The following information comes from SEGA’s Western president Mike Hayes…
“We’re under so many NDAs, I can’t answer that question. Are we going to have titles at and around launch? Absolutely yes, we will do. I think Nintendo have managed the whole project absolutely brilliantly. They’ve worked brilliantly with third-parties; that was said at their E3 conference. I think that was a double-sided comment from them actually: ‘Thank you third parties, but you actually didn’t believe in DS and Wii [at launch] did you?’ And we’re like: ‘Point well taken.’ Whereas of course with 3DS it’s one of the best third-party involvements there has been in recent years with Nintendo – that’s fantastic.”
“I mean, what a great piece of kit. It’s truly innovative. Their engineers are quite phenomenal – first of all with the DS and now this. The interesting thing is for Nintendo is I think they can expand their audience. I think they can move beyond the younger audience. It was encouraging to see games like Saints Row for example from THQ at E3. I think that’s a great opportunity for Nintendo and for us – particularly Western-orientated publishers. So House of the Dead or Aliens vs. Predator or other core titles like that could see a home on that platform as well, of course, as all the brands that we know will do well – Monkey Ball, Sonic etc. In terms of technology, It’s Nintendo isn’t it… They work in their huge, successful separate world. That dismissal of 3D glasses was a surprise, but they’ve created something unique. That’s Nintendo. They’ll create a phenomenally big market that this time around, which will engage third-party; at least engage them more from the outset. I think what Reggie was saying about the gaming is absolutely right – forget the technology of what they’ve created with 3DS, just enjoy the games.
The situation with 3DS launch software is a bit confusing at the moment since we don’t know who will be supporting it at launch and with what titles. It also doesn’t help that we don’t even have a firm release date for the system. However, that should change sometime in the near future, and things will become much clearer.
This footage isn’t new, but just in case you want to see someone different playing the game from another perspective, we’ve posted the video below.
Kibago
– Tusk Pokemon
– .6m tall
– Weighs 18kg
– Rivalry and Mold Breaker abilities
– Dragon-type
– New attack: Double Chop, attacks twice
Koromori
– Bat Pokemon
– .4m tall
– Weighs 2.1kg
– Unaware and Klutz abilities
– Psychic/Flying-type
– New attack: Heart Stamp, makes opponent flinch
Minezumi
– Lookout Pokemon
– .5m tall
– Weighs 11.6kg
– Run Away and Keen Eye abilities
– Normal-type
– New attack: You First, opponent moves first
This information comes from Capcom’s Motohide Eshiro…
“I actually had a chance to see and get some information about the 3DS yesterday and I think it’s a great system with a lot of potential for game designers — there’s a lot you can do with it. Especially from a graphics stand-point, there’s so much potential there. I’d like to be able to make some games for that in the future, but as far as being approached by Nintendo, I personally haven’t been approached by them to make anything for it as of yet. Maybe someone at Capcom has, but personally speaking I haven’t at this moment.
For Okamiden itself, I don’t think it’s unfortunate that we couldn’t make it a 3DS game. I’m very happy that it’s a Nintendo DS game because of the touch-screen. We wanted to make it really suited to everything you can do with the touch-screen, so we worked really hard to make sure that those aspects of the game are being fully exploited. That was the main challenge for us to overcome and hopefully when we get this into people’s hands and they start playing it, they’re going to see how great using the touch-screen is. Hopefully they have a really good reaction to Okamiden on the DS and start clamouring for a sequel. Then if they ask for that sequel on the 3DS, well… we’ll see what we can do.”
Well, I’m sure you guys know how I feel about this! In order for it to happen, it’ll need to sell well. Make sure you pick up a copy when it releases next year!
