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Last week, Nintendo and Mercedes-Benz teamed up for their latest partnership. The car company created and put out its own level in Super Mario Maker, which unlocks a special costume upon completion.

This was the second time Nintendo and Mercedes-Benz. In 2014, free DLC was added to Mario Kart 8 so that players could access the GLA, W 25 Silver Arrow, 300 SL Roadster, and GLA Tires.

Here’s what Caroline Pilz, head of product placement and fashion sponsoring for Mercedes-Benz Cars, said about its work with Nintendo:

“Many people grew up with Mario during the last 30 years, so there are quite a lot of 30- and 40-somethings around for which Super Mario Maker hails back to their childhood days and gives them a large dose of nostalgia. While we received a lot of positive feedback on the campaign and the integration of our cars into Mario Kart 8, we also learned that many gamers are skeptical about brands appearing in their games, so we made sure to put a lot of effort and passion into designing the actual level.”

Source

All sorts of interesting information has been emerging from the Fire Emblem 25th anniversary book. Among other things, there’s an interview with Smash Bros. director Masahiro Sakurai, which has him reflecting on the appearance of Fire Emblem characters in the series. He spoke about how Marth and Roy made it in, shared a story about re-recording Roy’s lines, and plenty more. He also commented on those who wish to see him work on an entirely new game, and noted that DLC for Smash Bros. Wii U/3DS is ending soon.

We’ve picked out some tidbits and quotes from the interview below. You can read the full translation over on Source Gaming.

– Sakurai wanted to include Marth since Smash Bros. on the N64
– The hidden characters in that game were made “only on the premise of being able to reuse some movements and parts of the models of pre-existing characters”, so Marth didn’t make it
– Sakurai wanted Marth in to represent Fire Emblem and have more variety with sword-wielding characters
– Roy came up while thinking about clone characters for Melee, and his game was in development at the time
– Roy’s design from Melee was more of a suggestion, and many of his aspects were redone
– Counter moves for the Fire Emblem characters comes directly from the Fire Emblem games
– There were difficulties in trying to include Marth (such as how he never appeared overseas), but Sakurai pushed to have him in
– Discussion and internal disputes when it came to Roy
– Sakurai met with Nintendo of America while working on the game, and there was talk about removing Roy
– NoA said he’d be fun, so Roy was left in

On the selection process for the Fire Emblem characters in Smash Bros. Wii U/3DS…

Game Informer has put up a new interview with Zelda: Tri Force Heroes director Hiromasa Shikata and Zelda series producer Eiji Aonuma. During the discussion, the two developers commented on things like using the same engine as A Link Between Worlds, the cut Emperor’s New Clothes costume, and more.

Continue on below for excerpts from the interview. You can read the full thing here.

TIME has published a new interview with Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime. Reggie chatted about mobile (including Miitomo), My Nintendo, plus amiibo’s success and how it’s reflective of where the company is heading in terms of leveraging IP.

Head past the break for a roundup of the various comments. You can also check out TIME’s article here.

The Washington Post caught up with Nintendo of America’s Scott Moffitt, the executive vice president of sales and marketing, to talk about the 3DS among other topics. He discussed the system’s performance, supporting it given the company’s commitment to mobile, and more.

According to Moffitt, thus far in 2015, “sales of the family of Nintendo 3DS hardware in America are actually ahead of last year’s pace.” He also proclaimed that the “3DS is here to stay” in light of discussion about handhelds and their continued relevance to the market with casual gaming on smartphones on the rise.

Below are his full comments:

“Nintendo 3DS is here to stay. Let me throw out a number that might surprise you. So far, on a global basis, Nintendo 3DS has sold more hardware than PS4 and Xbox One—combined. Most people find this shocking.

Obviously we don’t deny the impact of smart devices on the gaming market. But it’s a mistake to consider this a zero-sum game. Clearly gaming on smart devices and gaming on Nintendo 3DS can happily coexist, to the benefit of all gamers. The fact is, playing games on two very different hardware platforms means options for two very different kinds of game play. The inclusion of multiple control buttons on Nintendo 3DS allows a much deeper and more sophisticated type of play.”

Head on over to The Washington Post for additional comments from Moffitt, including thoughts about online multiplayer/social features.

IGN has more on Linkle, one of the new roster additions to Hyrule Warriors Legends, from Zelda series producer Eiji Aonuma and Koei Tecmo producer Yosuke Hayashi. The two spoke with the site about Linkle’s origins, how the response from fans motivated the team to reconsider her, and the character’s personality. Head past the break for Aonuma and Hayashi’s comments.

Linkle is making her debut in Hyrule Warriors Legends. However, it’s possible that we’ll see the character in future Zelda games.

Speaking with IGN, series producer Eiji Aonuma said: “I’m sure we will keep her in mind when thinking about future titles.”

Aonuma also said that he was able to share input about Linkle during the development of Hyrule Warriors Legends:

“I had a chance to give feedback on Linkle during development, but the satisfying action of using a crossbow, which we developed for the spinoff title Link’s Crossbow Training, was implemented this time completely by Koei Tecmo. It may feel a little different from other titles in the franchise, but she doesn’t feel out of place at all in the world of the Zelda games.”

Source

During the Nindies@Night event a few months back, amiibo support was announced for the indie game Hive Jump. Developer Graphite Lab has since shared a little bit of additional information about what we should expect from the functionality.

In a recent interview, it was stated that you can use amiibo to unlock “custom challenges and unique treasures”. It’s a work-in-progress though, so Graphite Lab can’t share any other information just yet.

Here’s the full quote:

“Let me start by saying we would LOVE to have Samus in the game, but I don’t know if that is on the table. There are a lot of very good reasons why a cameo might not make sense for our game right now. We are planning on including custom challenges and unique treasures which could only be unlocked with amiibo. This feature is still in development so we’re not at a point where we can share more just yet.”

Source

Gamereactor has gone live with a new interview featuring Xenoblade Chronicles X senior director and chief creative office Tetsuya Takahashi. Topics included player feedback, where he’d like to take the series next, Monolith Soft’s relationship with Nintendo, and more.

You can find several excerpts from the interview below. A couple of additional questions and answers are on Gamereactor here.

In addition to NX, new Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima addressed several other topics pertaining to the company while speaking with TIME. These include mobile, Wii U support in the future and how he didn’t say the system would be a failure, amiibo, Shigeru Miyamoto’s “fellow” role, Genyo Takeda, Quality of Life, and the length of his presidency.

We’ve rounded up Kimishima’s comments below. You can also find TIME’s original piece here.


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