Super Mario Bros. film director on the script, casting Mario and Luigi, tough experience, and more
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 8 Comments
SciFiNow recently caught up with Rocky Morton, one of the directors on the live-action Super Mario Bros. film from 1993. Morton spoke about the script, casting Mario and Luigi, and how it was tough creating the movie. He noted that it was “a harrowing experience”, and working with Dennis Hopper was “really, really hard.”
We’ve posted some of the interview excerpts below. You can find a bit more from Morton on SciFiNow here.
More: film, interview, Rocky Morton, Super Mario Bros., top
Playtonic handling Wii U version of Yooka-Laylee internally, wants to give it “the right attention”
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U eShop | 83 Comments
It’s been known that Playtonic is working with Team17 on Yooka-Laylee. The latter company will publish the game, but it’s now been revealed that they’re also working on the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions. That means Playtonic is able to concentrate on Yooka-Laylee for Wii U and PC.
MCV asked Playtonic about why the studio is working on the Wii U version internally over other platforms. In response, writer Andy Robinson said:
We naturally have so many backers who opted for Wii U. Because of the size of the team, we couldn’t take on all the consoles. You can imagine from a developer stand-point, that porting from PC to PS4 and Xbox One is slightly more straightforward than porting to Wii U. I also think it feels right playing it on a Nintendo system to some people. But the other versions will be fantastic as well.
Technical art director Mark Stevenson also noted:
“We wanted to make sure that Wii U gets the right attention. There is a lot of nostalgia around Banjo, Banjo heralds from Rare’s Nintendo’s days, and we are all massive Nintendo fans as well.”
More: interview, Team17, top, Yooka-Laylee
Director interested in seeing a new version of Chrono Trigger
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 9 Comments
Takashi Tokita, one of the directors on Chrono Trigger, “would love” to see a new version of the game in one form or another. Speaking with Game Informer, Tokita mentioned:
“Personally, if there is ever an opportunity, I would love to see a high-quality, high-end version of Chrono Trigger. Or a movie production, or something of the sort.”
Tokita also spoke more generally about Chrono Trigger. One notable aspect of the game is how it brought together two RPG developers. At the time, there were separate Square and Enix entities, who made Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest respectively. It’s partially because of the collaboration that makes Chrono Trigger extra special.
Tokita said:
More: Chrono Trigger, interview, Square Enix, Takashi Tokita, top
Activision still believes in toys-to-life, Skylanders the 11th most successful game franchise of all time
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News, Wii, Wii U | 2 Comments
There’s been some talk as of late about the decline of the toys-to-life business. For the most part, amiibo is still doing quite well, and LEGO Dimensions entered the scene last year. But Disney Interactive recently closed entirely – marking the end of Disney Infinity – and Skylanders hasn’t been performing quite as well as it used to.
Despite this, Activision still appears to be very much on board with toys-to-life. The company announced Skylanders Imaginators today, reaffirming its commitment to the market.
Activision CEO Eric Hirshberg also told TIME that the publisher believes in the potential of toys-to-life. In his remarks, he mentioned that “Skylanders is now the 11th most successful game franchise of all time after just five years.”
When asked about the situation of Disney and concerns about the toys-to-life category, Hirshberg said:
I certainly can’t comment on Disney’s business, so that’s a good question to ask them, and they’ve obviously got good reasons for making the decision they did. What I will say is, we’ve said publicly that some of our more recent games haven’t met our expectations, and yet we’re still here making games, so we obviously still believe in the potential. We created the category, and Skylanders is now the 11th most successful game franchise of all time after just five years.
More: Activision, Eric Hirshberg, interview, sales, Skylanders, top, Toys for Bob, Vicarious Visions
Zero Escape creator didn’t think his initial pitch for 999 would be approved
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in DS, News | 3 Comments
The Zero Escape series has spawned two entries, with a third launching in about a month for now. Series creator Kotaro Uchikoshi reflected on the franchise’s roots as part of an interview with Nintendo Force.
Uchikoshi was asked if he thought Spike Chunsoft would approve his initial pitch for 999 (Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors). He did not, but “was able to get the project in fruition thanks to many supporters.”
Kirby: Planet Robobot director on the story, characters, Robobot Armor, and abilities
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News | 6 Comments
Last month’s issue of Nintendo Dream contained a noteworthy interview with Kirby: Planet Robobot director Shinya Kumazaki. It was very insightful, with Kumazaki discussing topics like the story, characters, Robobot Armor, and abilities. He also delves a bit into the game’s origins and reveals that Planet Robobot was originally intended to be more along the lines of “Kirby Triple Deluxe 2”. On top of that, we have an interesting image at the end of the post.
We’ve rounded up a bunch of the questions and answers from Nintendo Dream’s interview. Head past the break to read our translation full.
Star Fox Zero – official translation of Nintendo Dream’s interview
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 4 Comments
Update 2 (5/27): The third part can now be read here.
Update (5/20): The second portion can now be read in full here.
Original (5/13): Last week, we posted a translation summary of Nintendo Dream’s interview with Shigeru Miyamoto and Yugo Hayashi about Star Fox Zero. Nintendo of Europe is now starting to post a complete translation on its website. You can read the first part right now over here. We’ll let you know when the other portions are made available.
Denis Dyack again says that Shadow of the Eternals is alive
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U eShop | 8 Comments
Eternal Darkness creator Denis Dyack attempted to fund a spiritual successor to that game, Shadow of the Eternals, back in 2013. But after two failed Kickstarter campaigns, its future remained unclear. Dyack did mention that Shadow of the Eternals was still in the works back in 2013 – and even teased “big plans for the future.”
Dyack still says that Shadow of the Eternals is a thing. He now has his own YouTube channel known as “The Quantum Tunnel”, and noted during a podcast that it’s still alive. Dyack also believes “extremely unethical” games journalism caused the project to lose out on crowdfunding a few years ago.
Shadow of the Eternals was originally planned for Wii U. If the game ever does get made, it’s unclear whether that console would still be included as a target platform.
Minecraft devs led the way on the new Mario collaboration for Wii U
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 5 Comments
One of the bigger releases this week was the new Super Mario Mash-Up Pack in Minecraft: Wii U Edition. Damon Baker, senior manager of licensing at Nintendo, told The Verge that developers Mojang and 4J mostly came up with the idea for the collaboration. It began just as a way to introduce new skins, but the teams wanted to come up with something more.
Baker stated:
“They actually came to us with what their vision was, and the extent of it, and blew us away. It still went through an official approval process through our art department at our head office in Japan, but it was really driven by them as the creative studios behind it.”
Baker also said that the company has no plans to expand the Mario content beyond its own hardware for now, which one would expect. He said: “We’ve just been concentrating on Wii U first and foremost.”
More: 4J Studios, Damon Baker, interview, Mojang, top
Indie developers talk about what they want to see from NX
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch | 143 Comments
Nintendo first made the NX known last year. Little information has been shared about the system since, though we do know it’s due out in March 2017. Everyone is anxiously awaiting to see what Nintendo has in store because of the lack of details surrounding the system – including many developers.
GamesTM spoke with a few indies in its latest issue for a chat about the NX. The magazine caught up with Black Forest Games co-founder Adrian Goersch, DrinkBox co-founder and CEO Graham Smith, CTO Rebellion co-founder Chris Kingsley, and Zen Studios VP of publishing Mel Kirk.
GamesTM first started out by asking each developer about how they’d like NX to improve upon Wii U as a platform to make games on. Each of them responded with the following:
The Wii U was actually a great platform to develop on. With Guacamelee, having the second screen on the GamePad was a perfect place to put the game’s mini-map, and made the game a great fit for the platform. Having the ability to play games right on the controller itself was an amazing feature for times when someone else in the household was making use of the television. While this was never a problem for Drinkbox, I believe that the limited power of the system made it difficult for some third parties to bring their games from PS4/Xbox One to the Wii U, causing the system to have less than ideal third-party support. – Smith
