3DS

Posted on 14 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News | 1 Comment

“Let’s put it this way I think we would all love to think that GoldenEye may make it onto the 3DS. Today we’re talking about the Wii, but yeah if you were at E3 and you played with the 3DS it’s a great bit of hardware and we’d love to see it on there. But we don’t know, there’re no plans yet. I think if Nintendo approached us we’d consider anything.” – Activision’s Julian Widdow

I think we could see this happen eventually. GoldenEye 007 is hitting the DS later this year, and you may remember that Rogue Agent also landed on the portable. Perhaps Activision will call on n-Space to make another handheld James Bond title, but for the 3DS sometime in the future.

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Posted on 14 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News | 5 Comments

“We will have six to eight of the key launch titles on 3DS, so we are expecting anywhere between 25 and 30 per cent share on that platform.” – UK sales director Darren Bowen

It sounds like the 3DS will have a much stronger lineup than the DS had. You may remember that only 11 titles were released in North America alongside the DS. I just hope we see Nintendo’s new portable sooner rather than later!

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Posted on 14 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, DS, News, Wii | 1 Comment

The 3DS has only been in the hands of third-parties for only a few months, yet it has already garnered tremendous support. However, a number of developers saw it for the first time at E3, including BioWare co-founder Greg Zeschuk. In a recent interview, Zeschuck said that he was “blown away” by Nintendo’s new portable, and even pondered the possibility of making a title for the handheld.

“We could [make a 3DS title] because we’ve done a DS game before. So imagining it, it’s pretty similar. It will depend. The thing I’m curious about on 3DS is, what else does it bring to the table? Is it going to be wireless? What kind of backend connectivity are they going to do? That is what excites me. I loved it. I saw it at E3 and I was blown away. I’m not sure if it’ll bring that much more to the table. But that’s going to be enough to reinvigorate the DS market. For us to want to jump in, you largely have to have a lot more online stuff going on there. You’re clearly limited in how flexible you can be on the backend. We always joked about a DS MMO at some point…It would be brilliant. But the problem is it’s not patchable. That’s the thing I’ve learned working on MMO stuff. You have to be able to update. But it would be a pretty cool concept…And that [more online integration] opens up those kinds of windows. And suddenly, even just imagine that.”

Posted on 14 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, DS, General Nintendo, News | 3 Comments

– Ace Attorney series is finished with Apollo Justice, Takumi believes
– Not sure whether to make another Phoenix Wright game or something original
– Takumi found inspiration for the Ace Attorney titles in mystery novels that he read when he was young
– On the 3DS: “We’ll definitely move onto the 3DS with our ideas. I really liked the 3D camera and gyro sensor possibilities, and I’m already thinking of ways for taking advantage of it”.
– Takumi likes Phoenix and Godo, may be his favorite characters
– Because the original Ace Attorney team only had 5 staff members, Takumi was the voice actor for Phoenix

Thanks to Robert for the tip!

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Posted on 14 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News | 4 Comments

– Sakurai was trying to figure out what sort of game he should make in 2008
– Sakurai believed that a lot of ports would be made, and didn’t think Iwata would want something that’s already been seen, is small, or is something like Wii Party
– Ultimately he decided to go with a difficult genre and something he wouldn’t usually do
– He chose the shooter genre, which isn’t very popular in Japan
– Made his decision because he felt it would be a good match for the 3D graphics
– Sakurai quickly made a basic design
– Project plan formally announced in 2008 after talking with Nintendo and interviewing potential studio members numerous times
– At this point it wasn’t Kid Icarus, just an original franchise
– Sakurai had asked Iwata in his first conversation if he should stick with a Nintendo franchise, Iwata told him that they should think about it if his project would be a good fit for one of the company’s franchises
– After that, Sakurai revised his project plan, and Kid Icarus came to mind since it’s popular in the West
– Initially was presented as an original game, but later Sakurai suggested to make it Kid Icarus
– As work on the game started, Sakurai rented a small office space in the Takadanobaba district of Tokyo in November 2008
– Only had a few staff members
– No development tools at the start since the 3DS was brand new
– Sakurai wanted to settle on their direction so that things could go smoothly when the staff moved to a bigger office
– He finalized Uprising’s project plan and wrote the story in the first office
– Project Sora started recruiting staff in March 2009

Quotes from Sakurai:

“Most of the games due to come out during the launch window were probably going to be ports. I could have chosen a genre that was easy to develop, but I doubted Iwata wanted something everyone’s seen before, or something small, or something like Wii Party. In the end I deliberately choose a difficult genre, something I wouldn’t usually work with.”

“That’s frankly not a major genre in Japan (shooter), although overseas there are piles of masterpieces in that field. You can’t argue that the marketplace for it [in Japan] is very healthy.”

“I wanted the game flow to involve traveling to enemy territory in the air, then fighting bosses on the ground. The air battles would be done 3D shooter-style and be as simple and exciting as possible, like a roller coaster or some similar ride. It’d be something close to a rail shooter, although you can move Pit around independently. It’d be difficult to make a whole game around that, though, and I didn’t think gamers would be happy with it — that’s where the ground battles come in.”

“During that first conversation with Iwata, I asked him whether I had to stick with a Nintendo franchise for this project. Working on Smash Brothers, I knew all about how much love gamers had for all of Nintendo’s games, and how frustrated they were that some of the series have lain dormant for so long. Any game designer wants to concentrate on original work, but given the role Nintendo had for me, I wanted to know if they had a particular brand they wanted to emphasize.”

“When I presented my project to Nintendo, it was as a wholly original game, but in the end I suggested that we make it a Kid Icarus title instead. I’d have the goddess Palutena grant Pit the power of flight for five minutes at a time, and he’d fly into enemy strongholds and fight enemies on the ground afterwards. It sounded like a ton of fun, I thought, and I got the go-ahead pretty soon afterward.”

“I kicked off the project with a staff that I could count with my fingers. The window glass was razor-thin and wind drafts leaked through them. Since the 3DS was brand-new hardware, there were zero development tools, and even if there were, Nintendo would never let them outside of headquarters. So my chief goal was to settle upon our direction and make things go as smoothly as possible once we started to ramp up staff and move to a bigger office.”

“I’m not the sort of person who wants to tell a story with his games. A game’s scenario acts as a series of signposts to move the player from one situation to the next, giving him a goal to strive for. The dev team needed the design framework so they could start working on stages, so I finished up the story right after the basic project design was done. Based on that, I hired several outside illustrators to come up with concepts for the backgrounds and characters.”

“We’ve gone through a variety of twists and turns in the ensuing year before the E3 announcement,” he said. “FPSes and third-person shooters are an intensely competitive genre to work with; it puts us at a disadvantage from the start, and there’s no way we could outclass the hi-definition visuals of console games on a portable. Nonetheless, I thought that project would be a vital test case to see if we could make a fun, playable, fully-3D game. It’s the first 3DS project ever launched — simple but technically complex, easily learned but deep enough to satisfy gamers. We’re interweaving a variety of conflicting watchwords into the game as development continues.”

Posted on 14 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News | 4 Comments

Hideo Kojima

“I wear glasses, so I’m happy that 3D glasses are not needed. I directed the E3 demo. It was based off Metal Gear Solid 3 Snake Eater, but the backgrounds and character modeling were all redone in high polygon. It’s not finalized, but we’re thinking about CO-OPs and other things — elements fitting of a 3D and portable game machine.”

Suda 51

“I was able to feel the speed of video game history and also the feeling of ‘We’ve come this far.’ To express the game I want to make in a word, it’s ‘The Next Game.’ Nintendo 3DS is the arrival of ‘The Next Hardware.’ So, ‘The Next Game.'”

Hideki Kamiya

“Games with dynamic scale are okay too, but I personally would like to take a different approach from the large screen and make a 3D game where you can enjoy the feeling of existence of portable 3D.”

Toshihiro Nagoshi (Super Monkey Ball 3DS)

“If future portable game machines demand that both social aspects and immersion be satisfied for when you play multiplayer and single player for instance, 3DS firmly answers these with Wi-Fi and 3D. I’d like to make a variety of proposals.”

Nagoshi also said that he believes the 3DS is an expected “conclusion” from Nintendo, feeling that starting with the 3DS, the company has seemed to have pursued game hardware as toys.

Shu Takumi

“We’ve at last reached this point! As a creator, I feel that a new challenge (considering certain things for the first time like interface issues) has started. I’d like to show a mystery in a 3D space.”

Atsushi Inaba

“I experienced a strong jolt of the feeling ‘I want to make something.’ When I first saw Wii and DS at Nintendo’s home office, I was also excited. It’s the same feeling here, but the level is completely different this time. Since the start of the game industry, there’s never been a system that better fit the words ‘dream’ and ‘next generation.'”

Keiji Inafune

“Elements for selling games are concept, technology and marketing. Nintendo 3DS is a showcase of elements for selling hardware. While keeping the appeal of portable game machines as is, it offers high processing ability, improved controls, a more appealing design, goggle-free 3D technology, and a robust 3rd party title lineup.”

Takenobu Terada

– Believes that the true 3D contender has arrived
– Terada’s team looking at different approaches for the 3DS Super Robot Wars games
– Could make something like Super Robot Wars Neo with 3D visuals or traditional 2D battles with 3D effects and cut-ins
– Something completely different a possibility, too

Shinji Mikami

“I felt that I’d definitely like to work on 3DS. Ah, it’s time for dinner with Itagaki.”

Mikami also told Famitsu that he was surprised at how well the 3D works. Images have great depth to them and really feel 3D.

Tomonobu Itagaki

“Today, I have a meeting at a yakiniku place, but I think things will heat up with talk about 3DS.”

Unlike goggles-free television viewing, Itagaki feels it will work well with a portable.

Yoshinori Ono

“We’d like to put in some ideas that make effective use of the portability.”

Hiroyuki Kobayashi

“Our own Resident Evil was shown on the show floor and was well received, but when I saw Metal Gear, I felt the new potential of the 3DS. I’d like to make something.”

Kobayashi was also “extremely surprised” by Nintendo’s games, feeling that images come to life on the screen.

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Posted on 14 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News | 0 comments

The following information comes from SEGA’s Western president Mike Hayes…

“We’re under so many NDAs, I can’t answer that question. Are we going to have titles at and around launch? Absolutely yes, we will do. I think Nintendo have managed the whole project absolutely brilliantly. They’ve worked brilliantly with third-parties; that was said at their E3 conference. I think that was a double-sided comment from them actually: ‘Thank you third parties, but you actually didn’t believe in DS and Wii [at launch] did you?’ And we’re like: ‘Point well taken.’ Whereas of course with 3DS it’s one of the best third-party involvements there has been in recent years with Nintendo – that’s fantastic.”

“I mean, what a great piece of kit. It’s truly innovative. Their engineers are quite phenomenal – first of all with the DS and now this. The interesting thing is for Nintendo is I think they can expand their audience. I think they can move beyond the younger audience. It was encouraging to see games like Saints Row for example from THQ at E3. I think that’s a great opportunity for Nintendo and for us – particularly Western-orientated publishers. So House of the Dead or Aliens vs. Predator or other core titles like that could see a home on that platform as well, of course, as all the brands that we know will do well – Monkey Ball, Sonic etc. In terms of technology, It’s Nintendo isn’t it… They work in their huge, successful separate world. That dismissal of 3D glasses was a surprise, but they’ve created something unique. That’s Nintendo. They’ll create a phenomenally big market that this time around, which will engage third-party; at least engage them more from the outset. I think what Reggie was saying about the gaming is absolutely right – forget the technology of what they’ve created with 3DS, just enjoy the games.

The situation with 3DS launch software is a bit confusing at the moment since we don’t know who will be supporting it at launch and with what titles. It also doesn’t help that we don’t even have a firm release date for the system. However, that should change sometime in the near future, and things will become much clearer.

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Posted on 14 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News | 5 Comments

This information comes from Capcom’s Motohide Eshiro…

“I actually had a chance to see and get some information about the 3DS yesterday and I think it’s a great system with a lot of potential for game designers — there’s a lot you can do with it. Especially from a graphics stand-point, there’s so much potential there. I’d like to be able to make some games for that in the future, but as far as being approached by Nintendo, I personally haven’t been approached by them to make anything for it as of yet. Maybe someone at Capcom has, but personally speaking I haven’t at this moment.

For Okamiden itself, I don’t think it’s unfortunate that we couldn’t make it a 3DS game. I’m very happy that it’s a Nintendo DS game because of the touch-screen. We wanted to make it really suited to everything you can do with the touch-screen, so we worked really hard to make sure that those aspects of the game are being fully exploited. That was the main challenge for us to overcome and hopefully when we get this into people’s hands and they start playing it, they’re going to see how great using the touch-screen is. Hopefully they have a really good reaction to Okamiden on the DS and start clamouring for a sequel. Then if they ask for that sequel on the 3DS, well… we’ll see what we can do.”

Well, I’m sure you guys know how I feel about this! In order for it to happen, it’ll need to sell well. Make sure you pick up a copy when it releases next year!

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Posted on 14 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, DS, News, Wii | 1 Comment

Tournament of Legends

– Most of the violence from when it was originally shown is gone
– Craig gave it a 5/10
– “An official meh”
– Graphics don’t look that great
– Craig feels like the game was rushed to make the game SEGA wanted them to make it (not official)
– Game sometimes stops so they can do something cool in the middle of the fight
– Quick time event to dodge giant feet
– Described as “bizarre”
– Filling in the gap of original third-party games
– $30, so it’s a budget game

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Posted on 14 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News | 1 Comment

Even though many technical specs behind the 3DS are still under wraps, one thing is certain: The system possesses a 3.53-inch widescreen and 3.02-inch touch screen. The two screens are quite a bit smaller compared to what the DSi XL offers. However, Hideki Konno, who is heading development of Nintendo’s new portable, recently explained that this was a conscious design decision. Even though the company created the handheld hoping that consumers carry it around with them, Konno said that they could make the screen larger.

“The DSi XL was quite impactful with its very large screen, but the concept for the 3DS is to have consumers bring it out of their homes and carry it around, considering all of those Tag Mode functions in the hardware. If we make it too large, consumers might not be able to carry such a heavy thing in their bags. We wanted to make it compact…We can make it larger.”

Also noteworthy, Konno stated that it’s technically possible to incorporate the 3DS screen technology into a television-size display. But due to high costs and the fact that players would need to remain still in a specific position, there are currently no plans to introduce that idea to the market.

“We could do it, but besides the cost issue, consumers would have to be in one very specific position to watch the TV or the 3-D will be completely gone. With the handheld, there is only one position.”