Shin’en has confirmed to Nintendo Everything that development on Jett Rocket II: The Wrath of Taikai is complete. The team is now involved with final bug fixing.
According to Shin’en CEO Manfred Linzer, Jett Rocket II “is one of the most fun games we ever made.” In order to make it stand out among other eShop games, the studio “pulled every trick” learned on the 3DS.
Nailing down a smooth 60 frames-per-second count in conjunction with 3D was a big goal for the game’s developers. This was “an enormous task to achieve” – even more so when the action switches to free roaming 3D levels. However, creating an action jump’n’run without 60 FPS “simply felt wrong” to the team.
Jett Rocket II will offer platforming and action elements. In addition, there is a sense of exploration because there is “so much to discover” and “so many secrets to find”. Even after completing the adventure, “a new big challenge is waiting for you.”
Jett Rocket II: The Wrath of Taikai remains on track for release in Q3 2013. If you’re interested in the game, be on the lookout for new media that will be shared sometime within the next few days.
When Nintendo officially unveiled Pikmin 3 at E3 2012, Shigeru Miyamoto originally teased four heroes for the game. The final product ended up having three.
According to Miyamoto, the fourth character was shelved because of complications involving swapping with the controls.
Miyamoto said the following in an interview with Japanese publication 4Gamer:
“When we were making it, we solidified a lot of things. One of which was that it was fun to have three heroes. … To tell the truth, for last year’s E3 presentation, there were actually four heroes. However, when it came to the controls of swapping between four, there were points where it got complicated and in the end, we dropped down to three.”
The Mario & Luigi series has always been exclusive to Nintendo’s handhelds. Might that change anytime soon? Don’t count on it!
Nintendo producer Akira Otani, speaking with CVG, said that he’s personally interested on the console, but the company has “no plans for a Wii U version.” Otani believes that sticking with portables may be the best option “to convey the amusement and fun of the character animations and reactions using AlphaDream’s pixel art”.
“As a developer I am interested, but we currently have no plans for a Wii U version. If we want to convey the amusement and fun of the character animations and reactions using AlphaDream’s pixel art, I think handheld consoles are the best for doing this.”
Shigeru Miyamoto recently conducted an interview with Japanese publication 4Gamer. A portion of the talk was unofficially translated a few days ago, and now the second piece has appeared – it’s all about Pikmin 3 this time. You can find the full thing here.
Sonic has made a transition over the years. The series has always offered a mix of platforming with some sense of speed, but the more-recent games have placed a greater emphasis on the latter gameplay element.
This is something that Sonic Team head Takashi Iizuka is aware of. And so with Sonic Lost World, SEGA hopes to “win back the platform fans” – not just longtime Sonic fans, but also “Mario players and other platform gamers”.
Iizuka told ONM in its August issue:
“Sonic started out as a platform title but, as we got to the more recent ones, it changed to be a more speed-based game. Recent fans will be familiar with that speed-based gaming, but with Lost World, we wanted to win back the platform fans. We don’t just want old Sonic fans to come back, though: we want Mario players and other platform gamers to enjoy the new game, too.”
Thanks to joclo for the tip.
Wii Party U may be getting a budget release – at least on Amazon.
Similar to The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD, Amazon is listing a lower price for Wii Party U
compared to other retailers. Best Buy
and GameStop have the game for $60, but you can get it over at Amazon for $40.
Based on information provided by reliable NPD leaker “Creamsugar” and others, hardware sales for unannounced June 2013 figures are now available. We previously knew about the 3DS and Xbox 360 thanks to official statements, but data for other systems are now in as well.
Here’s the full lineup:
1. 3DS – 225,000
2. 360 – 140,000
3. PS3 – ~108,000
4. DS – 54,000
4. Wii – 53,000
5. Wii U – 42,000
6. Vita – ~27,000
8. PSP – ~8,000
9. PSP Go – 34
Creamsugar was also able to share the following software details:
Animal Crossing: New Leaf retail sales (standalone, bundle) account for 80% of total sales
Game & Wario – about 12,000 units
Project X Zone – less than 54,000 units
Thanks to an interview published by 4Gamer a few days ago, it was revealed that Rodea: The Sky Soldier is still in development. We now have some direct quotes that may make the game’s development status even clearer.
First, 4Gamer shared concern for the game since nothing has been mentioned since its announcement in 2011.
To this, Kadokawa’s Yoshimi Yasuda expressed that everyone in the media has been asking about Rodea, but that he hasn’t heard much himself. But in concern over it being forgotten, he accepts to talk about it for a little bit. Yasuda then expressed that when it was initially announced for both the 3DS and Wii, the project was originally in development just for Wii.
