Nintendo boss on company’s approach to new tech
Posted on 1 year ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 0 comments
Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa has weighed in on how the company approaches new technology.
In an interview with NHK translated by Nintendo Everything, Furukawa indicated rather than pursuing tech for the sake of it, it’s instead about “how they can lead to revolutions in the act of play itself.” Also mentioned is that Nintendo is pursuing new technology in general, but isn’t focusing on one specific area.
More: interview, Shuntaro Furukawa, top
Pokemon Company “having conversations” about how to ensure game quality with regular releases
Posted on 1 year ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 0 comments
According to Takato Utsunomiya, the chief operating officer of The Pokemon Company, conversations are being had about how to keep up the series’ regular releases of games while also maintaining quality.
While Pokemon Scarlet and Pokemon Violet were well received from a gameplay standpoint, things came to a head last year when some fans expressed disappointment from a technical level. Performance and glitches were a problem in particular. Months later, things still aren’t at where some players had wanted.
Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope dev not worried about the game’s sales
Posted on 1 year ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch | 0 comments
A lot has been made of the sales for Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope, with CEO Yves Guillemot previously saying that the game underperformed. He also recently spoke about how the company should have held off launch for the Switch’s successor.
Series producer Cristina Nava has now chimed in, and indicated that the studio isn’t concerned about the sales of Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope. Like the previous entry, Nava believes turn-based tactual experiences are slow burners and this one “will grow” over the years.
MercurySteam talks working with Nintendo on Metroid Dread, says development wasn’t chaotic
Posted on 1 year ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Switch | 0 comments
MercurySteam CEO Enric Álvarez has discussed working with Nintendo and the development of Metroid Dread. This comes as part of an interview with Gamereactor.
The Switch title marked the second collaboration between the two sides following Metroid: Samus Returns, a remake of the Game Boy game Metroid II: Return of Samus. Álvarez said both companies “have an excellent understanding of each other”. He indicated that Nintendo is open to new ideas while MercurySteam was “hungry for leaving our own mark on the franchise.”
More: interview, MercurySteam, Metroid Dread, top
SEGA and Sonic Mania dev explain why Sonic Mania 2 didn’t happen
Posted on 1 year ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch | 0 comments
With the success of the original game, some were surprised by the fact that we never ended up seeing Sonic Mania 2. It turns out there was actually some initial interest on SEGA’s part, but things ultimately weren’t meant to be.
Classic Sonic is now going in a new direction with the previously-revealed Sonic Superstars. Arzest is taking the lead with Naoto Ohshima (who worked on the series’ original games) on board for the project, but the Sonic Mania team isn’t involved.
More: interview, SEGA, Sonic Mania, Takashi Iizuka, top
Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe devs explain the new graphical outlines
Posted on 1 year ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch | 0 comments
HAL Laboratory has explained the decision to include new graphical outlines for the characters in Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe.
The Switch title isn’t just a port of the original Wii game, as it contains new content as well as a number changes. One such change concerns the outlines for the playable characters.
Miyamoto: “I consider Pikmin to be Nintendo’s most global characters”
Posted on 1 year ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 0 comments
In the latest developer interview published for Pikmin 4 today, Shigeru Miyamoto said that he feels “Pikmin to be Nintendo’s most global characters.”
Miyamoto’s comments came about when asked what Pikmin means to him. He expressed wanting “people to have this real sense that Pikmin are all around us, that they aren’t just fantasy creatures.” Also brought up is how Mario is strictly limited to his world, but Miyamoto believes Nintendo has “finally reached a point where people can find Pikmin in various places, not just in their imaginations.”
More: interview, Pikmin, Shigeru Miyamoto, top
Pikmin 4 devs on how Oatchi came to be, considered letting players ride and control creatures
Posted on 1 year ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch | 0 comments
The space dog Oatchi is a brand new addition for Pikmin 4, and Nintendo has now discussed its origins while also providing other interesting insight. This comes as part of an official interview published today.
The company’s Yuji Kando revealed that one idea that came about early on was letting players control a Bulborb. Continuing on from that, Nintendo then considered letting players “ride and control various creatures in the story”. However, “it became difficult to weave it all into a coherent game.” Oatchi was born from these ideas.
More: interview, Shigeru Miyamoto, top, Yuji Kando, Yutaka Hiramuki
Miyamoto wonders why Pikmin hasn’t sold more and why people think the games are difficult
Posted on 1 year ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in GameCube, General Nintendo, News, Switch, Wii U | 0 comments
In a new interview published today, Shigeru Miyamoto commented on the Pikmin series and said he’s wondered why the games haven’t sold more and why people think they’re so difficult.
For Pikmin 4, it sound like Nintendo wanted to make the game as approachable as possible. The company’s Yuji Kando said the team “prioritized ease of play and experimented with making the controls easy enough for those who aren’t used to playing games.” Camera and AI improvements were a focus as well. Miyamoto added that Nintendo wanted to “retain the depth of gameplay that makes Pikmin so interesting, while providing the functional support to address the challenges around controls.”
Here’s the full interview excerpt:
More: interview, Pikmin, Pikmin 2, Pikmin 3, Pikmin 4, Shigeru Miyamoto, top, Yuji Kondo
Nintendo devs reveal Pikmin origins, started out on N64
Posted on 1 year ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in GameCube, News, Switch | 0 comments
The original developers behind Pikmin have discussed the game’s origins, including how it was originally being developed for the N64.
Masamichi Abe, who was director at the time, said in a new interview published today that “discussion of this project started during the transition from Super NES to Nintendo 64, so we had a strong aspiration to utilize its ability to display a large number of characters on screen.” Shigefumi Hino, who also was director, added that it was originally “envisioned a game that would control a lot of characters with AI.” The interview includes a number of concept art / images as well, and character designer Junji Morii talked about being inspired by Tim Burton.
