interview

Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 5 Comments

Although a little bit of doubt has been cast on the future of the Chibi-Robo series, there is at least one developer out there who wants to see the series continue, and in its traditional form. Chibi-Robo!: Zip Lash assistant producer Risa Tabata told USgamer in an interview that she’d like to see another adventure-style entry.

Tabata’s words in full:

“I actually wouldn’t call this ‘smaller’ at all, especially in terms of the game’s scope. I think a lot of people will be more than satisfied with it. Personally, however, I think it’d be great if we could release another adventure-style Chibi-Robo.”

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Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News | 34 Comments

Nintendo has tried a few different concepts with Chibi-Robo over the years. We know that it started out as an adventure game of sorts, but the series has since dabbled with photographs and now platforming. This is all intentional, as Nintendo seems to have struggled making the character a mainstream success.

Kensuke Tanabe, a producer from the company, recently spoke with The Verge about how it hasn’t been easy making Chibi-Robo resonate with all players. He also suggested that Zip Lash could be the last entry in the franchise if it doesn’t perform well.

“To be honest, this might be the last chance for us.”

“I’ve continually thought about ways to build this into a mainstream success. We’ve challenged ourselves in assorted ways along those lines, but I can’t say that we’ve found the answer yet.”

Tanabe went on to discuss Zip Lash’s origins:

“The first thing we decided upon was that we’d make an action game that took advantage of his plug and cord. We then placed the core of the gameplay on using it like a grappling hook, throwing it into a faraway edge and using that to traverse gaps and so on. As we kept thinking about ideas, we naturally settled on the 2D side-scrolling format. If the character can gain more recognition, I believe we’ll have a chance to produce another adventure-style game for a large number of people. I’m hoping that we made the right choice for this game’s play style.”

“Instead of trying to come up with a character we thought would be a commercial success, it was more like we first had the Chibi-Robo character, and then we thought about what kind of game we could make that’d portray this character in as attractive a way as possible. It’s kind of fun along those lines, like taking an artist I’ve found and trying to mold him into a famous creator. That, of course, also creates its own unique challenges.”

If Chibi-Robo does manage to capture success, it’s possible that he’ll appear in other places… liker Smash Bros. perhaps? Tanabe said: “If we receive an offer, we’ll think about it.”

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Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch, Wii U eShop | 0 comments

YIIK may have a chance of landing on NX. Andrew Allanson, who is AckkStudios’ co-director for the project, told Nintendo News that the port is likely to happen if the Big N’s new system supports Unity.

Allanson said:

“Oh man, I know as much about NX as everyone else. If Nintendo’s new console supports Unity, we’ll bring YIIK to it. Unity is sort of like “program once, port everywhere,” so it’s a matter of, I’d say, around six weeks per console. It’s pretty short!”

Allanson also spoke about how YIIK will use the Wii U GamePad:

“… one example is the record. When you fight with Alex’s main attack (the spinning record), there’s a Wii U-specific move called Record Scratch where the GamePad becomes a virtual turntable.”

“You can do a bunch of DJ-style things that are exclusive to the Wii U version. The other moves have been tailored, so you execute them on the GamePad as well — albeit in a slightly different manner.”

YIIK is on track to launch via the eShop and other platforms this winter.

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Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS eShop, News | 7 Comments

Runbow may have a chance of landing on the 3DS eShop. The studio’s Tom McCall said in an interview with Nintendo Life that the team is very much interested in the idea, and it’s something they’re looking into. Whether or not a 3DS port can actually be realized remains to be seen.

Take a look at the full interview below.

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Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch | 31 Comments

In the latest issue of Famitsu, the magazine has an interview with Spike Chunsoft president and CEO Mitsutoshi Sakurai. Spike Chunsoft handles the Zero Escape series, and is perhaps best known for its work on the Danganronpa franchise.

Sakurai spoke about a number of topics, including the company’s interest in NX. You can find various quotes from the interview below.

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Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U eShop | 15 Comments

Nintendo UK recently put up an interview with Martin Sauter from Shin’en. As you would expect, the discussion was entirely about FAST Racing Neo. Sauter commented on a number of topics, including the locations in the game, difficulty, controls, Easter eggs, and more.

You can find a number of excerpts from the interview below. The full piece is located here.

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Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 1 Comment

This month’s issue of GamesTM has an interview with Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka. The two developers talked about all things Mario, including the evolution of the character’s design.

Tezuka shared the following when asked about Mario’s appearance and how Nintendo has resisted the urge to modernize him:

“I do think it’s changed a bit… For example, in Mario 3 we made him a little cuter. And perhaps with the Tanooki tail and the cape we definitely added items and features so that there’s more variety in Mario’s actions.”

Miyamoto shared a few words on the subject of evolving Mario as well. He also stated that Nintendo keeps Mario close to the vest, and doesn’t allow other teams to develop the core titles since the company wants to be control of the character and his abilities.

“In terms of the 3D Mario performance, it has evolved, but we have always been consistent in trying to be cautious in terms of when you do a B-dash, how far he can jump or how many blocks he can break. We have made it a little bit simpler for players as it’s evolved, because there are more complicated things that we’re asking the players to do. In the original Mario when you’re stopped he can’t do B-dash, but you can do it now with more recent games. So we have made it a little bit simpler and tweaked it throughout the years. In terms of Mario games we definitely don’t have other teams develop it, because we do want to control it and manage those features.”

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Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 27 Comments

Not all of Super Mario Maker’s content is available to players as soon as they boot up the game. Basically, you need to play around with the level editor for about 15 minutes before new tools and items are added.

In the latest issue of EDGE, Nintendo producer Takashi Tezuka spoke about Super Mario Maker’s unlock system. He told the magazine:

“This decision was part of our basic policy. We wanted the rewards to increase as you became more familiar with the game and to look forward to what would unlock the next day,” he says. “From our testing, we learned that if too much was available all at once then many players weren’t sure what they should do and didn’t have as much fun with the game. However, I do understand the feeling of wanting to unlock things earlier.”

Nintendo did end up changing Super Mario Maker’s unlock system right before launch. Previously, players would need to wait several days to unlock all of the game’s content.

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Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 19 Comments

Well before the release of Super Mario Maker, there was some confusion as to whether or not the game would feature unique physics for the different game styles. It wasn’t entirely clear if Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World, and New Super Mario Bros. U would all play like they originally did.

This is something that was pretty much assumed with so many people getting their hands on Super Mario Maker, but we can now officially say that all game styles are based on New Super Mario Bros. U. And in an interview with EDGE in its latest issue, well-known Mario developer Takashi Tezuka explained why Nintendo went in that direction.

Tezuka said:

“In the end we used the New Super Mario Bros. U system for all of the game styles. There was quite a lot of discussion about this within the team. Staff who had strong attachment to the original games expressed a strong desire to see implemented the same system they remembered. However, when players who are used to the modern Mario physics tried playing with the old physics, they found it much more difficult than they remembered. The original Super Mario Bros would only scroll to the right, so we tentatively made it so that it doesn’t scroll left in this game style. However, many people on the team complained that it was less fun to play. Still, we have left in some unique aspects to each game style, like how you can carry shells from Super Mario Bros 3 onwards, but you can’t throw them upwards until Super Mario World, and you can only wall-jump in New Super Mario Bros. U.”

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Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Videos | 7 Comments

Who would play Link in a live action movie based on The Legend of Zelda? What about the casting for a new Super Mario Bros. film? Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka were asked about these questions in an interview with MTV.

As for feature length films in general, Miyamoto once again expressed openness to the idea. After discussing the Pikmin short movies that can be seen on both Wii U and 3DS, he said: “A feature length film? It’s definitely a secret! I can’t make any comments right now but we’ll see.”

Check out the full interview with Miyamoto and Tezuka below.

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