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Nintendo revealed earlier this week that a ton of games based on classic franchises are in the works for the 3DS. One title that was conspicuously missing, however, was the announcement of an original Mario platforming adventure. Fortunately, Shigeru Miyamoto assured fans in a recent interview that there are plans to bring a main Mario title to the 3DS other than Paper Mario.

“We could’ve very easily done just a quick Mario-based tech demo that would show something like that, but one of the things that I’m always concerned about is showing a Mario gameto people before it’s ready to be shown. So that’s why we held back this time. But now that Super Mario Galaxy 2 is done, we’ll be able to go hard at work on a new Mario game for Nintendo 3DS. So you can expect to see a Mario game at some point, but you’ll just have to wait a little bit longer.”

The only question is, what type of game will it be? Another New Super Mario Bros.? Or something similar to Super Mario 64 DS?

Alright, Mr. Spielberg…Time to get to work on Boom Blox 3DS!

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“If there will be a Kingdom Hearts 3 in the future, it will probably be on a console platform, but the thing is that there is the idea and desire to create Kingdom Hearts 3, but the opportunity has not come yet. I’m under pressure from fans, from Disney, and from the internal Square Enix team as well, because they’re all awaiting Kingdom Hearts 3. So I’m aware of it, and I don’t hide my desire for one day creating a Kingdom Hearts 3 in the future.” – Tetsuya Nomura

I don’t even know how Square Enix has time to work on all of these Kingdom Hearts titles! 358/2 Days was released in North America a few months ago as did Birth by Sleep in Japan (and it’s coming here in a few months with added content), and now Nomura is busy with Re:coded and 3D. Perhaps after those two titles are complete, Nomura can concentrate on Kingdom Hearts 3.

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Retro on how they moved from Metroid Prime to Donkey Kong…

“We’ve been working on this project since April 2008. Prior to that, we were working on experiments for our next project. And as I’m sure you’re aware, we had some staff leave, which made us question whether or not the projects we were working on — these experiments — were in our best interest at the time. So Mr. Tanabe and Mr. Miyamoto were discussing Donkey Kong Country, and asking “is there a developer around that can do it justice?” And we had just had this issue with the shift in personnel and we were open, so they approached us and asked us if we’d be interested. We couldn’t say yes fast enough. That’s kind of how it fell into our laps. Actually, it was Fate” which was the code word for this game since then.”

Tanabe on whether it was always planned to return to Donkey Kong Country in a 2D side-scrolling environment…

Tanabe: “From the very beginning, the whole idea was to make a brand-new Donkey Kong Country game — maintaining that, and fitting into the core of what makes the series great. And one of the things we wanted to do was to make sure the game stayed as a 2D adventure. But, of course, we did decide to take all of the backgrounds and the characters and fully render them in polygons.

Retro: “Yeah, it wasn’t really an issue of first-person or 3D. It was really finding the right developer, I think. And our approach was that this has to pay homage to the original franchise. When you grab the controller, you have to know that you’re playing DKC. But what can be bring to it, creatively, to make it new and fresh? That was more the perspective. It was always going to be a 2.5D, side-scroller homage to DKC, to stay true to that feeling. Our mission was, what do we do to incorporate a new approach? New features and what have you, to really be true to the fanbase.”

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– One course time session
– Made of city/mountain/ocean
– One car available
– Can drift
– No turbo or points
– IGN unimpressed with the game’s 3D and graphics, but it may be an extremely early build/demo and they were also underwhelmed with the PSP game when it was first showed

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Shigeru Miyamoto, along with his translator Bill Trinen, decided to check out Kinect at E3. What did they think of the competition? Well, a picture taken of the two at E3 says a lot…

Miyamoto and Trinen are on the far left. Can’t see them well? Let’s zoom in a bit.

It’s actually funny how unamused both of them look. In fact, Mr. Trinen looks even more underwhelmed than Miyamoto! Then again, it’s probably just that the picture was taken at the most inopportune time…Ah, well, let’s zoom in once more on Miyamoto for good measure.

Thanks to L.P. for the tip!

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Computer and Video Game Industry Takes Center Stage at 2010 E3 Expo
ESA Announces 2011 E3 Expo Dates

Los Angeles, CA – June 17, 2010 – The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) today closed the 2010 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3 Expo) and announced that the 2011 E3 Expo will take place from June 7-9, 2011 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. The 2010 E3 Expo featured approximately 300 exhibitors and 45,600 attendees from 90 countries.

“E3 Expo is the global stage for the interactive entertainment industry, and the 2010 show was reflective of our innovation, growth and vitality,” said Michael D. Gallagher, president and CEO of the ESA, the trade association that represents U.S. computer and video game publishers and owns the E3 Expo. “We are thrilled by the positive news generated by this year’s show, and we are looking forward to building on this great momentum for 2011.”

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This is a rough translation from Sony’s Mick Hocking…

“We are very pleased that Nintendo is launching in the field of 3D with its Nintendo 3DS, as this will give the general public a better understanding of 3D and thus democratizing this technology in some way. It’s certainly a good thing for our products, screens, and PlayStation 3 compatible 3D.”

The funny thing about the situation is that Nintendo and Sony’s efforts are essentially the opposite of each other. Nintendo is going with 3D on a handheld without glasses while Sony is pushing 3D on a console with glasses.

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