Game Freak excited to see the main way people play Switch, will try to make a Pokemon game that meets expectations
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch | 80 Comments
Update: Game Informer just uploaded a video of Game Freak and Ohmori talking about Pokemon and Switch. We’ve added that in below.
Original: As mentioned earlier today, Game Informer’s latest issue contains a significant feature about Pokemon. The magazine visited Game Freak’s offices in Japan to reminisce about the franchise’s early days, the various entries, and more.
Switch was also one topic discussed. At E3 in June, it was announced that a brand new Pokemon game is planned for the system. Game Freak’s Junichi Masuda and Shigeru Ohmori both spoke about Switch and making a game on the platform.
More: Game Freak, interview, Junichi Masuda, Pokemon, Shigeru Ohmori
ARMS producer on early success, removed feature, no plans to add Street Fighter’s Dhalsim
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch | 6 Comments
Last week, YouTuber KayaneTV uploaded a new interview with ARMS producer Kosuke Yabuki. Among the topics discussed were the game’s early success, a removed feature in which involving blow power (how strongly you punch), and his appreciation of Street Fighter – but Dhalsim won’t be added. Watch the full interview with Yabuki below.
More: Arms, interview, Kosuke Yabuki
Ubisoft CEO says making Starlink is risky, but thinks “there are lots of people who want this type of game”
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch | 16 Comments
The toys-to-life market currently isn’t where it used to be a few years ago. It’s been on the decline, as is evident by the lack of a new Skylanders game this year and the slowdown of LEGO Dimensions.
Given the market, it came as a surprise to many when Ubisoft announced Starlink: Battle for Atlas at E3. Players can buy and attach physical starships to controllers. The concept is risky, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot has admitted, but the company believes “that there are lots of people who want this type of game.”
Guillemot told GamesIndustry:
“We thought that bringing 2.0 of that model was potentially very interesting. We’ll see. It’s a risk, but we feel that there are lots of people who want this type of game. Maybe they don’t want to say it, but they do want to buy it.”
Sonic Forces devs on the custom character and story plus more, brief Sonic Mania talk
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch | 72 Comments
Recently, Famitsu spoke with Sonic series producer Takashi Iizuka and Sonic Forces producer Shun Nakamura. The two had much to say about the brand new custom character aspect and more.
First, Famitsu asked about the details on why character customization was added in Sonic Forces. Iizuka said that for many years in which he had been working on Sonic games, he received a ton of requests from fans to have their own original characters appear. While he has never been able to put in those characters exactly as they are, he still wanted to make those dreams come true, so SEGA decided to add a custom character that will fight together with Sonic.
More: interview, Shun Nakamura, Sonic Forces, Takashi Iizuka, top
Mario + Rabbids creative director confirms no touchscreen usage, teases surprises, more
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch | 7 Comments
NDTV has a new interview up with Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle director Davide Soliani. Among other things, Soliani confirmed that the game won’t make use of Switch’s touchscreen, and also teased some surprises.
Find the various comments from Soliani below. You can read the full interview on NDTV here.
Video: Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle creative director and composer on leaks just before E3
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Switch, Videos | 3 Comments
Just a few weeks before the start of E3, Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle suffered from some significant leaks. Key art was posted online as well as extensive marketing plans with quite a few details. Many were initially skeptical about Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle, but that all changed once we got a good look at the game at E3.
Eurogamer recently chatted with creative director Davide Soliani and composer Grant Kirkhope about the leaks. Hear what they have to say below.
Ubisoft initially toyed around with making Mario + Rabbids a musical game or a first-person shooter
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch | 9 Comments
Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle is not your typical game. It makes sense then that during early development, Ubisoft considered a few different genres for the title.
Creative director Davide Soliani told Glixel that Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle was initially considered as a musical, or even a first-person shooter. He said:
“We started to scratch them out, one after the other. We went through a musical game, a first-person shooter game; but really the team is composed of mainly tactical fans.”
Soliani had also mentioned that, early on, a group of five people came up with 13 ideas. Most of these are a mystery.
Ubisoft was surprised by ease of Switch development while making Mario + Rabbids, no issues with Snowdrop engine
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch | 158 Comments
It’s been a busy day for Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle interviews, and another one has surfaced from ntower. The site spoke with Andrea Babich, lead narrative designer at Ubisoft Milan.
Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle will be the first Switch game to make use of Ubisoft’s Snowdrop engine. Despite that, there were no issues along the way.
When asked if the team encountered any problems while developing for Switch, Babich noted:
“Actually we were really surprised about how easy the development for this system is. I don’t want to sound like a Ubisoft or Nintendo fan, but when we got the Dev-Kit and put the Snowdrop-Engine onto the Switch, these two perfectly fit together. The Snowdrop-Engine, which is our engine for almost everything and which we used for the last South Park game is so versatile that we quickly lost our worries about the development.”
Ubisoft scrapped a “Fumble” mechanic from Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch | 5 Comments
Not every idea developers come up with makes it into the final game. With Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle, this was the case as well.
One mechanic Ubisoft scrapped early on was “Fumble”. This would have players missing attacks. Rather than successfully shooting an enemy, the gun would explore in your face as well.
Ubisoft talked with Nintendo about the idea, and the feature was ultimately cut. Nintendo felt it was a bit too chaotic and random for it to be accessible.
Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle lead producer Xavier Manzanares told USgamer:
“We thought it was like Rabbids. Even if it sounded cool on paper, when you play it you say, ‘awww man I was about to defeat the enemy but I got this fumble.’ It’s funny one time, but not funny the second time.”
Mario Kart partially influenced Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle, Ubisoft on Rayman’s absense
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch | 9 Comments
Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle takes inspiration from all sorts of games and sources. Among these was actually Mario Kart. Although the two are in completely different genres, creative director Davide Soliani mentioned to Game Informer that the team wanted to translate that action into the Switch game.
Davide said the following when asked how Mario + Rabbids sets itself apart from other strategy titles:
“Since the very beginning, when we started to brainstorm this game, we wanted to come up with something that was totally new. If we were going to propose to Nintendo, we knew we had to have something that they were not used to or that they weren’t already doing. So, we started with the intention of saying we should renew the genre a little bit. We thought that tactical games are known to be slow paced and they tend to be a little niche, so why not try to have something very dynamic and colorful and fast paced. That’s why our first reference was Mario Kart. How cool would it be to try to translate that kind of action into the combat of our game? Compared to a lot of other tactical games, you see enemies taking cover and the heroes are doing the same, and they’re both shooting at each other, but they’re not moving much. In our game, the A.I. is coming towards you, so you must react to the situation, and the action is focused on moving around the battlefield.”
