Nintendo has a lot of Zelda content in the works currently. There’s the Link to the Past follow-up for the 3DS, a remake of The Wind Waker for Wii U, and a brand new title made from the ground-up for Nintendo’s console.
How Nintendo is approaching the development of these projects – and Zelda overall – is rather interesting. Nintendo of America’s Bill Trinen discussed the process with Kotaku, commenting that “They kind of shuffle people in and out, so they’ll sort of have their core group, but then they’re bringing new people in and out, so that helps bring in fresh ideas.”
“They kind of shuffle people in and out, so they’ll sort of have their core group, but then they’re bringing new people in and out, so that helps bring in fresh ideas. Each of the different games will have their main lead director, or maybe depending on the game, they may have two…Generally the way that the Zelda team operates is they may have one or two people who carry over or take the lead, but they do a lot of kind of jumping in and out in terms of moving from handheld to console, or vice-versa.”
I must admit, the documentary looks like it takes itself a little bit too seriously for my taste, at least based on the video above. Still, I think he makes a good point: Zelda has managed to challenge and foster our imaginations more effectively than arguably any other piece of art I’ve ever consumed, and at least in my case, it’s an experience only matched by a few other games– and maybe some books or movies here and there.
Certainly something worth making a documentary about!
“After shipping Conviction, there were a lot of people who said the fans didn’t like Mark and Execute. But when we looked at our broader feedback – we do surveys through Uplay and get thousands and thousands of players – the people who rated those new features the highest were actually players who played at least two games in the series before. So in fact it was the opposite of what the data was telling us.”
– Ubisoft Toronto boss Jade Raymond
You can read the rest of a really interesting interview here. It basically says that– while some players see the series as being “dumbed down”– Ubisoft will be going for a game that you can play stealthily or action-y, depending on what you enjoy. It’s a way to expand the audience without sacrificing the core gameplay that hardcore players like in Splinter Cell, but chances are we’ll be looking at more of an action-stealth game than a purely stealth game. Think the Resident Evil 4/5 change vs. Resident Evil GCN‘s “hardcore horror” vibe.
Through a series of images posted on Facebook, Nintendo has officially confirmed the Wii U Virtual Console lineup for North America.
Eight games in total will be made available at launch. Six are from the NES catalog while two, F-Zero and Super Mario World, are from the SNES library.
Here’s the lineup in full:
NES
Balloon Fight
Donkey Kong Jr.
Excite Bike
Ice Climber
Kirby’s Adventure
Punch-Out!!
SNES
Super Mario World
F-Zero
A number of these games – such as Balloon Fight and Kirby’s Adventure – have already been made available through the Virtual Console Trial Campaign.
Nintendo hasn’t said when exactly the Wii U Virtual Console will be launching, but recent speculation has indicated that Friday will be the day.
NetherRealm Studios has become known for its work on Mortal Kombat over the past few years, but the studio just shipped a brand new fighter: Injustice: Gods Among Us. Could the newly-released title turn into its own franchise? With any luck, director Ed Boon hopes it’ll happen.
Boon told GameZone:
“We are keeping our fingers crossed. You know, we would love to do other versions of… [he gets cut off] Yes, that would be a great thing.”
Would you like to see additional Injustice-related games?
The first two Batman: Arkham games have been single-player-focused affairs. Warner Bros. Montreal will apparently be mixing things up for the third entry, Batman: Arkham Origins, with at least one multiplayer mode.
Kotaku reports that “during at least one section of multiplayer, you play as a member of Joker or Bane’s gang while trying to take down Batman and Robin.” Possible playable and customizable villains include Killer Croc, Deadshot, Firefly, Black Mask, Deathstroke, and “some kind of Electroman character”, the site’s source says.
One of Kotaku’s sources has allegedly confirmed that Origins will indeed feature multiplayer, but wasn’t able to confirm specifics.
Ubisoft will be releasing the Rayman Legends Challenges App later this week (at least in Europe). Michel Ancel discussed the upcoming download with ONM, stating:
“This is a way for people to share their experiences. It’s a social thing, something potentially endless that they can play over and over again. We are releasing new challenges every day and every week, so the competition is always really exciting.”
How did the Rayman Legends Challenges App come about? Well, for one thing, the team was inspired when they saw gamers trying out the original Wii U demo and uploading playthroughs.
Senior Game Manager Michael Micholic said:
“When we released the demos last year we saw how people were competing by posting YouTube videos of their times in various levels. This is really our chance to facilitate some of the competition out there and see who’s the best. It’s also a way fore everyone who was disappointed about having to wait to play a part of the game now.”
