01. / 00. [WII] Super Mario Collection: Special Pack (Nintendo) – 307.755 / NEW
02. / 01. [NDS] Pokemon Black / White (Pokemon Co.) – 81.915 / 4.243.312 (-51%)
03. / 00. [PS3] Naruto Shippuden: Narutimate Storm 2 (Bandai Namco) – 63.675 / NEW
04. / 00. [PS3] Vanquish (Sega) – 48.318 / NEW
05. / 02. [WII] Kirby’s Epic Yarn (Nintendo) – 35.633 / 127.913 (-61%)
06. / 00. [PS3] Medal of Honor (Electronic Arts) – 25.365 / NEW
07. / 03. [PSP] Lord of Arcana (Square Enix) – 24.939 / 94.872 (-64%)
08. / 00. [PS3] Beat Sketch! (SCE) – 22.165 / NEW
09. / 00. [PS3] FIFA 11: World Class Soccer (Electronic Arts) – 18.995 / NEW
10. / 06. [WII] Wii Party (Nintendo) – 15.895 / 1.138.627 (-32%)
11. / 04. [NDS] Kingdom Hearts Re:coded (Square Enix) – 14.995 / 141.748 (-52%)
12. / 00. [PS3] Time Crisis: Razing Storm (Bandai Namco) – 12.653 / NEW
13. / 00. [WII] No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle (Marvelous Entertainment) – 11.373 / NEW
14. / 00. [X360] Vanquish (Sega) – 11.204 / NEW
15. / 05. [PS3] Red Dead Redemption (Take-Two Interactive) – 10.454 / 107.347 (-60%)
16. / 00. [PS3] Resident Evil 5: Gold Edition (Move Special Pack) (Capcom) – 9.399 / NEW
17. / 00. [X360] Medal of Honor (Electronic Arts) – 6.958 / NEW
18. / 15. [PSP] Monster Hunter Freedom Unite [PSP the Best Reprint] (Capcom) – 6.371 / 456.266 (-2%)
19. / 00. [PS3] Sports Champions (SCE) – 6.349 / NEW
20. / 07. [PS3] Gekijouban Macross F: Itsuwarino Utahime – Hybrid Pack (Bandai Namco) – 6.123 / 176.892 (-66%)
This information comes from Noritaka Funamizu, who talked about the 3DS in the latest issue of Famitsu…
“As a portable game system, the 3DS is just powerful enough, and that’s what I find so attractive about it. It’s not too weak, but not too overpowered, either — it seems easy to develop for. There’s this idea I had that was too complex for the DS, but wasn’t really suited for the PSP either, and I’d like to try tackling it again.”
Hmm… I wonder what sort of idea Funamizu had in mind. I’d love to see him bring it to life on the 3DS!
PSP – 32,591
PS3 – 20,128
DSi LL – 15,819
DSi – 14,703
Wii – 11,971
DS Lite – 3,887
Xbox 360 – 2,162
PS2 – 1,222
PSP go – 924
For comparison’s sake, here are the hardware numbers from last week.
PSP – 37,127
PS3 – 22,201
DSi LL – 21,084
DSi – 20,084
Wii – 12,810
DS Lite – 5,268
Xbox 360 – 2,342
PS2 – 1,715
PSP go – 1,590
– Iwata first asked Sakaguchi about what it felt like working on a Wii game
– Sakaguchi said that when he was making games for HD consoles, he put a greater focus on workflow and pipeline (pipeline is placing graphics and motion data in a game)
– This was because a game with higher-quality visuals can be made if a solid work pipeline is in place
– “With the Wii, we took the approach of making a prototype first and investigating from there. So, compared to the hardware I’ve worked with until now, the creation process was completely different.”
– Iwata suggested that one could say that the Wii allowed them to use a creation process where they build up the game through experimentation
-“There is that side to it. To be honest, I personally feel that the HD visuals that are now the trend are still too much for a game world. You end up putting all your effort into preserving the quality of the visuals.”
-“I absolutely did not want the visual quality to drop just because it’s on the non-HD Wii. In the end, I truly believe we reached a point where it does not lose out to other hardware. The feel of the rocks, the feel of the water and so forth — we really went deep with the creation. Also, another important area is motion.”
– Sakaguchi emphasized putting much effort in the area of motion
– Balance is important when considering motion and visual fidelity according to Sakaguchi
– “I’m a designer, so to be honest I initially felt like I wanted a bit more resolution. However, as I worked on the project, I came to the unexpected conclusion that it was okay.”
“In the end, we were able to raise the quality more than we’d expected.”
– Sakaguchi compared the beauty of the graphics in The Last Story to a photograph
– Sakaugchi says that Wii provides visuals that allow for a perfect balance for a photograph-like taste
– Wii easy to program as well, so Sakaguchi noted that they were able to work details into the game
– Example of the above: Player switches from dark to light in the game, game’s lighting adjusts like a real person’s eyes would
– Sakaguchi: “Even if you compare the visuals to other hardware, there’s no disadvantage what-so-ever”
– Fujisaka felt a turning point when developing the title was when the game’s main city was finished (around early 2009 at the beginning of development), gameplay systems started to take shape then as well, so he thought the team was on the right path
– Sakaguchi doesn’t have a specific turning point, but he pointed out when Nintendo gave the game’s scenario a NG (no good), was the first “reset point” for the title
– Sakaguchi: “By simplifying the world view in the form of fantasy,” said Sakaguchi, “I believe the characters became deeper. It’s easier to show real human feelings in fantasy, after all.”
– Fujisaka joked that he was annoyed when Nintendo gave the game a NG since he had created a large number of images, but he thinks the decision was a good one in the end
– Fujisaka: “The world view we originally thought up was extremely dark. I’m glad that it ended up in its current form.”
– Sakaguchi: “For music and paintings, movies and books, there are some works that give you energy when you touch them. I’d like for Last Story to be that type of work. Nothing would make me happier than if you connected with the game and felt something from it.”
1. [Wii] Super Mario Collection Special Pack
2. [DS] Pokemon Black/White
3. [PS3] Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm 2
4. [PS3] Vanquish
5. [Wii] Kirby’s Epic Yarn
6. [PS3] Medal of Honor
7. [PSP] Lord of Arcana
8. [PS3] FIFA 11
9. [PS3] Beat Sketch!
10. [Wii] Wii Party
Mickey Mouse, James Bond & Sonic Headline a Long List of Great Holiday Products for Nintendo Systems
Third-Party Partners Unleash Great Games, Awesome Peripherals
REDMOND, Wash., Oct. 27, 2010 – Nintendo’s third-party publishing partners are bringing out their heavy hitters this holiday season. Wii™ and Nintendo DS™ owners will have a sizable library of new games to choose from, as well as some cool new peripherals.
“Third-party publishers realize the wide appeal of Nintendo systems and come up with creations that challenge veteran gamers and invite new ones to play,” said Steve Singer, Nintendo of America’s vice president of Licensing. “We’re constantly amazed at the creative ways these talented developers continue to push the boundaries of our hardware. We thank our partners for their continued support.”
Fable 3 (360) – 9/9/8/9
Radiant Historia (DS) – 9/8/8/9
Ready at Dawn has worked on one Wii game in their brief history. That title was Okami, and it only required the developer to port the PlayStation 2 version over to Nintendo’s console. Sadly, it seems like Ready at Dawn’s first title on Wii may be their last as well. After discussing the company’s work on the Okamiden port, Ru Weerasuriya indicated that the company has no interest in working with the system again. Therefore, it’s unlikely that we’ll see an original title from the studio on Wii.
In all honesty we’d never thought of doing a port – I don’t think we built the company for that, but we just decided to do that as a passion project.I loved Okami, I think that artistically it’s one of the most amazing things to come out of the industry. Working on it was more of a technical challenge – we started with no assets and literally reverse-engineered the whole thing back onto Wii. It was not your typical port, but it was fun. But it’s not something we would do again, I think.
“To tell you the truth, I don’t think it’s something we would do (make an original Wii game). I understand the power that the Wii has out there, but at the same time, I’ve tried to be a Wii gamer, like all my friends, but most of us have picked it up and dropped it after a few months. I think it wears off. I think the whole novelty wears off with the Wii, and that’s one of the big reasons why we wouldn’t tackle a Wii game. I think so (the novelty is wearing off across the board/will affect sales). I think you’re already seeing that now. The novelty is wearing off, and the only people who are really successful on the platform is Nintendo. It’s not like anybody else out there is really happy with the games and the sales that they make on that platform. So it’s going to work well for [Nintendo], as all of their platforms usually do, but even in America we’re seeing now that it’s slowly dwindling down. Purely from personal experience, I can tell you that most of the people I know who have bought a Wii have it sitting on a shelf somewhere with dust on it, and they haven’t used it in a long, long time.”
