Super Smash Bros. director Masahiro Sakurai was recently asked if all characters who have previously appeared in the series will be back for the Wii U and 3DS games. The short answer is no.
Sakurai explained that the team simply doesn’t have enough time “to fully recreate every single character who’s been in Smash Bros at this point.”
He said:
“I can answer that: no. We don’t have the time to fully recreate every single character who’s been in Smash Bros at this point. Adding new characters is not a simple addition – it’s really multiplication. The amount of work, adding a character is multiplied and becomes bigger and bigger as you go. We can’t because of the amount of work it takes. However, I do believe I understand that each character has its own set of fans out there who really like that character. So we’re not going to cut characters out of the way, we’re going to put in as many characters as we can, we really want to do that, because it’s good for the fans and good for all of us. But in the event that we do have to cut some characters, I’d like to apologise in advance to those fans.”
Shigeru Miyamoto and Reggie Fils-Aime have responded to comments from Kotaku stating that Nintendo may be playing it safe this year.
First, here’s the full exchange with Miyamoto:
Kotaku: One of my senses is that the games [you have at E3] are fun but they feel safe, like this is not a Nintendo taking risks this year. Is this a safe year for you guys?
Shigeru Miyamoto, Nintendo: So I don’t look at this as us playing it safe, because, whenever we make a game, we’re striving to create new experiences for people. Certainly from outside the company and even internally we have a lot of staff members who are talking about, we should create new [intellectual property, as in characters or series]. To me the question really comes down to: What is new IP and, by definition, what is a new game? And I think there’s a lack of understanding about the difference between the two.
And so, from my perspective, a lot of people say, ‘Oh, you should make new characters and those would be fun games,’ but creating a new character doesn’t necessarily mean the game is going to be fun. You really need to be focusing on creating a new gameplay experience that’s fun and unique.
And so even with a game like Pikmin 3 where our focus is on perfecting the Pikmin game design, we’ve really finally felt like we’ve created a new gameplay style even within the Pikmin franchise.
Nintendo is open to exploring a free-to-play Animal Crossing game, but it doesn’t sound like there are immediate plans to pursue this route.
Animal Crossing lead designer Katsuya Eguchi told GamesBeat that finding a business model appropriate for a free-to-play entry is imperative. Additionally, they would need “to determine what we’re going to make available from the beginning.”
“I think the main thing that we need to think about before even considering doing something like that is to determine what we’re going to make available from the beginning. I think that’s key in deciding whether we do something like that. If I find a business model that works, however — that works for Nintendo and the end-user — then I can’t say that [free-to-play] is something we wouldn’t consider.”
Eguchi also drew a comparison to the demographic playing Animal Crossing and the audience in Japan who enjoy casual free-to-play smartphone titles.
“When you look at our main audience in Japan, they are definitely that audience that has smartphones. [They are] women in their late teens and early 20s. They are certainly playing free-to-play games on their smartphone.”
This week’s Japanese software sales are as follows:
01./00. [3DS] Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D
02./01. [3DS] Friend Collection: New Life #
03./00. [3DS] Chousoku Henkei Gyrozetter: Albatross no Tsubasa
04./03. [3DS] Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon
05./05. [3DS] Animal Crossing: New Leaf #
06./04. [PS3] Resident Evil: Revelations
07./06. [3DS] Shin Megami Tensei IV #
08./07. [PS3] Terraria
09./02. [PS3] Kamen Rider: Battride War #
10./09. [3DS] Dragon Ball Heroes: Ultimate Mission
11./10. [WII] Taiko no Tatsujin Wii: Super Deluxe Edition #
12./13. [3DS] New Super Mario Bros. 2 #
13./12. [3DS] Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate (Best Price!)
14./15. [3DS] Mario Kart 7
15./08. [PSV] Valhalla Knights 3
16./17. [3DS] Tousouchuu: Shijou Saikyou no Hunter-Tachi Kara Nigekire!
17./23. [PSP] God Eater: Burst (PSP the Best Reprint)
18./21. [NDS] Pokemon Black 2 / White 2
19./19. [3DS] Taiko no Tatsujin: Chibi Dragon to Fushigi na Orb
20./20. [WIU] New Super Mario Bros. U
The latest Japanese hardware sales from Media Create are as follows:
3DS LL – 29,533
3DS – 17,602
PS3 – 10,872
Vita – 10,664
Wii U – 5,983
PSP – 5,651
Wii – 1,461
Xbox 360 – 397
For comparison’s sake, here are the hardware numbers from last week:
3DS LL – 27,172
3DS – 12,700
PS3 – 10,394
Vita – 9,733
Wii U – 6,330
PSP – 5,076
Wii – 1,060
Xbox 360 – 432
Keiji Inafune isn’t with Capcom any longer, but that hasn’t prevented fans from asking him to get involved with the series once more. Inafune recently said: “I still get people coming up saying ‘Mega Man, Mega Man, make another Mega Man, I want another Mega Man'”.
Inafune’s comments came about when he was asked if smaller arcade-like titles could still fit in with blockbuster titles such as Call of Duty.
He said:
“We know that Call Of Duty is major and BioShock Infinite is huge but there are still a lot of fans that have something for retro games and other games from the past.
“Every generation has its own games and trends. So people who know games and know its history as well, I still get people coming up saying “Mega Man, Mega Man, make another Mega Man, I want another Mega Man”, you know?
“So it seems there are still people who are looking for something else. There’s still an audience for games like this, an older style of arcade game where it’s mindless fun cutting up a bunch of enemies. Maybe it’s not the biggest genre right now but there are still people who enjoy that. For us, we want to make something that’s different, something that will stand out in that aspect. We’re not following trends, so maybe that gives us a chance to stand out.”
Inafune left Capcom in 2010. He went on to form his new company Comcept later that year.
Pandora’s Tower has dropped down in price slightly on Amazon. You can pick up the game now for $30 as opposed to $40. It’s $10 in savings – not huge, but not insignificant either.
If interested, you can place an order for Pandora’s Tower here
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