Kevin Bayliss left a huge mark on Rare during his nearly 20-year run at the studio. As a designer and art director, he contributed to Donkey Kong Country, Diddy Kong Racing, Star Fox Adventures, and much more.

UK magazine GamesTM spoke with Bayliss (who is now at Playtonic) this month, and asked him plenty of interesting questions about his time at Rare. The topics we’re mainly interested in focus on Nintendo specifically. Bayliss commented on the process of redesigning Donkey Kong for Donkey Kong Country, the initial changes that Star Fox Adventures went through, meeting Shigeru Miyamoto, and more.

We’ve included Bayliss’ comments below. You can pick up GamesTM now for the full interview.

More: interview, Kevin Bayliss, Rare, top

Rumor: Details on plans for Switch’s Virtual Console, include specific GameCube games

Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in GameCube, Rumors, Switch | 54 Comments

A few hours ago, Tom Phillips from Eurogamer tweeted that GameCube support is planned for the Virtual Console on Switch. The site now has its full report up about the situation.

Super Mario Sunshine, Luigi’s Mansion, and Super Smash Bros. Melee are the first games Eurogamer claims Nintendo has been focusing on. The original Animal Crossing is also being looked into, with all of its NES games included. Eurogamer adds that Nintendo is considering support for the GameCube controller adapter on Wii U, though “a final decision has not yet been made.”

More: top

THQ Nordic acquires Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy IP, says it’s “very well suited for the Nintendo audience”

Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in GameCube, General Nintendo, News, Switch | 27 Comments

THQ Nordic announced today that it acquired three new IPs from Mobile Gaming Studios and Enigma Software. The company now owns Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy, War Leaders: Clash of Nations, and Legends of War.

That first one might be the most interesting to Nintendo fans. Way back in 2003, Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy landed on the GameCube. It’s a third person action-adventure titles that takes inspiration from the mythology of Ancient Egypt.

More: Lars Wingefors, THQ Nordic

Nintendo on why Wind Waker 2 became Zelda: Twilight Princess

Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in GameCube, News, Wii, Wii U | 33 Comments

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess wasn’t the game Nintendo always intended it to be. Initially, development on the project began as a sequel to Wind Waker.

Series producer Eiji Aonuma actually “announced” Wind Waker 2 during a talk at GDC 2004. A slide included in his presentation showed that the game was in the works, though we know that plans ultimately changed.

Now we have some insight into the situation thanks to a new interview from The Legend of Zelda: Art & Artifacts. The book is coming west next February, but it’s out in Japan as “Hyrule Graphics”. And a section of the discussion with artist Satoru Takizawa talks about what happened back in the day.

More: interview, Satoru Takizawa, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, top, Yusuke Nakano

Animal Crossing devs on the series’ modest beginnings, approach to making games, more

Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, DS, GameCube, News, Wii, Wii U | 12 Comments

Today, the Nintendo UK site issued a new interview with two of Animal Crossing’s primary developers. General producer Katsuya Eguchi and Animal Crossing series producer Hisashi Nogami fielded a number of questions.

The two devs weighed in on the Animal Crossing series as a whole, but more general topics as well. They were asked if they anticipated Animal Crossing becoming so popular, approach to making games, what they aim for when creating titles, and more.

We’ve picked out Eguchi and Nogami’s notable responses below.

More: Animal Crossing, Hisashi Nogami, interview, Katsuya Eguchi

Climax Studios pitched Diddy Kong Racing Adventure to Nintendo for the GameCube

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

YouTube user PtoPOnline has unearthed an interesting pitch from Silent Hill: Shattered Memories developer Climax Studios. During the GameCube era, the company was hoping Nintendo would give the green light on Diddy Kong Racing Adventure.

Big plans were in store for Diddy Kong Racing Adventure even though Nintendo decided not to go ahead with the pitch. Climax had a story in mind, with the intent of bringing back the Adventure Mode and multiple vehicles from the original Diddy Kong Racing. Also in place was a mount system so that players could move positions on their vehicle or move to a separate one entirely. Climax was looking to include fourteen different characters with unique attacks for each as well. 4-player multiplayer, along with a slew of other modes, were also in the pipeline.

Plenty of additional details about Diddy Kong Racing Adventure can be found in the video below.

More: Climax Studios, Diddy Kong Racing Adventure, top

Takashi Iizuka on the physical toll of making Sonic Heroes

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

The development of Sonic Heroes took its toll on director Takashi Iizuka, who is also the head of Sonic Team. Iizuka spoke to Game Informer this month about how difficult it was to create, even labeling it as the most stressful project of his career.

Iizuka was located in the United States as Sonic Heroes was being created. Meanwhile, the rest of the team was based in Japan. Mismanagement was also a major issue.

More: interview, SEGA, Sonic Heroes, Takashi Iizuka, top

Video: NES Classic Edition size compared to Nintendo systems

Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in GameCube, General Nintendo, Videos | 3 Comments

We know that the NES Classic Edition is pretty dang small, but how does it compare to the likes of the original NES, SNES, and N64 from a size perspective? Thankfully, GameXplain has all of the answers in a new video. Check out their findings below.

More: comparison, nes

Zelda: Wind Waker Easter egg lets you defeat one of the bosses right away with an unconventional item

Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in GameCube, News, Random, Wii U | 12 Comments

In The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, the Forest Water is primarily used to heal Withered Forest Trees during an early part of the game. However, YouTube user Fish_waffle64 recently came across another usage: to essentially kill one of the game’s bosses instantly.

The Kalle Demos boss fight is normally a battle that would take the average player several minutes to complete. But if you use the Forest Water after exposing its core with the boomerang, it’ll go down right away.

Here’s a look:

What’s amazing about this is that the Easter egg works in the original Wind Waker on GameCube as well as the HD version on Wii U. That means, technically, the opportunity for it to be spread widely online has been there for years. It doesn’t really seem like something that’s really been publicized though!

Thanks to Jake for the tip.

Source

More: The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD

Happy 15th anniversary, GameCube

Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in GameCube, News | 29 Comments

In Japan, it’s already September 14. You know what that means! The GameCube is now officially 15 years old. Nintendo originally launched the console in Japan on September 14, 2001.

The GameCube wasn’t Nintendo’s most successful system, but that doesn’t mean it lacked great games. Metroid Prime, Zelda: The Wind Waker, Super Mario Sunshine, Pikmin, and Smash Bros. Melee are among the more memorable titles. The design itself is also unforgettable with the handle on the back!