Game Freak’s Junichi Masuda has never expressed great interest in making an online Pokemon. His stance still hasn’t changed.
Gamasutra asked Masuda if he considers there to be potential in a persistently online Pokemon title, and his response wasn’t too surprising.
While Masuda enjoys online play, he seems more interested in face-to-face communication.
Masuda drew a comparison between having a phone call and talking in person:
“I really like online connectivity, but for example, we’re having this phone call right now, and it’s really cool that we can communicate with each other from two really faraway places. But at the same time, it would also be really great if we could talk in person.
“That’s another thing we could do; it’s much more enjoyable when you’re talking in person. So I think the best way is to have kind of both at the same time, being able to enjoy this kind of faraway communication, as well as having aspects that allow you to enjoy communication face-to-face and in-person communication.”
Not Enough Shaders has conducted interviews with the three founders of Crash Lab – Steve Ellis, Martin Wakeley and Lee Musgrave. All three worked at Rare for a lengthy period of time.
Some of the more important tidbits from the interview can be found below. There’s a lot of talk about rumors from the past, cancelled projects, and more.
– Crash Lab is interested in any device that makes sense for games
– Free Radical was working on TimeSplitters 2 HD in 2008
– Jet for Gemini for the Game Boy Color was being worked on by Bits Studios
– Rare never worked on a Timber 64 game
– Pro-Am64, which featured Timber, turned into Diddy Kong Racing
– Rare’s move to keep its handheld division was made so that the team would be experienced if Microsoft ever made a handheld
– DS team essentially phased out since resources were needed for Xbox/Xbox 360 games
Musgrave on Donkey Kong Racing…
“Ha! – yes, I made that video! . . . Donkey Kong Racing was obviously pretty heavily tied to Nintendo as a franchise, and as Rare approached the finalization of a buyout deal with Microsoft it was clear that the game had no future, at least with the ape’s as characters. We switched it around to be a Sabreman game, and there was a great early Xbox prototype – but someone, somewhere decreed that it was a little too old-school for the kind of ‘revolutionary gaming experiences’ that the Xbox was capable of delivering, and so it started down a path of meandering changes, updates and ‘evolution’ that finally saw it run out of steam and fall over. There were some great ideas in the game as it developed though, and I still look back to the early racing game design and think we could have done something great with that.”
Musgrave on Donkey Kong Racing’s gameplay…
“It was a pure racing game, the underlying software mechanics were actually based on car physics, but it also incorporated the idea of riders jumping between different animals mid-race, to always be riding the ones that were bigger or faster . . . we had some awesome gameplay in place, and it was lots of fun – we even had a multiplayer version working – and when you fell off, you had to tap-tap-tap (HyperSports style) to run on foot and catch up with an animal. Fun, but it lost some appeal without the DK universe around it, and Microsoft were unsure of its potential with Xbox gamers I think.”
Be sure to check out all of the interviews here. There’s lots of interesting stuff!
Thanks to John Stemen for the tip.
This is what the process is like in getting the New Super Mario Bros. 2 DLC up and running:
Power-ups are some of the most important elements in a Mario title. Super Mario Bros. 3, for instance, wouldn’t be nearly the same without the inclusion of the Super Leaf or Tanooki Suit.
You might be wondering: how does Nintendo approach the power-ups? How does Nintendo decide which ones to bring back?
Nintendo’s Takashi Tezuka was asked about this in the latest issue of Game Informer.
He responded with the following:
This is coming a bit later than initially anticipated, but Nintendo of America has confirmed that its own “Nintendo Direct Mini” for the New Super Mario Bros. 2 downloadable content will be shown at 7:30 AM PT (10:30 AM ET) tomorrow morning.
NoA tweeted a few moments ago:
“A Nintendo Direct Mini, which is a brief video on a Nintendo topic, will air at 7:30 AM PT tomorrow w/ details about #NSMB2 add-on content.”
Technically, this won’t be anything too new. We already received most of the DLC details late last week through the Japanese presentation.
Anyway, look for it on the site tomorrow!
Software
1. The “Denpa” Men: They Came by Wave
2. New Super Mario Bros. 2
3. Super Mario Bros.
4. 3D Classics: Kirby’s Adventure
5. Bird & Beans
6. Rising Board 3D
7. The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening DX
8. Art Academy: First Semester
9. Heavy Fire: Special Operations 3D
10. Photo Dojo
11. The Legend of Zelda
12. Colors! 3D
13. Fractured Soul
14. Crazy Chicken Pirates 3D
15. Cut The Rope
16. Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3
17. Bird Mania 3D
18. Pushmo
19. Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins
20. Plants vs. Zombies
Videos
1. Nintendo Show 3D: September 20, 2012
2. The “Denpa” Men: They Came By Wave Video
3. New Super Mario Bros. U September 13, 2012
4. Kirby 20th Anniversary Dream Collection Trailer
5. Paper Mario: Sticker Star Video
6. Fractured Soul Video
7. Kirby’s Dream Collection Teaser Trailer
8. Nintendo Show 3D: September 6, 2012
9. New Super Mario Bros. 2 Coin Rush
10. Wii U Preview Event Sept. 13, 2013
11. 3D Classics: Kirby’s Adventure Video
12. Nintendo Land Trailer
13. New Super Mario Bros. 2 Warp Canon
14. Nintendo TVii Preview Sept. 13, 2012
15. Rising Board 3D Video
16. Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed Trailer
17. LEGO City: Undercover September 13, 2012
18. New Super Mario Bros. 2 Rainbow Course
19. Nintendo Show 3D: August 23, 2012
20. New Super Mario Bros. 2 Trailer
Source: 3DS eShop
We know that the Karateka remake is coming to Wii U. Thanks to a listing on the official Xbox site, the first screenshots and tidbits are now available.
Details include:
– Art by Jeff Matsuda (Batman: The Animated Series)
– Music from Christopher Tin (Civilization IV)
– Save Mariko from Akuma
– Made by Liquid Entertainment
– D3Publisher is publishing
– Supports online leaderboards
It hasn’t been said when the Wii U eShop version is launching. The Xbox Live Arcade edition is due out on November 14.
