Nintendo on wanting to bring people together with Switch
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch | 13 Comments
Nintendo has a notable goal in mind with Switch: bringing people together. In an interview with The Independent, general producer Yoshiaki Koizumi spoke about wanting to create an experience similar to cards. With cards, people are able to play together and “play eye to eye”. That’s where Switch’s portability aspect comes into play, including the Joy-Con.
Koizumi explained:
“When you have a deck of cards, you can get family and friends together and play games that everyone knows the rules to. It’s very accessible, everyone can sit down and play together, and that became kind of a root for us as we thought about this. For generations, people would play eye to eye as they thought about strategy. We wanted to recreate some of that experience using technology.”
“You need a certain kind of hardware to make that social situation possible. And in the past we’ve had that experience with NES and SNES of having two controllers and it definitely felt like the social experience where your friend would come over to your house and play with you, and so we wanted to make that situation not only more possible, but more visible outside the house, to see people playing together like that. It’s the addition of two controllers from the start that makes creating those things possible.
Of course you could go online and play video games with strangers that you’ve never met before, but something a little bit different is possible here, where you can take the system outside of your house and run into someone you’ve never met before, hand them a controller and start playing right there, and that’s the sort of thing that, when you experience it, makes the other person and yourself very happy.”
More: interview, Shinya Takahashi, top, Yoshiaki Koizumi
MixedBag Games wants to bring forma.8, future projects to Switch
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch eShop | 0 comments
MixedBag Games is holding true to its promise of delivering forma.8 on Wii U. However, the team has expressed interest in porting the game – and bringing future projects – to Switch.
When asked about sticking with forma.8’s release on Wii U and the possibility of a Switch version by Nintendo Life, MixedBag co-founder Mauro Fanelli said:
“We’ve promised a Wii U version of the game and there were no chances we wouldn’t deliver on that. Especially considering that we had the Wii U version up and running perfectly from 2015.
We can’t wait to work on Switch and we really hope to be able to port forma.8 and all our future projects on it. It’s such a lovely bit of kit!”
You’ll be able to pick up forma.8 on the Wii U eShop very soon – it’s slated for February 28.
More: forma.8, indie, interview, Mauro Fanelli, MixedBag Games
Aonuma says you’ll feel a lot of different emotions when playing Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch, Wii U | 95 Comments
Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma answered another fan question about Breath of the Wild today, as shared by Nintendo of France. This time around, he was asked if the game will be more mature than the previous entries given what we’ve seen in the trailers thus far.
Aonuma responded with the following:
“Of course, when you watch the trailer, the game looks very serious. But that’s because we used serious and spectacular scenes in the edit; it’s what holds the viewers’ attention. But as wit every other Zelda, Breath of the Wild will make you feel a lot of different emotions; and as in every Zelda, there will be serious and dramatic moments as well as more amusing parts which I hope will make you laugh. In this game, you’ll be able to both laugh and be moved.”
Big thanks to Kyrio for helping out with the translation.
Aonuma says 2D Zelda game for Switch is “definitely a possibility”
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch | 27 Comments
With the amount of hype surrounding Zelda: Breath of the Wild, we should remember that Nintendo makes two kinds of Zelda games. We usually see new 3D titles on home consoles, while portables receive games that are more in line with the 2D entries.
Game Informer decided to ask Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma if Nintendo considered merging the Breath of the Wild team with the group that handled the 3DS Zeldas. Regarding that, Aonuma said:
“The dev pace is not really dependent on how many people are on a team, so combining them would not necessarily expedite the development pace. The 3DS team and the Wii U team have different approaches to game development, so I don’t necessarily want to combine them and have them think together, but rather have each think about what they can bring to Nintendo Switch from their own perspective.”
“The handheld development team will not be phased out because of Nintendo Switch. Switch will allow the users to bring their home console on the go, but this doesn’t mean handheld game development like Nintendo 3DS will be discontinued.”
More: Eiji Aonuma, interview, top
Miyamoto on Iwata’s involvement with Switch and HD Rumble, VR, stories in games, more
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Switch | 50 Comments
TIME is back with yet another Nintendo-centric interview. In its latest piece, the site chats with Shigeru Miyamoto about Switch (including the involvement from late president Satoru Iwata and HD rumble), virtual reality, stories in games and more.
Per usual, we’ve picked out important comments below. TIME has the full interview here.
More: interview, Shigeru Miyamoto, top
Niantic adding new features to Pokemon GO soon, wants to hold events, tracker not returning
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Mobile, News | 16 Comments
At the start of July, Pokemon GO will be celebrating its first anniversary. The game has no doubt been an incredible success so far over the past several months, but players have been waiting on new features, including the ability to trade Pokemon.
Speaking with Waypoint, Niantic CEO John Hanke did say that new features are due out soon in “an abbreviated form”, with more complete versions to follow later.
Hanke told the site:
“It has far surpassed our expectations in just turning everybody onto the potential for games that break out of the screen. But the priority for Pokémon Go now is to build in those things that reward co-operative gameplay, and make experiences available that offer more depth than just the capturing mechanic.”
More: interview, John Hanke, Niantic, Pokemon GO, top
Nintendo – third-party Switch announcements coming, price and power, online service, 3DS games in 2018, more
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News, Switch | 41 Comments
The Telegraph has put up a pretty lengthy interview with Nintendo’s Yoshiaki Koizumi and Shinya Takahashi all about Switch. Topics include third-parties, talk of the system’s price and power, paid online service, and more. Additionally, we hear some comments that Nintendo is planning 3DS games for 2018.
Notable excerpts from the interview can be found below. For the full interview, head on over to The Telegraph.
More: interview, Shinya Takahashi, top, Yoshiaki Koizumi
Paper Mario: Color Splash devs on the color theme, Koopalings, music, and more
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 8 Comments
In a recent issue of Nintendo Dream, Nintendo and main developer Intelligent Systems spoke in-depth about Paper Mario: Color Splash. Representatives from both companies were asked about the color theme, why the Koopalings appeared, the music, and more.
We’ve prepared a translation of the noteworthy comments from both Nintendo and Intelligent Systems. If you’re interested in reading up about the game for additional insight, continue on below.
BoxBoy! devs on the series’ origins, third game’s features, amiibo, and more plus Switch
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News | 1 Comment
Nintendo released Goodbye! BoxBoy! in Japan last week. In turn, Famitsu caught up with a few of the game’s developers for a wrap-up interview. Director Yasuhiro Mukae, level designer Yutaka Watanabe, graphic designer Yusuke Ota, and programmer Takaaki Kawahara participated in the discussion.
The initial part of Famitsu’s interview touches on the start of the BoxBoy! series. Originally, the first game came about from a planning document Mukae created as part of a competition within HAL. He ended up as the series director, and determined how the project would be and what content it would have.
More: Famitsu, Goodbye! BoxBoy!, HAL Laboratory, interview, top
Links from Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, Tri Force Heroes could have been swapped
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News | 25 Comments
Toon Link began to be associated with portable Zelda games since Four Swords. The character was then featured in both Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks on DS, before going on to be included in Tri Force Heroes on 3DS.
Interestingly, Nintendo even considered Toon Link for A Link Between Worlds. Designer Yoshiki Haruhana revealed this nugget in the new Zelda: Art & Artifacts book, stating that there was “a long debate” about which Link should be in the game. Some members of the team carried the opinion that it should be Toon Link since it was a handheld game, while others felt it should be the original from A Link to the Past, which was ultimately selected.
That wasn’t all though. Originally, Link from A Link Between Worlds (and A Link to the Past) was originally going to be used in Tri Force Heroes. This suddenly changed when series producer Eiji Aonuma declared one day that Toon Link would be used instead.
