Zordix announced Aqua Moto Racing Utopia for Wii U last February. We haven’t heard much about the game over the past year, so we reached out to the studio for a status update. Larsson revealed that the game has made the jump to Unity 5, discussed DLC plans, teased a probable New 3DS exclusive, and more.
Read on below for our full interview with Matti Larsson, CEO and creative director at Zordix AB. You’ll also find an exclusive new screenshot showing how the updated UI looks.
Let’s Talk is on a one week break so that I can give the spotlight to a very important site topic. The feature will be back in full force next week!
With each passing anniversary on Nintendo Everything, I’ve thought about doing this forever. I can’t properly express how much I love the site, and how it’s become extremely embedded in my daily life.
There’s very little that I won’t do for Nintendo Everything – whether that means putting it ahead of my personal life, sleep, health… you name it. For nearly eight years, that’s the way things have been. That’s largely because I love being in a position to write about Nintendo in some form. I also take great happiness in knowing that I’m able to share updates about the company with you all.
Everything sounds fantastic, right? Well, in reality, that isn’t entirely the case. I think I may have been in denial a bit in terms of how long Nintendo Everything can continue on. Okay, that probably sounds way too dramatic. Let me try to explain what’s been on my mind and why this post is even necessary.
Over the past year or two, I’ve been taking a serious look at Nintendo Everything’s (and my own) financial situation. I need to be completely honest here and admit that it’s not the best. It’s why I’m putting up this post today, and why I’d like to have a discussion about the site’s future.
Running a site, as rewarding as it is, can be very taxing. The financial aspect alone has been extremely stressful for me. Few people have known about this – maybe just a handful.
Nintendo Everything generates revenue through ads. Unfortunately, this is not at all the best/consistent source of income. The ads themselves cannot at all be relied upon. Companies act irregularly in terms of when they’re interested in advertising. The first half of the year is often filled with dead periods for ads. Throw in the fact that some people use Adblock, and the situation becomes a bit of a mess. Truthfully, the site isn’t exactly bringing in what it needs to right now.
Those are some of the reasons why I’m concerned about Nintendo Everything’s future. We’re not in an absolutely dreadful situation, but we’re not in a good one either. It’s very tough for the middle-of-the-road sites to survive. We’re not backed by any major corporation, we’re not part of a network, and I run everything independently.
At the end of the day, I don’t want anything to change. I don’t want us to have to team up with anyone else, sell the site, shut down, or anything along the lines. I just want to be in a position to continue doing what I’ve been doing for the past eight years or so.
So where does Nintendo Everything go from here? That’s what I’d like to talk to you all about today. I would really appreciate if we could have a discussion in the comments below about what I’ve tried to explain. Maybe you guys have some ideas about how I can go about things to improve the site’s situation. My ears (eyes?) are wide open, and I’ll be looking at everything you all have to say. Let’s turn this ship around!
Capcom has gone live with a launch trailer for The Great Ace Attorney. There are also a couple of more videos with gameplay to be seen. We’ve posted them all below.
It’s time for the latest Famitsu’s most wanted games chart! With Fire Emblem If having been released in Japan, Dragon Quest VIII has now taken the top spot.
Head past the break for the full chart. All votes were cast between June 11 and June 17.
Capcom has uploaded a whole bunch of commercials for The Great Ace Attorney. You’ll find them all below, along with a “making of” video.
In this month’s issue of Japanese magazine Nintendo Dream, there’s an interview with some of the Splatoon developers. That includes directors Yusuke Amano and Tsubasa Sakaguchi as well as producer Hisashi Nogami.
Nintendo Dream starts off by asking how matchmaking works. Amano mentions that rather than focusing on levels, the game pairs players with similar playstyles in Turf War. Levels are more of “an indicator for how long the person has played the game.”
Since Splatoon matches users together based on how they play, Amano notes that those who tend to splat enemies are likely to play together. Likewise, those who concentrate on painting rather than splatting are more likely to get paired up.
Keeping in line with last year, The Game Awards 2015 will be airing in December. This was confirmed last weekend on the show’s official Twitter account.
That message is as follows:
That was an epic E3! Stay tuned for news on The Game Awards 2015, coming this December.
— The Game Awards (@thegameawards) June 20, 2015
It’ll be interesting to see what Nintendo does at The Game Awards this year. In 2014, they had Zelda Wii U, Super Mario Maker, Code Name: S.T.E.A.M., and a performance by Koji Kondo. Will they have a heavy presence at this year’s show as well?
Thanks to Jake for the tip.
The latest issue of MCV features a few comments from Nintendo UK head of consumer marketing James Honeywell. Honeywell commented on how the company is focusing its efforts on Super Mario Maker, shared some words about toys-to-life and its home on Wii U, and the 3DS’ “bright future.”
Here’s a roundup of Honeywell’s different remarks:
“We are focusing a lot of our efforts on Super Mario Maker. It seems fitting that for Mario’s 30th anniversary we have a new Mario title that breaks the rules and offers infinite possibilities. Beyond this launch on September 11th, we’ll also be promoting the other new titles but also games like Splatoon and Mario Kart 8, which both continue to perform well.”
“Activision really invented the toys-to-life category so it’s really exciting that Donkey Kong and Bowser can take on their new starring roles. We hope that by working together on this we can offer another unique game experience to Wii U and bring a new audience to Amiibo. We are also fortunate that Wii U is home to Disney’s Infinity 3.0 and LEGO Dimensions, too. It’s set to be a really exciting Christmas for us all.
“Nintendo 3DS continues to be really important to us and hopefully this came across with all the great announements. With the recent launch of New Nintendo 3DS, we’ve seen sales overtake last year, and with great games like Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer, The Legend of Zelda: Tri-Force Heroes and Chibi-Robo! all coming in time for Christmas, it’s going to continue to be strong. We also have a lot of great new titles coming in 2016, so Nintendo 3DS has a bright future.”
We recently spoke with Neko Entertainment, and received confirmation that the company is planning a new game for the Wii U eShop.
Just a couple of details have been shared about the untitled project thus far. We know from Neko’s Benjamin Cestac that it’s a puzzle game “to play with your friends on a couch” and it’s being made by another studio (so Neko will handle publishing).
That’s sadly all that we know at the moment. Once we receive additional information, we’ll be sure to bring that to you.
A new round of quotes from Nintendo’s Takashi Tezuka have been published by Game Informer. Tezuka tackled three main topics: how Good-Feel is working with yarn for a second time, the reception of Yoshi’s New Island, and whether or not Yoshi is still considered a part of the Mario universe.
For Tezuka’s comments, head past the break. You can also check out Game Informer’s original article here.
