Mario Tennis Power Tour the last Mario Tennis title to introduce truly expansive RPG elements. It’s become a less significant gameplay aspect as the years have passed. The newest entry, Mario Tennis Open, features no RPG features at all.
Why is this so? Producer and lead designer of Mario Tennis Open Hiroyuki Takahashi told Nintendo Power the following when asked about the lack of a RPG-style single-player mode:
“This version may be for a handheld system, but we approached it like a console title. With aspects like download matches and online matches made possible by the hardware, the game has a feature set more similar to console games.
“Another reason is that the game’s cast includes Mii characters in addition to characters from the Mario family, which are difficult to work into an [RPG] scenario. It didn’t feel right to have already-existent Mii characters appear in an original storyline.”
There isn’t any sort of RPG single-player mode in Mario Tennis open, but “there are RPG-like elements in the form of costumes”. Players will be able to customize characters and change their abilities.
Trent Oster caused caused a stir because of his comments surrounding WiiWare and Nintendo. The Beamdog president has now elaborated on his remarks in an interview with Ars Technica.
Oster believes the company’s first and only WiiWare effort, MDK2, was “probably the best version of that game on any console,” because of the Wii remote controls.
But even though MDK2 is a quality game, it hasn’t been selling well on the Wii Shop Channel. Less than 6,000 copies have been sold since May 2011.
Oster explained how Nintendo’s payout requirement – in which Wii Shop Channel games must attain 6,000 sales before the developer receives compensation – has left him disappointed:
“We haven’t seen a dime. Maybe some day in the future it crosses that magic threshold and at some point Nintendo cuts us a check. … How many developers have put stuff up to WiiWare that are sitting there at the 5,000 [or] 5,500 sales number and Nintendo is just sitting on the money. For some small developers that could be a big difference.”
Beamdog “assumed [the MDK2 Wii port] would be successful given the large sales volume of Wii”. However, Oster feels that there is just a small core of system owners remaining who are willing to support in-depth experiences such as MDK2. He speculates there is a large chunk of consumers out there who purchased a Wii, got Wii Sports (and perhaps Wii Fit), and that’s it.
Another issue Beamdog encountered during MDK2 WiiWare development was cutting down elements so that the game could fit within Nintendo’s 40MB file size limitation. Oster explained that the studio was “basically trim[ming] everywhere we could”. Some music pieces were removed, and audio was recompressed with a new codec.
Oster’s last complaint was the certification process for WiiWare titles. It took nine months for the stage to be completed, but Oster believes it could have wrapped up in less than a month.
He said:
“It just made us feel really low priority. We felt like they just weren’t paying attention.”
Level-5 CEO Akihiro Hino has teased the sixth entry in the Professor Layton series. It will serve as the final title in the second trilogy of games.
Hino confirmed on Twitter that the general framework has been outlined. He also told fans that the game will have a long Japanese title.
It’ll be awhile before Level-5 announces the game. At least we can look forward to Professor Layton vs. Ace Attorney – assuming it’ll be localized in western territories.
Rush Rush Rally Racing will be released on the Wii Shop Channel this Thursday. A North American date hasn’t been provided.
Ni no Kuni is coming to North American and European PlayStation 3 systems early next year. But what about the DS version?
Localization of Ni no Kuni DS won’t be happening. According to Level-5 CEO Akihiro Hino, the company did consider bringing it to the overseas markets, but ditched the idea after they determined it would be too difficult to localize the game – partially due to the lengthy book that comes bundled with each copy of the title in Japan.
Namco Bandai had just one Nintendo title on hand for the company’s Global Gamers Day event last week. The game in question is Thundercats.
As you’ll find out in the summary below, Thundercats is closely tied to the new television series and features a lot of hack-and-slash gameplay. Namco Bandai also explains why the project is being made for the DS rather than the 3DS.
Here’s what we know about the game thus far:
– Made by Aspect Digital (Naruto: Ninja Council)
– Side-scrolling action game
– Based on the new cartoon series
– Picks up at the very beginning of the story
– Lizard army advancing on Thundera
– King Claudus, Grune, and Tygra are fighting
– Lion-O has been left behind
– Grune defects as the forces of good are about to prevail
– Lion-O runs into battle with his Sword of Omens
– Lion-O slashed at the Lizard army while running from one side of the palace to the other
– Three Lizard enemies in the demo: green soldiers, others were armed with arrows, and orange lizards were slightly stronger than the grunts
– Face buttons used to attack
– Jump to platforms and defeat unprepared enemies
– Power-ups dropped by enemies when they’re killed
– Use the power-ups to restore health or charge the Sword of Omens
– Icon of the sword appears on the touch screen when you’ve collected enough
– Tap the icon to make Lion-O shoot a red beam of light that attacks any enemies in front
– Lion-O and Tygra reunite at the end of the level
– Tygra pined that King Claudus is dead, Mumm-Ra is leading the Lizard army, and the only reason Grune betrayed them is because he is under Mumm-Ra’s control
– Lion-O and Tygra escape
– Tygra becomes a support character
– Icons for Tygra, Cheetara, Panthro and Wily Kat & Wily Kit on either side of the Sword of Omens
– Touch one of these icons and that character will come out to momentarily assist Lion-O
– Oonly play as Lion-O
– Game is closely tied to the cartoon
– Sound effects/voice acting from the series included
– Concept art added in as an extra reward for players
– Players can see how the animation team decided on the final character designs
– On the DS rather than the 3DS because the companies involved are aware of the current economic climate and know many parents, who would probably be buying Thundercats for their kids, might not be able to afford a 3DS
– Higher chance of their children already owning a DS
– 3DS also supports backwards compatibility
Thundercats is slated for an August launch in North America.
Korean website Betanews had a chance to interview Shigeru Miyamoto at the Louvre Museum last week.
Supposedly Miyamoto confirmed the existence of Super Mario 4, saying:
“We have Mario team in company, so we are making Super Mario 4. But only I can say is, we just announced that game. More details will be revealed later.”
It wasn’t specified if this is the 3DS Mario game or the upcoming Wii U title.
Obviously the above quote is a very rough translation. Super Mario 4 was mentioned by Miyamoto, though… assuming we can trust the source. I’d be more confident if a) we received a more accurate translation and b) if the source and Miyamoto’s words could be verified. Until then, remain cautious.
