sound effects.”