During Gamescom this week, NintendOn spoke with Vicarious Visions co-founder Guha Bala. There was plenty of talk about the Nintendo collaboration in Skylanders SuperChargers, as well as a few other topics such as the decision to continue using a portal rather than the GamePad’s NFC functionality.
As always, you can find a few excerpts from the interview below. The full discussion is located here.
It’s day 3 of Gamescom, and footage of different games continues to be posted online. Just as we did for the previous two days, we’ll add any notable footage we come across to this post.
Super Smash Bros. director Masahiro Sakurai has once again written a column in the latest issue of Famitsu. In this week’s magazine, he tackles the topic of those who are bothered by extra features in games.
You can find a summary of Sakurai’s column below. For the entire column, check out the full translation on Source Gaming.
– Sakurai mentions how a game review organization handed out high marks to a simplistic puzzle game
– He says that since it didn’t have extraneous features warranting demerits, it was able to earn the high score
– Sakurai feels this isn’t the right way to review a game
– He’s been looking at user reviews for Fire Emblem Fates, and noticed that there were many comments saying “I don’t need this; I don’t need that, either”
– Ex: inviting companions to your house and stroke their heads/faces to raise your affinity level
– Sakurai feels that players who are bothered by this sort of feature should simply ignore it
– Sakurai: “Developers include all sorts of bonus features simply because they want to provide a little something extra for the fans.”
– Even if bonus features were removed, that doesn’t mean they’d “make room” for something else
– Sakurai: “If you approach game development with a demerit-based mindset, it doesn’t leave much room for anything extra, and games become pretty dry—and that’s just no fun.”
– Sakurai points out that Smash Bros. has plenty of unnecessary content
– However, taking out features means you’re left with “a bare-bones, niche-market game”
– Sakurai understands that some people want a minimalist-type of game, but Smash Bros. isn’t targeted at that niche market
– While some believe that superfluous features should be removed, others feel the opposite way
– Sakurai points out that not all bonus features to “plump up a game” are designed with everyone in mind
– Sakurai: “At the same time, games are a form of entertainment, so I sincerely hope people realize that “user abstinence”—not using unwanted content—is also a valid option.”
– Ultimately, he thinks you shouldn’t force users to play extra features in order to complete a game
– As long as the above point holds, Sakurai believes developers should be able to make games the way they see fit
– Even if you’re not interested in a certain feature, someone else might be
Circle Entertainment provided an update on Witch & Hero’s sales on Twitter a few hours ago. Since launch, the game sold almost 170,000 copies worldwide.
68 percent of Witch & Hero’s sales originate from Asia, and that’s without a discount. North America and Europe appear to lag pretty far behind.
Nearly half of Witch & Hero’s North American sales came from its discount periods. Similarly, 60 percent of its sales in Europe happened while the price was slashed.
During 28 months, Witch & Hero almost reached 170K copies in global 3DS eShop. 68% come from Asia without discount. pic.twitter.com/uN5gpyu6k8
— CIRCLE Ent. (@CIRCLE_Ent) August 7, 2015
Nintendo UK has come out with a new commercial for Splatoon, which is mainly a means to promote the new 2.0.0 update. We’ve posted it below.
Engadget recently caught up with Mighty No. 9 producer Nick Yu for an interview. Yu commented on how the game is shaping up, why it was delayed, some of the messaging to fans, and more.
You’ll find excerpts from the interview below. For the full discussion, head on over to Engadget.
SEGA prepared a new trailer for 7th Dragon III Code: VFD today showing the game’s world. View it below.
Capcom released a massive amount of screenshots and art from Monster Hunter X today. We primarily get a look at the game’s weapons and Hunting Styles. View the full set below.
Even more Japanese sales data has come in from Famitsu.
First up, here are the top 20 best-selling games for the 3DS in Japan (lifetime):
01. [3DS] Pokemon X / Y #
02. [3DS] Animal Crossing: New Leaf #
03. [3DS] Monster Hunter 4 #
04. [3DS] Yo-kai Watch 2: Ganso / Honke
05. [3DS] Pokemon Omega Ruby / Alpha Sapphire
06. [3DS] Yo-kai Watch 2: Shin Uchi
07. [3DS] Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate #
08. [3DS] Mario Kart 7
09. [3DS] New Super Mario Bros. 2 #
10. [3DS] Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS
11. [3DS] Super Mario 3D Land #
12. [3DS] Tomodachi Life #
13. [3DS] Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate #
14. [3DS] Puzzle & Dragons Z
15. [3DS] Yo-kai Watch
16. [3DS] Dragon Quest VII: Warriors of Eden
17. [3DS] Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon
18. [3DS] Dragon Quest Monsters: Terry no Wonderland 3D #
19. [3DS] Dragon Quest Monsters 2: Iru to Ruka no Fushigi na Fushigi na Kagi #
20. [3DS] Kirby Triple Deluxe
Nintendo UK published a new commercial for amiibo functionality in Super Smash Bros. today. Check it out below.
