Capcom ran location test for Luigi’s Mansion Arcade in Japan
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 4 Comments
Here’s an interesting piece of news coming out of Japan. Since October 30, Capcom has been running a location test for Luigi’s Mansion Arcade. As far as we can tell, it’s an arcade version of Luigi’s Mansion 2.
It’s strange that nothing has been said about Luigi’s Mansion Arcade previously, but it apparently does exist! The final location ran on November 3.
More: Capcom, Japan, Luigi's Mansion Arcade, top
Video: Teens react to Super Smash Bros. (N64)
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, Videos | 5 Comments
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Nintendo working on amiibo cards, smaller/cheaper figures
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, General Nintendo, News, Wii U | 9 Comments
Thus far, Nintendo has only shown figurines in relation to amiibo. But the company apparently has other plans for the brand with additional products.
During the Q&A for Nintendo’s financial results briefing last week, there was talk about the different amiibo projects the company is working on for 2015 and the advantage of allowing them to be used in multiple games as well as the speediness of their read/write speeds.
Skullgirls unlikely to hit Wii U
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Wii U eShop | 15 Comments
In the most recent issue of Nintendo Force, the magazine interviewed Mariel Cartwright. Cartwright has worked on a number of projects including Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game and Skullgirls.
Nintendo Force ended up asking Cartwright about which of these two titles has a better chance of making it to a Nintendo system. She pointed to Skullgirls as the more likely candidate since work on the game is still ongoing, though “the chances are very low”.
Cartwright said:
“Probably Skullgirls, since we’re still working on it! But the chances are very low for that, I’m afraid. I’m not a programmer, but there are some technical hurdles we’d have to overcome, as well as uncertainty as to whether or not there’s a market for a hardcore fighter on Wii U. The lineup of indies is getting more and more diverse on Nintendo consoles though, so I wouldn’t say it’s impossible.
Thanks to Jake for the tip.
More: interviews, Mariel Cartwright, Skullgirls
A look back on the history of two anime veterans at Nintendo
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 2 Comments
German website Nintendo-Online has continued digging into some of the lesser-known facts about the company we all know and love. That leads us to some details about Hiroshi Ikeda and Yoichi Kotabe – two employees with backgrounds in the anime industry who are relatively unknown.
Nintendo-Online sent over the following summary of their findings:
Hiroshi Ikeda
– born 1934
– started working at Toei Animation around 1960. He directed and wrote several anime movies and episodes until 1972 and collaborated with the later-famous Hayao Miyazaki on Flying Phantom Ship
– later Ikeda was hired by Nintendo and became the General Manager of the newly founded Research & Development 4 department. Thus he was Miyamoto’s boss and responsible for assembling a development team for Miyamoto. Although uncredited, Ikeda was the producer of the early R&D4 games like Super Mario Bros. or The Legend of Zelda.
– around 1990, Miyamoto became GM of R&D4. Ikeda became president of a Joint Venture namend Mario Co. Ltd. that was founded in 1991 by Nintendo and Dentsu Prox.
– Mario Co. Ltd. developed an Famicom-port of Balloon Kid under the Hello Kitty label, called Hello Kitty World (published in 1992).
– Later Ikeda became president of another joint venture. This one was founded between Nintendo and Hudson in 1998 and was called Monegi. Although neither Monegi nor Ikeda appear in credits, this team is the development team behind Hudson’s Mario Party series.
– At first, Monegi was a Nintendo first party company, but after 2000 it belonged to Hudson. After Mario Party 8 the company seems to have dissolved and the series went on hiatus.
– Many former Monegi staff now work at Nd Cube and develop the new Mario Party games.
– What happened to Ikeda in the last years is unknown, but at the age of 80 it is safe to assume that he is finally retired.
Yoichi Kotabe
– born 1936
– started at Toei Animation at the end of the 1950s, becoming animator and finally chief animator and character artist.
– Kotabe never directed, instead serving as the animator on other people’s animes. He collaborated with famous anime directors like Hiroshi Ikeda, Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahato.
– After Kotabe left Toei, he, Miyazaki and Takahata were reunited to work on Heidi, Girl of the Alps (1974). Later, Kotabe also worked on the animation of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
– mid-1980 Kotabe was recruited for Nintendo by his former colleague Ikeda. He became illustrator for R&D4.
– Kotabe drew the official artwork for Super Mario Bros., refining Miyamoto’s early sketches and thus creating the modern appearances of Mario, Luigi, Bowser, Toad and Peach. The game’s cover artwork is, however, drawn by Miyamoto.
– Kotabe can be considered the father of Marios current design. He drew artworks for several other games and also created some in-game graphics, for example for Super Mario Bros. 2.
– Later, Kotabe was involved in the animation of the Pokémon series and movies. After 21 years, he left Nintendo, but reappeared 2011 to draw the artwork for Peach’s letters in Super Mario 3D Land.
More: Hiroshi Ikeda, Yoichi Kotabe
Nintendo working on a Mii-focused smart device app for release in 2015
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 9 Comments
Nintendo is developing a Mii-focused smart device app that will be released in 2015, president Satoru Iwata revealed during the company’s financial results briefing earlier this week.
Nintendo originally hoped to have the app sometime this year. However, the amount of ideas grew as development progressed, and a decision was made to bring them all to fruition while also adding polish to avoid launching a half-baked product. Iwata said that Nintendo wants to get things right since this is their first time and they want to reach as many consumers as possible. Rather than “doing business” on smart devices, Nintendo instead wants to strengthen the connection between the company and consumers.
Iwata’s comments came about while speaking about Nintendo’s Japanese homepage and how there currently isn’t a mobile version. This is something that will be addressed before the end of the year.
Miyamoto on dev time, spin-off games for major franchises, plenty of Wii U games next year
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Wii U | 100 Comments
Nintendo commented on a variety of topics during the Q&A portion of its financial results briefing earlier this week. One of these points was development time.
We all know that the Wii U suffered from a lack of games at launch. Thankfully, in the future, this is something that Nintendo should be able to avoid.
Shigeru Miyamoto stated that Nintendo “already completed the step of learning new development techniques,” meaning there should be fewer “less developmental delays stemming from learning new hardware.”
Also part of Nintendo’s plans are to create spin-off titles based on major franchises. These projects will be made “on a smaller scale”. Miyamoto said that the company is “preparing to expand on our characters while also increasing the number of software we output and allowing our customers to have their next experiences in certain franchises without waiting three years.”
Finally, Miyamoto mentioned that Nintendo is working with third-party companies more regularly to make games – think asset creation, cut-scenes, etc. The Big N started to work with some of these developers for the first time this year. “We are in the process of creating a system where we are actively seeking outside assistance to help us create an abundance of major titles,” Miyamoto said.
If you’re interested in checking out Miyamoto’s full comments, head past the break.
More: Shigeru Miyamoto, top
Nintendo Minute – Fantasy Life Halloween special
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, Videos | 1 Comment
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Iwata again comments on region-locking
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 41 Comments
During the Q&A portion of Nintendo’s latest financial results briefing, president Satoru Iwata was asked about region-locking. Nothing was really said either way with regard to disabling it for future hardware, but Iwata did share some encouraging comments.
Here’s the complete response:
Q4: At present, your company’s hardware and games make use of region-locks, by which games purchased in one region cannot be played in another region. Are there any plans to unlock this restriction?
A4: Iwata: The game business has a history of taking a very long time with localization among other things, such as having to deal with various issues of marketing in each particular country, or games that have made use of licensed content that did not apply globally, and had all kinds of circumstances, so to say, that region-locks have existed due to circumstances on the sellers’ side rather than for the sake of the customers. In the history of game consoles, that is the current situation. As for what should be done going forward, if unlocked for the benefit of the customers, there may also be a benefit for us. Conversely, unlocking would require various problems to be solved, so while I can’t say today whether or not we intend to unlock, we realize that it is one thing that we must consider looking to the future.
This is the second time Iwata has discussed region-locking in the span of about a year. He also talked about why Nintendo implements the restriction for its systems while speaking with IGN last June. You can find those comments right here.
