MercurySteam originally wanted to remake Metroid Fusion instead of Metroid II
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in GBA, General Nintendo, News | 9 Comments
Next week is the launch of Metroid: Samus Returns. It’s a remake of Metroid II: Return of Samus, which hit the Game Boy many years ago. Nintendo collaborated with MercurySteam on the project. But interestingly, Metroid II wasn’t MercurySteam’s first choice.
Game Informer reports that MercurySteam initially pitched Nintendo on potentially remaking Metroid Fusion. Although series producer Yoshio Sakamoto was impressed with the pitch and their passion for Metroid, he said no to revisiting the Game Boy Advance game. Instead, Sakamoto wanted to remake Metroid II.
Going with Metroid II over Fusion may have been the smarter choice. You can make an argument that Fusion still holds up today, but the team was really able to make significant improvements to Metroid II.
Famitsu readers choose the top 100 best games of all time
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in GBA, General Nintendo, News, Switch, Wii, Wii U | 54 Comments
Japanese magazine Famitsu put out its 1,500th issue this past week. In celebration of that, readers were asked to vote on the top 100 games of all time.
A number of Nintendo games made the list, including the a few in the top ten. These include Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Splatoon, which were selected fifth best and third best respectively.
The full list is as follows:
More: Famitsu
Game Freak’s Junichi Masuda was very stressed and had health issues while working on Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in GBA, News | 11 Comments
Which Pokemon games were the most challenging to make? When Game Informer posed that question to Game Freak co-founder and Pokemon director / producer Junichi Masuda, he referred to Ruby and Sapphire.
Masuda first told the magazine:
“With Ruby and Sapphire, the screen got a little longer and it was a different aspect ratio, a lot more colors and sound channels so the tech was improved dramatically. It allowed us to do a lot more and gave us more freedom, but at the same time it made it take a lot longer to do things and was more resource-intensive.”
“After Gold and Silver came out, it was a huge hit around the world, but shortly after everyone was saying, ‘That’s it. The Pokémon fad is over! It’s dead!’ It was a very stressful project, for sure. When we were first developing it, I had the idea in mind that it would be Ruby and Sapphire, and then the next games, including the titles, would be Diamond and Pearl, and in between we would do the remakes, FireRed and LeafGreen, so we could create this structure where you could take the Pokémon from the Kanto region to the Diamond and Pearl games.”
Fan turns Game Boy Advance SP into a Switch dock
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in GBA, News, Random, Switch | 11 Comments
One fan has repurposed an old Game Boy Advance SP into a Switch dock. Alexander Blake, who had a broken system lying around, realized that the dock’s circuit board is basically the size of Nintendo’s old handheld.
All of this was done by removing what was in the GBA SP. Blake then simply transferred the parts inside of a Switch dock. Finally, a hole was carved above and inside the screen so that the port connecting to the Switch would fit and be protected.
Here’s a closer look:
Video: A look at prototypes for Crawfish’s cancelled version of Grand Theft Auto III for GBA
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in GBA, Videos | 4 Comments
Many years ago, Crawfish Interactive was working on a version of Grand Theft Auto III for the Game Boy Advance. It was sadly cancelled, which eventually prompted Digital Eclipse to create Grand Theft Auto Advance.
A video recently surfaced showing Crawfish’s work. Both are based on very early versions of development. Although there isn’t a ton of depth to the prototypes, they’re a neat part of gaming history.
Sakamoto on making Balloon Fight, Iwata memories, canned GBA hardware idea, more
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in GBA, General Nintendo, News | 6 Comments
Nintendo recently published another new interview on its Japanese website to promote the NES Classic Edition / Famicom Mini. This time, Yoshio Sakamoto of Metroid fame sat down to talk about Balloon Fight. Nick Mosier translated the piece, which had some interesting talk about how the game was made, memories of the late Nintendo president Satoru Iwata, and a GBA hardware idea that was cancelled after making it to the mock-up stage.
We’ve picked out some notable excerpts from the interview below. You can read the full translation here.
Video: Rare on the making of It’s Mr. Pants
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in GBA, General Nintendo | 1 Comment
It’s Mr. Pants is a very interesting game. Banjo-Kazooie developer Rare created the Game Boy Advance title back in 2004. As some of you may know, Mr. Pants started out as the studio’s mascot on their website.
Rare recently shared a feature in which the making of It’s Mr. Pants was discussed. Check out the 10-minute video below.
More: interview, It's Mr. Pants, Rare, top
Pokemon FireRed being recreated in Minecraft
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in GBA, General Nintendo, Videos | 3 Comments
Gamer “Requag” has taken on the task of recreating Pokemon FireRed in Minecraft. It runs through a virtual Game Boy Advance by using structure blocks, which are designed for map makers.
The project isn’t finished just yet. Functions like combat and dialogue aren’t included at this time, but they should be added in later on.
Here’s a look at the progress thus far:
To test out Pokemon FireRed in Minecraft, players need version 1.10 of the game.
More: Minecraft, Pokemon FireRed
Famitsu readers vote on the most memorable games on each console
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, DS, GameCube, GBA, News, Wii, Wii U | 107 Comments
In celebration of Famitsu’s 30th anniversary, the magazine held a poll in which readers could vote on the titles they feel are the most memorable on each gaming system. 2,921 ballots were cast on platforms starting with the Famicom all the way through the latest generation.
We’ve posted the results for the top 10 games on Nintendo systems below. Results for other platforms can be found here.
Famicom
10. Kirby’s Adventure – 60 votes
9. Final Fantasy III – 69 votes
8. Earthbound – 72 votes
7. Mario Bros. – 108 votes
6. The Legend of Zelda – 120 votes
5. Dragon Quest II – 186 votes
4. Dragon Quest IV – 228 votes
3. Super Mario Bros. 3 – 279 votes
2. Dragon Quest III – 528 votes
1. Super Mario Bros. – 552 votes
More: Famitsu
Game Boy Advance celebrates its 15th anniversary
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in GBA, News | 16 Comments
The Game Boy Advance originally launched 15 years ago today, as it’s now March 21 in Japan. The Japanese release took place on March 21, 2001. In North America and Europe, the system arrived in June of that year.
Does anyone have any fond memories of the GBA? I still remember picking up mine at Toys “R” Us many years ago! I believe Spyro: Season of Ice was one of the games I picked up at the time.
