Donkey Kong Bananza director comments on frame rate drops
Posted on 1 day ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch 2 | 0 comments
Kazuya Takahashi, the director of Donkey Kong Bananza, has commented on the game’s performance and frame rate drops.
Overall, early impressions of the Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive have been positive. However, some who have been able to try out the game prior to launch have noticed some frame rate dips. It’s largely stable and tends to hit its target of 60 frames per second, but inconsistencies have been noticed. We should get a better idea about performance following launch, which is happening next Thursday.
More: Donkey Kong Bananza, interview, Kazuya Takahashi, top
Super Mario Odyssey producer pushed for new 3D Donkey Kong, dev explains how destruction focus came to be
Posted on 3 days ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch 2 | 0 comments
If you’re wondering why we’re finally getting a new 3D Donkey Kong game with the upcoming launch of Donkey Kong Bananza, you can thank Yoshiaki Koizumi.
According to producer Kenta Motokura, it was Koizumi that made the push. Koizumi was most recently the producer of Super Mario Odyssey. He was also the director of Donkey Kong Jungle Beat.
Motokura told IGN in a new interview:
More: Donkey Kong Bananza, interview, Kenta Motokura, top
Donkey Kong Bananza was originally a Nintendo Switch 1 game
Posted on 3 days ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch, Switch 2 | 0 comments
Donkey Kong Bananza is continuing the trend we’ve been seeing as of late, which is that while it’s coming to Nintendo Switch 2, it was originally planned for Switch 1.
That news comes from Kenta Motokura, the game’s producer. He said that it was always the plan to use voxel tech and consider “lots of different ideas for applications.” However, when Nintendo Switch 2 started to become a reality, the team “realized that the best implementation of these ideas and technology would be on Nintendo Switch 2.”
Director Kazuya Takahashi chimed in on this as well, telling IGN:
Sonic Team comments on why Sonic uses a car to race
Posted on 1 week ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 0 comments
When we see a new Sonic racing game come around, some fans ask the question as to why the Blue Blur uses a car to race. After all, he’s extremely quick on his own, right? Well, Team Sonic head Takashi Tezuka has now offered his input directly.
Tezuka said that this comes to the idea of Sonic wanting to have fun. If he were to race on his own, it just wouldn’t be much of a competition.
More: interview, SEGA, Sonic the Hedgehog, Takashi Iizuka
Nintendo Switch port studio weighs in on how powerful Switch 2 is
Posted on 1 week ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch 2 | 0 comments
Virtuos, a company that was involved with ports for a number of Nintendo Switch games over the years, has weighed in on the power of Switch 2.
If you played a third-party title on Nintendo Switch, chances are you’ve experienced some of Virtuos’ work. Dark Souls Remastered, Final Fantasy 12, Starlink: Battle for Atlas, and NieR: Automata are just some of the ports the studio had a hand in.
More: interview
Sonic Team boss explains why a Sonic Adventure remake / remaster isn’t happening
Posted on 2 weeks ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in GameCube, General Nintendo, News | 0 comments
Sonic Adventure fans might not be happy to hear this, but there aren’t any plans to come out with a remake or remaster anytime soon.
Takahashi Iizuka, head of Team Sonic, was recently asked about revisiting the game in an interview. The takeaway here is that Iizuka believes it’d take a huge effort to bring the experience up to today’s “standards and expectations” – as much as a new title would apparently. Because of that, he feels working on a new game instead makes more sense.
Iizuka said the following when asked about a possible Sonic Adventure remake / remaster in an interview with Shacknews:
More: interview, SEGA, Sonic Adventure, top
Hitman was brought to Switch 2 since IO “felt there was unfinished business”, Hitman 3 Cloud Version “wasn’t as successful as Nintendo had expected”
Posted on 2 weeks ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch 2 | 0 comments
In making the decision to bring Hitman World of Assassination to Nintendo Switch 2, IO Interactive felt like it had “unfinished business”.
You may recall that at the start of 2021, Hitman 3 Cloud Version launched on the original Nintendo Switch. There was a push at the time to release games that wouldn’t normally be possible on the console via the cloud. At least in the case of Hitman 3, IO Interactive CEO Hakan Abrak said that it “wasn’t as successful as Nintendo had expected.” Now with Nintendo Switch 2, fans can play Hitman World of Assassination “in a proper way”.
Smash Bros. director Masahiro Sakurai says large-scale game development is “unsustainable”, thinks generative AI can help
Posted on 3 weeks ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 0 comments
Smash Bros. director Masahiro Sakurai has weighed in on the current state of large-scale game development and the possibility of improving the situation with generative AI.
ITmedia was able to speak with Sakurai about various topics during an interview, and towards the end of the discussion, he was asked about his thoughts concerning the future of the games market. The outlet mentioned how development is only increasing in scale while the indie market is also growing.
More: interview, Masahiro Sakurai, top
Mario Kart World dev comments on why non-Mario characters aren’t included
Posted on 3 weeks ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch | 0 comments
Mario Kart World has a ton of playable characters, but they’re all strictly from the Mario universe and not from any other Nintendo franchises. If you were hoping to see the likes of Link from The Legend of Zelda or Isabelle from Animal Crossing returning from Mario Kart 8, you might be left disappointed. But according to producer Kosuke Yabuki, that was never in the cards to begin with.
Ouest-France recently spoke Yabuki and this was one of the topics that came up. He indicated that other Nintendo characters wouldn’t be the right fit and there was already plenty of possibilities with Mario alone.
More: interview, Kosuke Yabuki, Mario Kart World, top
Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles won’t have War of the Lions content, Square Enix explains why
Posted on 3 weeks ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch, Switch 2 | 0 comments
When Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles arrives later this year, content from the War of the Lions version won’t be included. Square Enix has now explained why.
The War of the Lions came to the PSP back in 2007. It features quite a bit of additional content, including new characters and jobs, new pre-rendered cutscenes, and multiplayer features. Unfortunately, these aspects will be missing in The Ivalice Chronicles.
