Harada on keeping Tekken hardcore on Wii U, working with Nintendo, Smash Bros. as a core fighter, more
Polygon has gone live with an interview featuring Tekken producer Katsuhiro Harada.
We’ve picked out a few of the quotes below – the full discussion is here. There’s talk about how Nintendo wanted Namco Bandai to keep the Tekken experience hardcore on Wii U, what it was like for the Tekken team working with Nintendo (not much contact with Miyamoto), how Harada now sees Smash Bros. as a core fighter, and more.
Harada on how Nintendo wanted Namco Bandai to bring a hardcore Tekken experience to Wii U…
“We still weren’t sure what the Nintendo audience was going to be like. At first, we were aiming towards a simplified version of Tekken — taking a lot of elements from the arcade version and streamlining them for a casual fan base. Nintendo’s reaction was that it wanted us to keep the hardcore elements that make Tekken what it is. We were quite surprised.”
Harada on how the Tekken team originally planned for more items in the Wii U version of Tag Tournament 2…
“Originally, we had planned for many different items, like the variety of things you see in Mario Kart. But Nintendo said that’s a bit too much to have all of those items in there.”
Harada on Namco Bandai’s relationship with Nintendo…
“We really strengthened our working relationship with Nintendo, and we became really close at that point (around the time of Tekken 3D: Prime Edition). It’s not like [Yoshinori] Ono-san from Capcom where he just kind of comes and goes as he pleases, and makes his own desk. It’s mainly a relationship where we deal with them over email frequently. But the important points we need to discuss regarding game features and such are always done in meetings with them directly.”
Harada on how much the team heard from Miyamoto during development of Tekken Tag Tournament 2…
“With Nintendo, as with other franchises besides Mario, [one] person has the creative control and the final say, and for Mario that’s Miyamoto. So indirectly we had some interaction there, but because on both sides we have pretty busy schedules, it was more convenient and efficient at the time to go through their person in charge, and he was the one who checked [everything] with Miyamoto.”
Harada on how only later in the process of crafting Mushroom Battle were the character costumes considered…
“We came up with the idea of, ‘Well, if we could take the Tekken characters and dress them up more like Nintendo characters, that would make it even more funny and comical.'”
Harada on viewing Smash Bros. as a core fighter…
“It seems that the motivation behind the players in those core groups is not as different as I initially thought. I came to this conclusion after seeing them in tournaments, and also after playing Smash Bros. more myself and also looking at YouTube videos — I began to see a lot of similarities. So I think if each community surrounding Tekken, Street Fighter and Smash Bros. could look more open-mindedly at each other’s games, you might find that there’s a lot more similarities and a lot that you’d enjoy about the game, and that can be said for all sides.”
