Minecraft devs led the way on the new Mario collaboration for Wii U
Posted on 8 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 8 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
More: Adrian Goersch, Chris Kingsley, Graham Smith, indie, interview, Mel Kirk, top
M2 president interested in seeing Alien Syndrome as a 3D Classic
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS eShop, General Nintendo, News | 7 Comments
There’s a new interview on SEGA’s website with Yosuke Okunari, Kagasei Shimomura, and Naoki Horii. The three developers spoke about the SEGA 3D Classics Collection, which you can read in full right here. One section in particular is worth mentioning specifically.
Shimomura brings up some of the game ideas that were considered before Power Drift was settled on. That eventually leads Horii to say that he wants to see Alien Syndrome realized as a 3D Classic in the future. Adding to this, the team “did a little test on it to see how it would turn out and it was great.” It’s just that there would be a significant amount of effort doing that for all stages.
Here’s the complete interview excerpt:
KS: So rewinding a little bit, before we settled on Power Drift, we had a couple of titles to choose from for this. We talked about Alien Syndrome, Golden Axe, Turbo Out Run, and even Columns.
NH: (looks at the lineup list) These are pretty bold choices.
– I’d like to see Alien Syndrome someday. Stereoscopic 3D would be really effective in that game.
NH: Oh that game is amazing. We did a little test on it to see how it would turn out and it was great. Although, doing every single stage would be quite an effort.
More: interview, Naoki Horii, top
Chasm likely for Nintendo platforms, Mages of Mystralia also possible
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 2 Comments
Dan Adelman was formally Nintendo of America’s head of digital content and development. He left the company in 2014, and went on to work with Tom Happ on Axiom Verge.
While Adelman is still occupied with Axiom Verge, he’s also involved with two more projects: Chasm and Mages of Mystralia. Chasm seems like a lock for Nintendo platforms, with Adelman mentioning that the team would love to see a release there “as quickly as possible.” Mages of Mystralia’s platforms haven’t been determined, but Adelman said: “suffice it to say I keep my old friends at Nintendo up to speed on the game’s development progress.”
Here’s the full rundown on both games from Adelman:
I’m working on 3 games right now. First, of course, is Axiom Verge! The next game that will be coming out is Chasm. Like Axiom Verge, Chasm is a Metroidvania-style game, but the similarities end there. To the extent that Axiom Verge is more Metroid-like, Chasm is more akin to Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, in that it has a bigger focus on melee combat, RPG-style character development, and gear that you can equip. But also, like Axiom Verge, comparisons to its inspiration can only go so far, because there are a lot of things that Chasm does that make it quite different from anything else out there. For example, the world map is procedurally generated, so the game will have nearly infinite replayability. Right now it’s targeted for a PC and PS4 launch for technical reasons, but we’d love to bring it to Nintendo platforms as quickly as possible.
The third game I’m working on is called Mages of Mystralia, which I think is most easily described as Harry Potter meets Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. In it, you play as a girl named Zia who discovers she has magic abilities. Magic has been outlawed, so she goes into exile to master the ways of magic and learn how to design her own spells. She crafts spells to fight enemies as well as solve environmental puzzles along the way. The story is being written by legendary fantasy author Ed Greenwood, so the gameplay and story should be equally compelling! We haven’t announced any platforms yet, but suffice it to say I keep my old friends at Nintendo up to speed on the game’s development progress.
More: Chasm, Dan Adelman, indie, interview, Mages of Mystralia
Kimishima comments on Nintendo movies, mobile, NX
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, Mobile, News, Switch | 107 Comments
A few hours ago, we posted some tidbits from a new Asahi interview with Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima about the company’s movie plans. The outlet’s complete interview has now been translated in full.
We have Kimishima’s complete comments on movies, plus remarks about mobile and NX. Continue on below for the translation, courtesy of GSR.
-You’re currently working to invest your IP in new fields. In April Nintendo sold its stake in the Seattle Mariners; are you putting the income from that to use?
We aren’t looking to make money simply by directly licensing our characters, but we must invest heavily in new areas such as film production going forward. When we’ve finalized that sale, we’d like to use part of the proceeds in these areas.
-By film production, you mean movies?
The most common meaning is films, but there’s a variety of opportunities such as video content. We’re currently talking with a number of partners, and I think we’ll be able to finalize something in the not-too-distant future.
More: interview, Tatsumi Kimishima, top
A look at Axiom Verge running on Wii U, dev comments
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Videos, Wii U eShop | 0 comments
At PAX East 2016, the Wii U version of Axiom Verge was on display. Destructoid took a look at the game and also spoke with creator Tom Happ. View some off-screen footage in the video below, which also has some commentary from Happ as well.
More: Axiom Verge, interview, Tom Happ
Pokken Tournament dev tidbits – Wii U reception, making the game approachable, more
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 5 Comments
In one of its recent issues, Famitsu published an interview with the developers behind Pokken Tournament. The magazine spoke with director and chief producer Katsuhiro Harada, director Haruki Suzaki, and producer Masaaki Hoshino. Topics include the reception on Wii U, trying to make the game approachable, and more.
We have a summary of the full interview. To read our translation, head past the break.
Fire Emblem devs on bringing the series’ west, introducing optional permadeath, Fates’ two versions
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 40 Comments
Last month, Game Informer published an overview of sorts for the Fire Emblem series. The magazine looked back at the franchise’s early days leading up to Fire Emblem Fates. There are some interesting developer comments as well.
Fire Emblem wasn’t introduced overseas until the GBA era. It was actually Nintendo producer Hitoshi Yamagami who had the idea of bringing it west, and he approached developer Intelligent Systems about his plan.
Yamagami said:
“Intelligent Systems was worried at first about whether it’d sell or not, but given the series’ support in Japan, I felt sure that audiences elsewhere would connect with it as well, and that’s how development began.”
Star Fox Zero devs on Nintendo/Platinum workload, reaction, single-player focus
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 13 Comments
USGamer has published a new interview with Yugo Hayashi and Yusuke Hashimoto, the two directors of Star Fox Zero. Both had plenty to say about the Wii U title. Among the topics discussed in the interview include the workload split between PlatinumGames and Nintendo, reaction to the game, and putting the focus on single-player.
We’ve posted some excerpts from the talk below. You can read the full interview here.
EA will have games on NX “if it makes sense”
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch | 31 Comments
EA will make games for NX “if it makes sense” for the publisher to do so, according to executive vice president Patrick Soderlund.
In an interview with with BBC, Soderlund had this to say about supporting the new console:
“I personally and the company are huge fans of Nintendo, they’re the reason why I started making games. We’re in constant communication with them and when they come to market something – and if it makes sense for us – we’ll be there.”
Many remember when EA appeared on stage at Nintendo’s E3 2012 media briefing to announce an “unprecedented partnership” between the two sides. That relationship fizzled out soon after the console’s launch. EA’s final Wii U game was Need for Speed: Most Wanted.
