(June 24th, 2010) — Interplay Entertainment Corp. and Beamdog partner to bring MDK2 to the Nintendo Wii™ and MDK2 HD to the PC.
“It is a great pleasure to announce that we are returning to the adventures of Kurt Hectic, Dr. Hawkins and the 6-legged gun-toting robotic dog Max,” said Hervé Caen, CEO of Interplay. “MDK2 was a great title to work on and we’re happy to have some of the original team working on these new versions,” seconded Trent Oster, co-Founder of Beamdog.
“There are a number of different reasons for that. One’s we have a partnership with Nintendo. It’s a great opportunity. This game was originally on the N64, so there’s the nostalgia factor for people that are Nintendo fans. So we wanted to partner with Nintendo for this. There’s opportunity. So, the opportunity on the Nintendo Wii platform is huge. There’s roughly 12 million Wiis in North America. But it’s not really a console that a lot of shooter fans are playing on. So we wanted to offer them their own first-person shooter, that’s unique and exclusive to that console. Why are people not playing shooters on the Wii? I don’t know. Maybe it’s because people don’t like using the Wii Remote and the Nunchuck. They don’t like using the pointing device. Now they’ve got the Classic Pro Controller. This is dual analogue stick. It’s got the exact same layout you find on PS3 or 360. You put this in a shooter fan’s hands and they instantly know how to play. We feel that the opportunity and the time is right. And partnering with Nintendo is a huge opportunity for us. We really want to tap in to the nostalgia for Nintendo fans, and take advantage of the opportunity presented by the platform.” – Brian Pass, senior producer at Activision
I’m still shocked that this game is even happening. Sure, it’s not a complete recreation of the original title, but I never thought we’d see a game based on the N64 classic.
“The last day of the show, I actually got out of the Disney Interactive booth around 4:15. I knew I was only going to get to see One Thing at E3. And I knew it was going to be either Deus Ex: Human Revolution or the 3DS. Though it pained me to make the call, the 3DS got the nod. All I can say is ‘Wow!’ Okay, I lied – I can and will say a lot more than ‘wow.’ The 3DS changed my life. Seriously. I can be pretty stubborn and when I decide I know something or I’m right about something, I don’t often change my mind. Well, I just want to say I’ve been completely wrong about 3D all my life. I never got it before. Until now.
Until the 3DS. Check back tomorrow and I’ll tell you all about it.” – Warren Spector
Whether it’s Epic Mickey or a different game/franchise, I know that I’d love to see a title on the 3DS created by Spector. Once work on Epic Mickey is complete, perhaps he can consider working with the system.
A number of prominent developers have already devoted their resources to the 3DS, but we may have to wait awhile to see a creation from Castlevania creator Koji Igarashi. Igarashi told Destructoid that he has received a development kit from Nintendo, though he has a lot of testing to do before he can come up with anything concrete. With that said, he definitely has interest in making titles for the system and said that the technology behind the 3DS has improved since he had last seen it.
“It was a real wow moment when we first held the 3DS, but unfortunately I don’t think we will see it this year.” – Marc Spence, head of entertainment at Best Buy UK
“At E3 I managed to get hands on with 3DS and found the experience very impressive. With only rumours of the release date, I hope to get my hands on one of these again before Christmas, but I suspect it is unlikely for this year.” – Sarah Jasper at online giant The Hut
“UK retail will be holding its breath hoping for a 2010 3DS release to deliver a much-needed boost to hardware sales. [a 2010 launch for 3DS would be] a much welcomed surprise. In reality it may be that stock will be built for the US and Japan markets before we see 3DS in Europe.” –
Asda’s new head of games Andrew Thompson
Honestly, I never thought that the 3DS would be released in Europe this year. North America and Europe saw the release of the Wii and DS first, so I expect that will happen with Nintendo’s next handheld as well. Although, I’m not sure if the 3DS will even be released in any territory this year.
– 2D space shooter
– Choose two weapons, switch between them at any time
– Energy meter for the weapons, when it runs out, it can’t be used
– If both weapons run out of energy, the game ends
– Kill enemies to regain energy
“With the quality of the device they’ve got it’s possible they can expand their audience into an older, broader audience. It was interesting to see games like Saint’s Row on the device. If we could bring, let’s say, a House of the Dead or an Aliens title, if the audience for 3DS is much broader it could give us much more scope in that market, and that’s as exciting as well as Mario & Sonic and Monkey Ball games. The 3DS is Nintendo through and through, this is Nintendo’s brilliance. They’re almost in their own technological world, doing their own thing. Whilst 3D TV is quite an amazing technology advancement, and many companies will get into that, Nintendo will now create this huge business with their own unique piece of technology that very few if any, will be able to copy. That’s Nintendo over and over again, it’s fantastic. For us as a third-party it’s a great leg up in terms of the portable business.” – SEGA West’s president Mike Hayes
House of the Dead on the 3DS…That could be a ton of fun. And an Aliens game? It’s been awhile since we’ve seen a high-quality entry in the series…I’d be interested in it!
