General Nintendo

Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 1 Comment

Yooka-Laylee developer Playtonic has been adding talent from Rare on a regular basis since its inception. This past week, yet another staffer from that company joined the team – at least temporarily.

Playtonic has welcomed Phil Tossell, who was the coding lead on both Star Fox Adventures and Kameo. He’s also one of the co-founders of Tengami maker Nyamyam.

Playtonic tweeted out the following:

Based on a tweet from Tossell, it sounds like he’s still on with Nyamyam:

Thanks to Jake for the tip.

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Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in DS, General Nintendo, News, Videos, Wii | 6 Comments

Warner Bros. was once planning new video games based on the Dirty Harry film franchise. It was previously known that a primary version was in the works for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 courtesy of developer The Collective, but it came to light in recent years that Sensor Sweep was also making a separate game for other platforms including Wii and DS.

Sensor Sweep’s project would have adopted the same plot and some similar gameplay mechanics. However, it was an alternative approach, with plans to include a cel-shaded art style.

All Dirty Harry games were eventually scrapped. Regarding Sensor Sweep’s take on the IP, the team was well behind schedule and found itself not properly equipped for development on home consoles given its past work exclusively on handhelds. These factors contributed to its demise, along with the declining interest from Warner Bros. in moving forward with Dirty Harry after the HD version was cancelled.

Here’s the full report from Unseen64 and Liam Robertson:

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Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 25 Comments

Before coming out with the Game Boy Advance, Nintendo was looking into a completely different type of portable device. Many years ago, the company was experimenting with a Game Boy successor under the apparent codename “Project Atlantis”. In the end, it never turned into a consumer product.

German outlet Nintendo-Online has taken a look at what’s known about Project Atlantis based on previous information floating around (plus a few other separate, but interesting tidbits). The site passed along the following information:

– “Project Atlantis” is usually regarded as the GBA’s codename, which is NOT true – the GBA was codenamed “Advanced Game Boy”
– “Project Atlantis” was a Game Boy successor that Nintendo developed around 1995. Rumours about the system started in early 1996. It was supposed to be a 32 Bit color handheld, to have four buttons and to have a screen bigger than the final GBA. Media reported the system was supposed to release in late 1996.
– Rumours further suggested that “Project Atlantis” had power comparable to the N64 and used a 160 MHz processor – it would have been way more powerful than the final GBA. Also, “Project Atlantis’s” battery time was supposed to be 30 hours.
– Although Nintendo confirmed the system’s existence in mid-1996, “Project Atlantis” never got released. The newly released Game Boy Pocket sold well enough so that Nintendo delayed the release of “Project Atlantis” to the end of 1997.
– Finally the system never came to the market. The reason was that the system was simply way too big to be a Nintendo portable system. Also it was too power-consuming, too expensive to manufacture and Nintendo apparently wasn’t satisfied with it’s performance.
– DSi lead developer Masato Kuwahara who also participated in the development of “Project Atlantis” showed the prototype in a GDC 2009 lecture. Here’s the picture he showed, with a DSi as a size comparison.
– Bonus fact 1: Kuwahara also showed an unreleased Touch Screen Adaptor for the Game Boy Color that he developed in 1998. His picture shows the prototype attached to a Game Boy Advance SP.
– Bonus fact 2: The dev team also experimented with a fold up model for the Game Boy Advance, the like of which the GBA SP and the DS are. Because back then the system would have been to thick, they discarded the idea.
– Bonus fact 3: The development of the final GBA didn’t start until the Game Boy Color was released and only took about two years.

Some interesting things here for sure! It’s always neat to look back on Nintendo’s history, and get a glimpse at products that never made it to market.

Source, Via

More: Game Boy

Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, Videos | 7 Comments

The Nintendo Minute crew is back with another weekly episode. In today’s video, Kit and Krysta show off the co-op mode in Star Fox Zero. View the full Nintendo Minute below.

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Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, Videos | 2 Comments

The Pokemon Company has shared all sorts of messages from developers and other key people involved with the franchise in celebration of its 20th anniversary. Today, we have a message from Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto, who discusses his work on the games early on. Check it out below.

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Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, Videos, Wii | 1 Comment

Several years ago, Activision teamed up with Virtual Playground in hopes of creating a MMO of sorts for its music-based games. The goal was to have it connect with Guitar Hero 7, DJ Hero 3, future Band Hero titles, and more across Wii as well as other consoles.

Ultimately, we never saw the MMO – which would have carried the name “Hero World” – when Activision scrapped all of its “Hero” releases. Virtual Playground attempted to turn the project into different forms as a means of appealing to other partners and receive funding, but its efforts did not result in success. The company ended up filing for bankruptcy in mid-2011, four months after Activision pulled the plug on Hero World.

Take a look at the full report on the MMO from Liam Robertson and Unseen64 below.

More: Activision, Guitar Hero, Virtual Playground

Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 7 Comments

The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses has added new tour dates to its schedule. We had some idea about locations where the concert will be held next year, but new areas have been added it. Concerts are even being scheduled into the beginning of next year.

Here’s the full schedule as of now:

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Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS eShop, General Nintendo, Videos, Wii U eShop | 1 Comment

Image & Form is back with another episode of “The Engine Room”. It’s another Nintendo Direct-focused video, as the studio answers fan questions about SteamWorld Heist’s appearance in the presentation. View the full video below.

More: Image & Form, indie, Nintendo Direct, SteamWorld Heist

Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, Rumors | 24 Comments

In a new report, Hollywood Reporter writes that a “top-secret auction for film rights to the Pokemon franchise is nearing completion”. Warner Bros. and Sony have both apparently shown interest, but the Chinese-owned Legendary Entertainment appears to be in the lead at present.

Hollywood Reporter goes on to say that The Pokemon Company “has been courting Hollywood to launch a big-budget live-action movie.” Initially, Warner Bros. was an early favorite having distributed the first three Pokemon films. But Hollywood Reporter has heard that Legendary could win out, which could pose an issue given political tensions between Beijing and Tokyo and a situation where China “effectively banned Japanese films for three years, which was only broken recently.”

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Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 1 Comment

Super Mario Bros. speedrunner “darbian” has managed to set a new world record. He’s completed the game in just four minutes, 57 seconds and 260 milliseconds. That’s 387 milliseconds faster than the last record, which darbian set in October.

You can watch some highlights from the playthrough below. The full archive is on Twitch here.

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