Animal Crossing devs on the series’ modest beginnings, approach to making games, more
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, DS, GameCube, News, Wii, Wii U | 12 Comments
Today, the Nintendo UK site issued a new interview with two of Animal Crossing’s primary developers. General producer Katsuya Eguchi and Animal Crossing series producer Hisashi Nogami fielded a number of questions.
The two devs weighed in on the Animal Crossing series as a whole, but more general topics as well. They were asked if they anticipated Animal Crossing becoming so popular, approach to making games, what they aim for when creating titles, and more.
We’ve picked out Eguchi and Nogami’s notable responses below.
Nintendo on Zelda 1 – Miyamoto’s inspiration, Kondo’s all-nighter, Molblin’s famous message, original “Hyrule Fantasy” name
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 4 Comments
Nintendo published a new interview in its series of discussions pertaining to the NES Classic Edition. This time, the topic was the very first Zelda. Co-directors Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka plus series composer Koji Kondo all participated.
Like the previous interviews, there’s a whole lot of interesting talk here. Miyamoto talked about his inspiration with the series, Kondo spoke about how he created music just before release by pulling an all-nighter, and we learn about the Molblin’s famous message (“It’s a secret to everybody”) as well as how Nintendo originally intended to name the series “Hyrule Fantasy”.
For the full interview, head past the break.
Igarashi says he’d be “incredibly honored” to make a Metroid game
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 10 Comments
In some ways, Metroid and Castlevania are intertwined. The two franchises have drawn a few comparisons due to their nature of gameplay. In fact, that’s mainly why we have the “Metroidvania” type of gaming genre.
Koji Igarashi, who is currently working on Bloodstained, actually told Glixel that he’d be “incredibly honored” to make a Metroid game if the fans asked and Nintendo approached him.
Additionally, when specifically asked why Nintendo never teamed up with him and Konami to develop a new 2D Metroid back in the way, Igarashi responded:
“Nintendo is very careful about protecting their IPs and making any changes to their games. Around the time that I was proving that I could do multiple titles and do them well, Nintendo had shifted to Metroid Prime and they were having success turning their 2D games into 3D. So they probably decided from that point on that Metroid was going to be a 3D game series, and by that rationale, my style of games didn’t really fit their criteria. That would be my guess.”
More: interview, Koji Igarashi, Metroid
Harvest Moon creator interested in seeing where the series goes, but doesn’t feel the need to be involved
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 3 Comments
Yasuhiro Wada is the creator of Harvest Moon (Bokuj? Monogatari / Story of Seasons, separate from Natsume’s recent games), and worked on the series for nearly twenty games. Now though, he’s at his own company Toybox and is working on other projects.
GameSpot spoke with Wada recently, and asked if he’s yearning to return to the series in any way. Simply put: he’s not. While Wada is “curious as to how it’s going to do from here on out”, he doesn’t “feel the need to get involved with the series anymore.”
Wada’s words in full:
“Not. At. All. [Laughs] I see Harvest Moon more as my child now; it’s all grown up. It’s married, it started a family, and it’s doing its own thing now. I’m curious as to how it’s going to do from here on out, but I don’t feel the need to get involved with the series anymore.”
More: Harvest Moon, interview, Yasuhiro Wada
Microsoft’s Phil Spencer highly praises Nintendo again, says he’d “love to see Mario on Xbox”
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 63 Comments
Each time Xbox boss Phil Spencer is asked about Nintendo, he offers nothing but praise for the company. That was no different when AusGamers recently sent a question his way about the big N.
Spencer actually started out by mentioning how he’d “love to see Mario on Xbox.” He also believes “Nintendo has the strongest first-party of anybody”. Spencer later added, “they’ve been incredibly important for the games industry, they do a great job with younger audiences, and if we ever had a chance to work with them in the future, I would absolutely do it.”
When asked if seeing Nintendo franchises on Xbox was something the team could look at seriously, Spencer fully stated:
More: interview, Phil Spencer, top
First details about the Hollywood Monster Hunter movie, second film may happen
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 27 Comments
At the Tokyo Game Show in September, Capcom announced that a Hollywood film based on its highly successful Monster Hunter franchise is in development. Deadline is now reporting on the first details.
To begin, here’s a brief summary:
“For every Monster, there is a Hero. An ordinary man in a dead end job discovers that he is actually the descendant of an ancient hero. He must travel to a mystical world to train to become a Monster Hunter, before the mythical creatures from that world destroy ours.”
More: Capcom, interview, Monster Hunter, movie, top
Tekken 7 producer “quite surprised” by Switch announcement
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch | 15 Comments
During an interview with GameSpot, Tekken 7 producer Katsuhiro Harada was asked about the possibility of a Switch version. His response was short, as he stated: “We’re quite surprised by the Nintendo Switch announcement; read into that what you like.”
Tekken Tag Tournament 2: Wii U Edition made it out for Wii U’s launch back in 2012. Harada also acted as co-producer on Pokken Tournament. It’s unclear what plans – if any – Bandai Namco could have in store in the fighting department for Switch.
More: interview, Katsuhiro Harada
Itagaki talks Devil’s Third – how it ended up on Wii U, low sales, NoA’s handling of the game, negative reviews
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 33 Comments
Today, Polygon published a lengthy interview with Valhalla Game Studios head Tomonobu Itagaki. Much of the discussion centered around the ill-fated Wii U game Devil’s Third. He chatted about its origins and how it ended up on Wii U, Nintendo of America’s handling of the game, and the negative critical reception.
We’ve picked out notable excerpts from the interview below. Be sure to read the entire piece on Polygon here as well.
Video: Image & Form talks SteamWorld series, Wii U development, Switch
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, Switch, Videos, Wii U | 9 Comments
SuperMetaldave64 posted a new video interview with Brjann Sigurgeirsson, CEO of Image & Form. Sigurgeirsson discussed the SteamWorld series, working with Wii U, and the Switch. Hear what he had to say in the video below.
More: Brjann Sigurgeirsson, Image & Form, indie, interview
Natsume on Harvest Moon: Skytree Village improvements and secrets, Seeds of Memories
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News, Wii U | 6 Comments
Siliconera caught up with Harvest Moon: Skytree Village producer Taka Maekawa to chat about the 3DS game. The full interview is located here, but there are a few excerpts worth highlighting.
Regarding feedback from Harvest Moon: The Lost Valley used to improve Skytree Village, Maekawa said:
“We have some loyal and dedicated fans that have been playing Harvest Moon for years and years, so we truly value the feedback we get. It’s hard to narrow down what we are most proud of to just one thing, since there are tons of new features and improvements. We tweaked, improved, and added to all sorts of areas in Harvest Moon: Skytree Village. Such as redesigning the UI menu, making the character controls more responsive, adding a rich and robust story, and new character designs and models. And let’s not forget about the new addition of the Poitou Donkey! There’s just too many features we’re proud of to just pick one.”
Maekawa also shared the following about secrets within the game:
“Fundamentally, all Harvest Moon games are repetitive by nature, so it is extremely important to have a variety of things in the game that keep it new and fresh to drive you to keep playing and moving forward. So, yes, there are all sorts of secrets in the game, some big, some small. I would tell you what they are, but that would ruin the surprise!”
Another Harvest Moon game in the pipeline is Seeds of Memories. It’s out on mobile, but the Wii U and PC versions are still not available. Regarding these releases, Maekawa said: “We hope to be able to talk about them as things become more final!”
