Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker reviews roundup
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 2 Comments
The first wave of Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker reviews have now started to go live. Check out a roundup of the early verdicts below.
IGN – 8.2 / 10
Joystiq – 4 / 5
GameSpot – 8 / 10
USgamer – 4.5 / 5
Nintendo Life – 8 / 10
Destructoid – 8 / 10
Polygon – 8.5 / 10
Shacknews – 9 / 10
Videogamer – 7 / 10
GiantBomb – 3 / 5
GamesRadar – 3 / 5
NintendoWorldReport – 9 / 10
CVG – 7 / 10
GamesBeat – 85 / 100
Austin is currently working on our Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker review, which should be published by the time the game launches.
Nintendo Minute – Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker new levels
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Videos, Wii U | 3 Comments
Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker commercial
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Videos, Wii U | 0 comments
Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker devs on the game’s creation
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 9 Comments
Polygon recently caught up with Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker director Koichi Hayashida and producer Shinya Hiratake. The two spoke about how the game came to be, and shared plenty of development information.
Read on below for a summary of the interview. Also be sure to check out Polygon’s full piece here.
Hayashida on how Captain Toad came about…
“We began with Super Mario 64. While Super Mario 64 was quite an interesting game, we heard that roughly 20 percent of gamers found it too difficult,” he said, brandishing a copy of the Nintendo 64 game. We kept that comment that the game was too challenging and made games like Super Mario 3D Land and Super Mario 3D World with that in mind.”
– In making 3D Land and 3D World, the team felt it was getting away from a fundamental design principle that made Mario 64 so special
– This was the idea that the levels were a sort of “diorama” or a “garden in a box”
– The studio was able to get back to that idea with the Captain Toad stages in 3D World
Hayashida on how Miyamoto suggested making Captain Toad into its own game…
“At the completion of 3D World, Mr. Miyamoto said, ‘That worked well; I think we should create a single spin-off title just featuring Captain Toad.’ The start of the conversation was, ‘Let’s take a lot of the elements that we have in 3D World and incorporate them’ into what eventually became Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker.”
– The team started out by making 100 stages
– Two issues: Toad couldn’t jump, and they were still basically making Mario stages
– Action felt limited without being able to jump
– Since Toad can’t jump, this also means enemies are overpowered
– The team addressed this with the plucking action, and by implementing some stealth
– The process of making a level begins with what mechanics/gimmick they’re interested in
– Stage set in the haunted house was originally a puzzle stage
– The two devs wouldn’t confirm/deny a similar approach of making more Nintendo spin-offs with other franchises
“When we were doing 3D World and creating these diorama-style worlds… we tested them using Mario as playable character. Because Mario has ability to jump, the types of stages we came up with became impossibly large. Mario made those stages too big, which broke our whole goal, so… it worked out that we had this character there.” – Hayashida
Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker dev info
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 1 Comment
Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker launched in Japan a couple of days ago. Some players have already completed the game and accessed the game’s credits.
According to those very credits, roughly 75 people worked on Captain Toad. Most of the employees were also involved with Super Mario 3D World.
Mahito Yokota, who was the composer of the Mario Galaxy games, worked on Treasure Tracker’s soundtrack.
We also learn that Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker was co-developed by 1-UP Studio, which also helped develop Super Mario 3D Land/World.
Staff positions are sadly not listed in Captain Toad’s credits. However, we do know that Shinya Hiratake directed the title. Kenta Motokura may have also been a co-director. It’s also very possible that Koichi Hayashida acted as producer.
Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker originally imagined as a Zelda game
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 11 Comments
Shinya Hiratake is the director of Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker. It was many years ago that he thought about a game concept that would take place in a series of small diorama-like levels where the hero couldn’t jump. Players would move the camera around the diorama and guide the hero to the exit.
Who was the hero, you ask? Why, Link of course! Hiratake felt that if he removed the jumping mechanic from a platformer, he could greatly shrink a game’s levels. However, he believed that the concept wasn’t a fit for the Mario universe since most of those characters can jump. It was then that The Legend of Zelda’s Link came to mind.
Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker – secret title screen optical illusions
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Videos, Wii U | 0 comments
Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker 3DS puzzle available in Japan
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News | 0 comments
Those who own a Japanese 3DS system can now begin filling in a puzzle for Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker. It’s not available overseas as far as I’m aware, but we’ll probably see it when the game comes closer to its western release. We’ll keep you updated.
