NotEnoughShaders conducted a massive interview with Shin’en’s Manfred Linzner. Linzner opened up on Nano Assault Neo’s gameplay and technical features, WiiWare and eShop, Wii U hardware, and much, much more.

There’s a comprehensive summary below, courtesy of NeoGAF.

Nano Assault Neo
– Online leaderboards, ‘survivor’ mode, local two player.
– Tunnel sequences from 3DS version not present in Neo, instead replaced with tunnel ‘races’.
– Uses the ‘C-Engine’, an engine Shin’en has used on around 17 games.
– In two player mode, the GamePad camera captures the second player (on the GamePad) playing, and displays this image on the TV for the first player to see. Image captures at 30fps. Can be disabled.
– ‘Missions’ take place of achievements. Missions success is ranked online.
– 100mb download size.
– 5.1 LPCM surround sound audio.
– Hoping for launch day and low price.
– Loading times almost reduced to zero.
eStore/Digital
– Made profit on WiiWare, but felt the market was too small. Feels the 3DS eStore is a sign of Nintendo taking digital more seriously.
– Feels Nintendo is “listening to feedback”, including from developers.
– Had no restrictions from Nintendo in terms of size, content and gameplay for their digital titles.
Wii U Hardware/Tech
– Hardware avoids “typical bottlenecks”, such as RAM latency.
– GPU “quite open”.
– Hardware has good optimisation potential, and components well balanced.
– Have had no problems with the CPU/GPU combination. Feels they’re a “good match”.
– GamePad streaming and camera capture do not put a burden on the CPU/GPU.
– Nano Assault Neo using a few tricks that are not possible on current generation hardware. States the modern Wii U GPU is capable of effects that can make Wii U games look better than any game on current generation hardware.
– Audio DPS used for 3D audio and lowpass filtering.
– Excited to see what developers do with the hardware over the years.
Design/Company Philosophy
– Big focus on framerate. Always aim for 60fps.
– Enhancements made to the C-Engine for one game can then be used in other games on other platforms.
– Enjoy independent, smaller working versus larger, contractual working. Allows for full ownership of properties and engines, and full control of project direction.
– Influenced by arcade games from the 80s/90s.
– Enjoy first party Nintendo games. Thought Journey was really great.
– Happy with their relationship with Nintendo.
– Developing Jett Rocket for 3DS. Hoping to release it in the next few months. Planning another Wii U game, to be announced early next year.

Source 1, Source 2

Vanillaware cut features, story scenes from Muramasa: The Demon Blade

Posted on 12 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii | 0 comments

Practically every game out there has seen some of its content doesn’t make it into the final product. In the case of Muramasa: The Demon Blade, it sounds like quite a few ideas were left on the cutting room floor.

Marvelous AQL producer Yoshifumi Hashimoto confirmed that Muramasa saw quite a few gameplay features and story scenes removed. In case you were wondering, this content will most likely not be included in the upcoming Vita version.

Source

No Retro City Rampage for Australia due to high costs, says dev

Posted on 12 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in News, Wii | 0 comments

VBlank Entertainment says that getting a game rated for a new region is expensive, takes a lot of time, and is overall out of reach for them at this point. Because of that, their retro-fitted, retro-homage, retro-everything downloadable game Retro City Rampage will NOT be going to Australia, despite widespread critical acclaim for the XBLA and PSN release stateside.

Even still, the game will be coming to WiiWare later this year. Maybe, just maybe if it sells well enough they’ll reconsider in the future? Wii U perhaps?

Via NintendoLife

Rock Band Music Store update next week (11/6/12)

Posted on 12 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii | 0 comments

The following Rock Band Music Store songs will be made available on November 6:

Dave Matthews Band – “Mercy” – keyboard support
Dave Matthews Band – “Ants Marching” – Pro Guitar and Pro Bass expansions available for $0.99, keyboard support
Dave Matthews Band – “So Much to Say” – keyboard support

Each song can be purchased for $2.00 on Wii.

Source: Harmonix PR