“In the wake of this year’s fantastic E3, we’ll take a closer look at some of the big Wii and DS titles slated for the rest of 2009. That includes an in-depth investigation of the long-awaited Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box. We’ll also review Wii Sports Resort and maybe even unveil a couple of cool surprises. Not every cat was let out of the bag at E3…”
Nintendo Power has been absolutely great with unveiling new games over the past few months. We don’t have much to go on, but does anyone want to start guessing which game(s) they’ll feature next month?
Party with Starfy at a Nintendo World Store Event for The Legendary Starfy Video Game for Nintendo DS
–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Nintendo:
WHAT:
Already beloved by gaming fans around the world, the charming and powerful Starfy will celebrate the launch of his first game in the United States, The Legendary Starfy for Nintendo DS, at a unique retail event inside New York’s Nintendo World store. Making his debut appearance at the Nintendo World store, Starfy himself will be available for photo opportunities with fans of all ages in a special underwater-themed area. The July 11 celebration will also feature face painting and chance for attendees to play The Legendary Starfy and win fun Starfy prizes.
Upending tea tables and kidnapping employees are just some of the actions that Shigeru Miyamoto has been known for during development cycles. Even with that in mind, however, one might be surprised as to how Miyamoto interacts with other members of a team. Check out this blurb below, which discusses development of Wii Sports Resort:
Iwata: Okay, while taking that into account, could you tell me what the harshest thing was that Miyamoto-san said to you?
Shimamura: The harshest thing was…
Iwata: Given that he makes no allowances for planners…
Shimamura:
It came as quite a shock when he said “Make another mode!” He would also constantly tell us things like: “You can’t do this!” He’d say things like: “If you carry on like this, we’re never going to get this finished!” He would always be kind enough to give us this kind of “advice”.All: (laughter)
Iwata: I see – “advice”. (laughs) How about you, Yamashita-san?
Yamashita: I worked on a cycling race about which Miyamoto-san said: “This is incredibly dull!”
Iwata: He doesn’t pull any punches, does he? (laughs)
Yamashita:
He said: “What’s fun about this?” I had no choice but to respond by saying “Ah, okay. I see…” but actually it was really harsh.Iwata: Calling something “incredibly dull” is indeed harsh. There’s nothing positive you can take away from that.
I don’t think he’s really a bully or anything, but it is interesting to see that he would call someone else’s work “incredibly dull.” But hey, it’s Miyamoto! I think that in these instances, he is striving to create a quality game, which is evident in the snippet below.
Shimamura: Anyway, as H-san was overseeing archery, he was incredibly good at it. Normally he would have no problem in hitting the bulls-eye time after time.
Yamashita: But during the progress report meeting, when he was demonstrating archery, he was shaking really badly.
Shimamura: If you looked at the screen, you could see that he wasn’t able to hold it steady at all. I’d never seen anyone shaking so bad before when playing the game so I said: “You’re shaking!” He replied: ”It’s nerves!” (laughs)
All: (laughter)
Yamashita: Then after having it pointed it out to him, the shaking got even worse.
Shimamura: The arrows were flying all over the place. I wonder if the Wii MotionPlus is the world’s first device that’s able to detect whether someone is nervous.
Iwata: (laughs) So did he get through that nerve-wracking presentation without Miyamoto-san giving him the thumbs down?
Shimamura: On that occasion…
Yamashita: As you might be able to guess, Miyamoto-san did indeed give him the thumbs down!
All: (laughter)
Yamashita: But following that, it improved greatly.
Even though Red Steel 2 is considerably different than its predecessor, the development team that created the first title is comprised of many members who worked on the original title. Creative director Jason Vandenberghe spoke about this with the press last week, in addition to the fact there was a goal in mind to make Red Steel 2 “really killer, really awesome.”
“The game has actually been worked on in one way or another pretty much since the end of Red Steel 1. The core team for Red Steel 2 is made up of largely the same people that did Red Steel 1. So there’s a lot of continuity there.
There was a lot of work being done in terms of research [and] about gameplay. What are we going to do? How can we make it great? The team wanted to make the next one really killer, really awesome. So we spent a lot of time really looking at the core mechanics, looking at the technologies, rebuilding that from the ground up. Making sure we can get the absolute most we could out of the Wii. There was a lot of questions amongst the team about can we really make this work with the basic Wiimote.
We tried a lot of things and certainly we got a long way. But when the Wii MotionPlus showed up, it was like “Oh okay. Well, [laughs] this is how this game should work!” was pretty much our response. When we plugged it in and tried that, wham! What happened is that [Red Steel 2] went from a shooter with a sword in it, to a sword game with guns in it. We really shifted the focus and that let us sort of go down and take our setting apart and look at it again. We created this new hero from the inside out based on that gameplay.”
While most would agree that The Conduit features one of the better online systems on the Wii, there have been reports of glitches popping up during multiplayer matches. In fact, Austin has told me that he’s encountered a number of “spawn under the map” glitches. Austin got in contact with the good folks over at High Voltage regarding his issues and it looks as though the company is working with Nintendo in an attempt to iron out multiplayer bugs.
“We have received a few emails from fans regarding multiplayer snags and I assure we’re working hard to fix those issues. It’s difficult to address “glitches” post-release, but we’re working closely with Nintendo to come up with potential solutions.”- Jaramiah Severns, Associate Producer
Game Inspired by the Upcoming Walt Disney Pictures Feature Film to Arrive for Nintendo DS This Holiday Season
BURBANK, Calif. — (July 7, 2009) – A new generation of fans will soon connect like never before with the illustrious story and characters of A Christmas Carol. Disney Interactive Studios today announced it will publish the video game inspired by “Disney’s A Christmas Carol,” the Charles Dickens tale re-imagined by Robert Zemeckis as a major feature film starring Jim Carrey. Disney’s A Christmas Carol video game is scheduled for release exclusively for Nintendo DS™ in North America on November 3, 2009.
Disney’s A Christmas Carol video game is an innovative adventure puzzler for Nintendo DS that celebrates the spirit of the holidays with a Scrooge twist. It is the only video game inspired by the re-envisioned classic Dickens tale and gives Nintendo DS players a fantastical, super-sensory adventure with engaging activities for the yuletide season.
“We were really hoping to raise the quality bar of games on Wii. All the developers and publishers we’ve talked to, I think they’re playing sort of ‘wait and see’ just now. If it does well and the gamers support it, then I think we’ll see a lot more titles like this. Otherwise we’re going to see a lot more games with Fit and Sports in their name.”
I know we’ve said this probably one hundred times on the site before, but developers are definitely watching to see how The Conduit performs. NPD sales figures for June will be released next month, so we’ll get a chance to see how the game is doing in North America.
– NAMCO BANDAI Games Europe Completes Purchase of Worldwide PAL Distribution Operation from Atari –
LYON, FRANCE – 7 July 2009 – NAMCO BANDAI Games Europe S.A.S. today announced the completion of its purchase of Atari’s global PAL distribution operation, with the entity re-named NAMCO BANDAI Partners with immediate effect. The company distributes titles worldwide, excluding Japan and North America, from NAMCO BANDAI Games, Atari and other major international video game publishers, representing one of the industry’s strongest international retail distribution networks.
“We are very excited about working with all our valued partners in retail, media and publishing to grow what is already a successful distribution business even further as part of the NAMCO BANDAI Games family,” said Jackie Fromion, CEO of NAMCO BANDAI Partners. “With our committed and experienced teams of professionals around the world we provide a first class distribution solution, and we very much hope to see a growing number of publishers taking advantage of this. Our vision is to be a successful, attractive and profitable company as well as a great place to work.”
