[Interview] ‘A Hat in Time’ developer talks the decline of 3D “collectathon” platforming, whether his game will come to Wii U, more
Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in Features, Interviews, Podcast Stories, Wii U, Wii U eShop | 0 comments
Author: Austin
Earlier this week I learned of a game.
I was scouring the internet for any sign of the dead 3D exploration platforming genre to no avail, and I turned to reddit to have a discussion on the topic, asking for any games people knew of that fit the bill. The response was pretty sizeable.
I was recommended games from Cave Story to Shadow Complex, Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts to Prince of Persia; none of these games quite scratched the itch I had though. There was always something “off” about them, either gameplay-wise or artistically. Perhaps they were too linear, or didn’t feature enough backtracking; maybe the atmosphere was closer to a Saturday morning cartoon than a charming game of the N64 era– each one had some different “flaw”. The point is that after ten hours, I figured that maybe the genre was dead, and I was looking for something that wasn’t there. Apparently developers had simply abandoned the genre overnight, and now a former industry staple was nowhere to be found.
But why?
First Elminage Gothic 3D Remix screenshots/art
Posted on 11 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, Screenshots | 0 comments
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity site open
Posted on 11 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News | 0 comments
Nintendo has opened the official website for Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity. Access it here.
The site comes with the standard content: details, videos, and screenshots. Be sure to visit the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity if you’re interested in the upcoming release.
Japanese Game & Wario boxart
Posted on 11 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Images, Wii U | 0 comments
Monolith Soft Kyoto on working together as a team, Nintendo’s relationship
Posted on 11 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Podcast Stories | 0 comments
This isn’t Iwata Asks – it’s more like Monolith Soft asks!
Monolith Soft Kyoto, the studio behind titles such as Baten Kaitos, conducted an internal interview. Topics such as working together as a team were covered in the discussion. Nintendo’s influence came up in the talk as well.
A quick summary of the interview is posted below.
– Since working alongside Nintendo, Monolith Soft has realized just how important it is for a team to work closely together
– There has been a great increase in meetings between Nintendo and Monolith over the past year
– Nintendo has been actively consulting on the studio’s work and providing feedback with tweaks and ideas on how to make things better
– Monolith Soft is amazed by Nintendo’s ability to work and think together as a team
– Monolith thinks this is a major asset in producing quality products
– From a developer’s standpoint, seeing how Nintendo communicate and their companionship as the foundation of their hard work, has inspired Monolith Soft to do the same with their studio
– Monolith designer Shoko Fukuchi mentions making people feel included by—for example—asking programmers, who aren’t often in talks with designers, for ideas
– Some of the staff had been worried about moving to Kyoto, but these concerns have since dissipated
– Having taken a page from Nintendo’s book, Monolith Soft have been livelier than ever
– Monolith Soft has been working closer together as co-workers and as a family with the common goal of developing great games
UK: Wii U sells just 34,000 pieces of software in January
Posted on 11 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 0 comments
UK software sales for Wii U last month were rather abysmal. Just 34,000 games were sold in the territory throughout January. The figure is even more bewildering when you consider that all copies of Nintendo Land – yes, the ones bundled in with the Premium Pack – count towards the total. Wii U maintained a market share of just 1.6% in the UK.
A full listing of UK software totals can be found in the graphic above.
Chilean games retailer “Zmart” lists “Battlefield 4”, “Modern Warfare 4” as coming to Wii U
Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in Rumors, Wii U | 0 comments
The image above shows a supposed “Zmart” listing for Battlefield 4 on Wii U, as noted by the Nintendo Pe Facebook fan page. The source also mentions the store as having the Pikachu 3DS XL available for pre-order with a tentative March date. The only problem? They also list “Zelda Wii U” and “Modern Warfare 4 Wii U” as coming, despite the fact that those are clearly just placeholders.
Is this to be believed? Maybe. For now, we’ll remain skeptical. We won’t know for sure until Activision or EA say something!
Listing for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 Wii U
Listing for Battlefield 4 Wii U
Thanks to Carlos for the news tip!
Dark Horse pleased with Zelda: Hyrule Historia’s success thus far
Posted on 11 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 0 comments
The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historia is now out in the wild
. Thus far, the art book has performed excellently for Dark Horse Publishing.
A total of 400,000 copies have been printed up to this point. Hyrule Historia has also nabbed the top spot on the Wall Street Journal and New York Times Bestseller list.
Dark Horse believes things are just getting started for Hyrule Historia and will continue to print copies of the book in order to keep up with demand.
“We believe the buzz on The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historia is just beginning and will be reprinting as many as needed to keep up with demand.”
Obsidian says they’re pitching a new Star Wars RPG to Disney
Posted on 11 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Podcast Stories | 0 comments
Creator of the critically acclaimed sequel to the critically acclaimed Bioware RPG Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Obsidian are saying that they’re attempting to pitch a new RPG based on the sci-fi series to Disney, possibly based on the events between Episode III and Episode IV. No word on exactly what the final product might end up being, but they’re hoping for the best!
[The Lucas/Disney situation] changes things a lot, but you know, we’re gonna push on it. We really worked on it hard and distilled it down to these eight or ten pages that really sold the story and characters. Then we sold it off to LucasArts and got a call back later that day. They were like, ‘This seems really cool. We want to talk to you guys, like, tomorrow about it’.
“We haven’t [talked with Disney yet]. We’re kind of waiting for the smoke to clear. But that’s one of my next big things to do. To kind of go over there and [get the ball rolling again].”
– Obsidian CEO Feargus Urquhart
I could definitely use a high quality single player Star Wars RPG sometime in the future! The Old Republic seemed good, but since it didn’t come to consoles I didn’t have the chance to try it out– if this new one happens to hit next-gen devices it would be a big incentive for folks to go out and get one!
