interview

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

Game Informer recently caught up with Super Mario Maker director Yosuke Oshino and senior director Yoshikazu Yamashita. While speaking with the site, the two developers shared tips to help players improve their levels.

One of the first tips from Oshino and Yamashita is to play through a bunch of courses:

“I’d advise you to play through a lot of courses. Play the 10-Mario Challenge and Course World, and if you find a course you like (I’d recommend a shorter one first), save it and try messing around with it. As you learn how the courses you like were made, and how they can be changed to make them better (or worse), I think you’ll gradually build up a toolbox of ideas on how to build courses.” – Yamashita

“It might also be a good idea to look at what kind of courses people are making with the 10-Mario Challenge, or to go on Course World and check out the world rankings to see how people on there make their courses and get all those favorites.” – Oshino

Oshino also discussed the importance of keeping your target audience in mind:

“I think it’s important that you think about who you want playing your course, and how you want him or her to play it. Think about a course length they’d prefer, and what kinds of enemies or course elements they’d like. I also think people like courses which have that, ‘Let’s try that one more time,’ element to them without being unfair, no matter if they’re easy or difficult.” – Oshino

Also from Oshino, experimenting with different combinations is encouraged:

“[W]hen you combine multiple parts together, you’ll suddenly open up a great deal more opportunities. I found a new way to combine parts myself just the other day. I think players might just invent new ways to combine parts that not even we thought of, too.” – Oshino

“I like the ‘generational change’ of putting Bowser on the back of a large Bowser Jr. (i.e., when you combine Bowser Jr. with a Mushroom), or taking the Queen (high-heeled) Goomba’s Shoe you get by shaking a regular Goomba’s Shoe and adding wings to it to make a Para-Queen Goomba’s Shoe.” – Oshino

Game Informer has a couple of additional tips from the Super Mario Maker developers here.

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Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Videos, Wii U eShop | 2 Comments

Nintendo’s North American YouTube page now has a video interview with Shin’en, which was conducted during PAX Prime 2015 a few weeks ago. Naturally, the discussion focused on FAST Racing Neo. Check out the full video below.

More: Damon Baker, FAST Racing Neo, indie, interview, Shin'en

Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 4 Comments

USA Today has published a new interview with Takashi Tezuka. Tezuka spoke all about Super Mario Bros., including the original game’s origins, the series’ legacy, and why it’s been able to maintain such longevity.

You can find a roundup of Tezuka’s comments below. A couple of additional questions and answers are on USA Today here.

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

In honor of the 30th anniversary of Super Mario Bros., Nintendo of America added a “special interview” video to its YouTube channel today. Along with some talk about making the original Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario Maker, the opening and closing portions also show a young Shigeru Miyamoto! You can watch the full video below.

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Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Mobile, News | 20 Comments

DeNA West CEO Shintaro Asako thinks that there’s a big opportunity for Nintendo’s upcoming mobile games to reach a huge number of people. In an interview with alistdaily, Asako expressed his belief that “at least 150 or 200 million people” will try out these offerings when they’re ready for launch.

Asako told the site:

“Hundreds of millions of people have bought Nintendo consoles. Those are people who decided to spend a minimum of $200 just to get access to Nintendo IP. That number is already twice as big as the Candy Crush total user base. Not only that, every single person buying Nintendo devices spends an average of about $100 per year on software. So I have no question that when Nintendo’s mobile games come out, at least 150 or 200 million people will try it. These people are super core Nintendo fans who used to spending $150 to $250 just to access the content. Let’s say only 10% end up playing, and then those users pay $3 a month, that’s still perhaps a $60 million dollar a month game.”

alistdaily also asked about the marketing strategy he thinks will be necessary for Nintendo’s mobile games. Regarding this, Asako said:

“We know Nintendo IP is powerful, but we need to let people know the game is coming out. From that perspective I think mass marketing makes sense for Nintendo games. Usually you have more on digital marketing and later on the mass marketing kicks in, because you don’t want to start mass marketing until you’ve evaluated LTV (long-term value), because otherwise you might be wasting money. When you have strong IP like Nintendo you can kind of predict what kind of installs you can get, so to reach the level of mass-marketing isn’t that much of a risk.”

Source

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Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 147 Comments

Yugo Hayashi, the director’s working on Star Fox Zero from Nintendo’s side, has weighed in one the game’s visual style.

Speaking with EDGE this month, Hayashi said:

“We decided to have two screens displaying 3D graphics at 60 frames per second. It was this and a few other factors, including it being the first time players will be using two screens like this on the Wii U, that led us to decide to base the graphical design on Lylat Wars. But I’m sure that seeing the Arwing, which everyone is so familiar with, transform naturally into a land-based Walker will be a fun and exciting new experience.”

This isn’t the first time someone involved with Star Fox Zero has commented on the game’s visuals. A few months ago, Shigeru Miyamoto said that they were made with a purpose. He additionally mentioned that games these days “look so realistic that they all look the same.”

Star Fox Zero was revealed during E3 2015 back in June. It’s due for release on November 20 around the world.

More: interview, PlatinumGames, Star Fox Zero, Yugo Hayashi

Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 14 Comments

Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto reflected on the classic character he created in an interview with The New York Times. In a few of his comments, Miyamoto spoke about how he wanted Mario to achieve great success much like Mickey Mouse.

According to Miyamoto:

“I really wanted him to make my Mickey Mouse. I wanted to use him in all the different games I made. My hope was that 10 or 20 years down the road, he would be the iconic character of video games. I feel tremendously fortunate that’s what came to pass.”

Miyamoto also spoke about the evolution of Mario as a whole:

“We were only able to have five Koopas on screen at one time. As the technology has evolved, we’ve gone on to having more enemies, 3-D technology and analog sticks. I’ve been fortunate that at every phase of new technology, we’ve been able to introduce a new ‘Mario’ game that leverages it without having to think too deeply about a new story. It’s kept ‘Mario’ fresh and exciting for people throughout the 30 years of the series.”

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Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS eShop, News, Wii U | 10 Comments

Although though Mighty No. 9 has yet to launch, Comcept is already thinking about the IP’s future. That could include a sequel or even a spinoff.

Speaking with Prankster101, Comcept producer Nick Yu said that it’s only natural to think about a sequel when creating a game. And given the attention surrounding Mighty No. 9 thus far, it makes sense for the team to expand on its project.

Yu said:

“I’m calling Inafune-san here, but when a game creator makes a new game, or makes any game for example, they always think about the sequel. Always thinking about what they can do with the IP. So naturally for us, for Comcept, we are already thinking about the next step for Mighty No. 9. Whether it’s gonna be a sequel or a spinoff, we don’t know yet. But since we already have this much attention, and a decent amount of feedback from the people who play the game, there’s just no reason not for us to not expand on the title.”

Source

More: Comcept, Deep Silver, interview, Inti Creates, Mighty No. 9, Nick Yu

Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 20 Comments

TIME has an interview with up Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka. Some of the comments are actually from June, but there’s a sprinkling of fresh remarks as well.

One interesting excerpt concerns Miyamoto talking about how Super Mario Maker is like a transition point for the franchise, as Nintendo feels it’s time “to move in a new direction”. Miyamoto said:

“Doing this now at the 30th anniversary [of Super Mario Bros.] is really putting some more of that creativity into the players. But at the same time, we as the developers feel that it’s time for us to move in a new direction, and we’re preparing to work on the future of Super Mario from here on.”

You can check out TIME’s full piece here.

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Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 0 comments

In celebration of the 30th anniversary of Super Mario Bros., IGN reached out to nine Nintendo legends for their fondest memories. The site managed to obtain comments from high-profile people like Shigeru Miyamoto and Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime.

Miyamoto’s pick? Super Mario 64. Here’s what he shared about that game:

“Of course, I’ve had many memories with Mario over the last 30 years, but the one that sticks out for me most was when we made Super Mario 64. I felt very fortunate to be able to work in a 3D space for the first time, take on this new technology, and have Mario be the character that helped bring it to life. And that we did that by working with 3D technology at a time when there weren’t many people doing it. So that was a very important moment with Mario for me.

“The other memory links back to my childhood. When I was younger I used to always like to make puppets and do puppet shows. When we made Super Mario 64, it was like I was able to do a puppet show with Mario in a 3D space. It’s been very fun for me to have these moments where the things that I’ve enjoyed from my youth have blended in with the work that I do in video games.”

Reggie’s choice was none other than Super Mario World. He mentioned the following about Nintendo’s SNES classic:

“My deepest Super Mario memory is with Super Mario World. I came into the Nintendo family in 1991 via the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, and that console came with Super Mario World. I can still picture Yoshi’s Island 2 and the opening sequence to get a Koopa shell moving to the right and picking up my 1-Up. I also loved the various Yoshis – especially the Blue flying Yoshi and the Yellow sand-stomping Yoshi. I played and replayed that game with my sons and always kept it at 99 lives. I still have the cartridge, and a working SNES at home and in my office.”

You can find more comments from the likes of Takashi Tezuka, Bill Trinen, and more here.

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