Unfortunately, the Wii has suffered from a number of “droughts” throughout its lifecycle. One such drought was in 2009 for Japan, when there just weren’t many games to play. Nintendo president Satoru Iwata told investors last week that this was a result of the unpredictable nature of development and lack of support from third-parties:
I would like to explain about it in an organized way. First, in the first half of 2009, when the Wii lost its momentum, we could not offer new titles for a certain period of time. We ourselves have to reflect on this situation. We usually plan to release software in a way like, first we release this, then this and then that. But the development does not always proceed as it is planned. For example, if we feel that certain software will end up being boring if we continue to develop it in the same way, we will have to polish it. We sometimes change the content substantially, and in that case, the date of the release schedule has to be significantly changed.
Who’s developing the peculiar rhythm-based Final Fantasy game for 3DS? UTV Ignition’s Shane Bettenhausen has reason to believe that the mystery studio is none other than Jupiter.
Some of Jupiter’s previous work includes Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories and Spectrobes. Jupiter also made The World Ends with You for DS, which is one of the most critically acclaimed titles for the DS.
I’m not sure what Bettenhausen’s source is, though in this case I have a feeling he’s right. Jupiter has been involved with Nintendo handhelds since the Game Boy and hasn’t made any recent titles. It’d make sense for Theatrhythm Final Fantasy to fit within their development schedule.
3DS Virtual Console
Fortified Zone
Qix
DSiWare (also available on Nintendo eShop for 3DS)
Jewel Keepers: Easter Island
Roller Angels
Farm Frenzy
Make Up & Style
WiiWare
Just JAM
Apologies for the small screenshots. For some reason, Nintendo has decided to make them incredibly small.
3D Classics: Urban Champion – 600 yen
Adventure Island II – 400 yen
Thanks to Jake for the tip!
Vigil Games general manager David Adams and technical director Colin Bonstead have provided some commentary about Wii U for Game Informer in an eight minute interview. Unfortunately, I don’t believe the video can be embedded, so you’ll just have to watch the interview for yourself here. However, I’ve transcribed some of the important bits from the video for those who aren’t interested in viewing it…
– David Adams has always loved Nintendo platforms
– Excited to be involved with a new console and launch
– Was also a challenge since the corporate office asked if they could pull it off in time for E3
– Took about a week to get their base libraries up and running on the console without graphics
– Another week and a half to get graphics to a point where you could seen something on the screen and play the game (basically rainbow colors)
– Then worked on getting the features and graphical features in
– Took about 5 weeks in total from when they found out about it
