Pokken Tournament – not just Tekken with Pokemon, made for Pokemon fans
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 5 Comments
Bandai Namco’s Katsuhiro Harada spoke with Famitsu this week about Pokken Tournament. The arcade fighter is launching very soon in Japan – tomorrow, actually.
In one part of the interview, Harada explains that Pokken Tournament isn’t just a Tekken game with a Pokemon skin slapped on.
“It’s a solid versus game, but at its core, it’s an action game for Pokémon fans. People might think that because we’ve worked on games like Tekken and Soul Calibur or because of the name ‘Pokkén,’ that this game is made for established fighting game players, but I’d like to come straight out and say ‘no, it isn’t.’”
Harada eventually goes on to say that Pokken Tournament was made with Pokémon fans in mind as opposed to fighting game players.
“The tech to make the game and the knowhow behind the massive amount of animations comes from our experience working on the games we’ve made before, but with the gameplay, we’ve set our sights on Pokémon fans.”
One way in which the team attempted to appeal to Pokemon fans was through the UI. This was changed from something that may fighting experts would be familiar with.
“Having the camera looking at the characters facing each other from the side with their stamina bars on the top left and right of the screen is an established fighting game format, but that’s something that experienced fighting game players can understand on instinct. That might give Pokémon fans the impression that the game is harder than it is, so we’ve intentionally gotten rid of that.”
Harada also has some tips for novice players. He suggests that these gamers “should especially focus on blocking”. Even though combos and technique are important, properly blocking enemies’ attacks was the most important divider between beginners and experienced players.
Itagaki on why he didn’t give up on the development of Devil’s Third and more
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 13 Comments
Famitsu provides an update on Devil’s Third this week. Along with the magazine’s report, there’s also an interview with creator Tomonobu Itagaki.
First, here’s what Itagaki had to say about multiplayer:
“There are things like diplomacy chat that only clan leaders can use, so you can have conferences with other clans. I’m a military enthusiast so there are also many political elements in the game.”
Famitsu then asks about being able to enjoy just the multiplayer:
“Of course. You can [enjoy the multiplayer] even without playing the single-player game. Even so, the single-player is packed with Itagaki-like things, so I’d like you to try it. In order to make both the multiplayer side of the game and the single player side of the game enjoyable, each of them required an amount of quantity, quality and scope. There are these two parts of Devil’s Third. That’s why it took time [to make the game].”
Project X Zone 2 director says you should let Bandai Namco know if you want more Baten Kaitos
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in GameCube, News | 21 Comments
Project X Zone 2 director Kensuke Tsukanaka, speaking with Siliconera, explained why Baten Kaitos isn’t represented in the games. Monolith Soft developed Baten Kaitos and its sequel along with the Project X Zone titles.
Tsukanaka was also asked if we’ll ever see Baten Kaitos again, even if it’s outside of Project X Zone.
Here’s what Siliconera was told:
“So, do you remember that KOS-MOS and T-elos, from Xenosaga, were in the first Project X Zone game? We didn’t include them just because Monolith Soft was developing Project X Zone, we put them in there because there were so many fans of their games on the team, and that they happened to make sense for the world of the game.
“The reason there’s not Baten Kaitos characters in the story is because they just didn’t seem to fit in anywhere. As for [Baten Kaitos] itself outside of Project X Zone, well, I can’t really say much about that yet, but I think we need some substantial feedback from fans before moving forward with a project like that. What do they want to see from it? What platform do they want to see it on? If we can gather more voices for Baten Kaitos, then maybe we can start something with Bandai Namco Entertainment. That’s about all I can say right now!”
I honestly never thought I’d be writing about Baten Kaitos in a news post. I have so much love for the first game, though I’m ashamed to say that its sequel is sitting in my never-ending backlog. I’d be a massive supporter of a third Baten Kaitos!
More: Baten Kaitos, interview, Kensuke Tsukanaka, Project X Zone, top
Arc System Works wants to make 3DS games with acquired Technos IPs
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News | 1 Comment
Last month, Arc System Works announced the acquisition of the Double Dragon, Super Dodge Ball, River City Ransom, and Kunio-kun franchises. This week’s issue of Famitsu asks president Minoru Kidooka about what’s next for these former Technos IPs.
Kidooka told the magazine:
“Firstly, we’d like to develop 3DS titles like we’ve been doing up until now. Personally, I’d like to see titles such as Kunio-kun and Double Dragon be revived as arcade games again.”
“This is something we’re aiming for the next fiscal year, but I’d like to get the fighting part of Downtown Hot-Blooded March: Let’s Go to the Great Sports Meet and make it into a game, and turn it into something that can be played competitively with four players at the arcades.”
Arc System Works most recently developed Downtown Special: Kunio-kun no Jidaigeki da yo Zenin Shugo. That game launched in Japan on May 28.
More: Arc System Works, Famitsu, interview, Minoru Kidooka
Unpublished quotes from TIME’s March interview with Satoru Iwata
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Wii | 5 Comments
Back in March, TIME conducted an interview with Satoru Iwata. Much of the interview was left out of the site’s original report, but with Iwata’s passing, they’ve now been put online for all to see.
In what was likely one of Iwata’s final interviews with a media outlet, he commented on engaging with Nintendo fans in unique ways, the evolution of digital content, the importance of multigenerational design, working on the original Smash Bros., amiibo, and bringing out the Wii.
You may have seen a couple of these comments in shorter form before. However, most of them should be entirely new.
We’ve posted those comments after the break. You can also find TIME’s original article here.
More: interview, Satoru Iwata, top
Miyamoto on Star Fox 2, how Nintendo approaches characters, has “many” successors, more
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Wii U | 63 Comments
Last month, The Wall Street Journal was given an opportunity to interview Shigeru Miyamoto. Miyamoto discussed a number of topics, including Star Fox 2, why Nintendo’s characters are so endearing, his successor, and more.
You can read up on what Miyamoto had to say after the break. We have most of his comments in the post, though you can find some additional words from him on The Wall Street Journal here.
More: interview, PlatinumGames, Shigeru Miyamoto, Star Fox Zero, top
ZeNfA Productions’ discusses its upcoming slate of games
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U eShop | 0 comments
ZeNfA Productions came out with ZaciSa’s Last Stand last year, but the indie developer has been spending a lot of time improving the game with a number of updates. Now the studio is ready to move on to something new.
The next title from ZeNfA Productions will be “a puzzle-like game that features an in-game level editor that will allow users to create and share new levels with others online,” according to co-founder Greg Wiggleton. There are also future plans for two different platformers. Aside from that, ZaciSa 2 is also something that will happen, though not until “very late 2016” or beyond.
Wiggleton told 8-Worlds News in an interview:
Now that ZaciSa’s Last Stand newest patch is out in North America and ZaciSa: Defense of the Crayon Dimension! is close to coming out in Europe, my next goal is to release my next game and move forward. I’ve been hard at work on my new game for a long while now that I hope to release in a few months. I haven’t revealed it publicly yet, but I can reveal that it is a puzzle-like game that features an in-game level editor that will allow users to create and share new levels with others online. This will be my 1st medium-big game and working hard to make it everything it should be. I should be revealing the game for the 1st time in about a month and am currently looking forward to doing so.
As for 2016 and beyond, I have plans for 2 unique different platformer games. Both of which have been in development and planning for a long while now. Both games are currently being aimed for [the] middle of 2016 or beyond. I also have been planning on a ZaciSa 2 already as well, got big plans for that game. But that is most likely a very late 2016, if not 2017 game.
Though I’m moving on to new things, I still plan to support ZaciSa’s Last Stand for quite some time too. I have another big patch planned for late this year that will introduce a bunch of new maps to the game and other game improvements. I am also currently doing a $20 eShop contest for the game currently to help celebrate the new content and Insanity Mode addition. I plan to do other challenges and paid contests in the future as well for ZaciSa and other future games. I find doing these contests to be really fun.
More: Greg Wiggleton, indie, interview, ZeNfA Productions
Splatoon co-director on the content updates, gyro controls, development, more
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Videos, Wii U | 2 Comments
Nintendo Life has published a new interview with Tsubasa Sakaguchi, one of the directors behind Splatoon. Sakaguchi touched on various topics such as the content updates, the game’s gyro controls, development, and more. You can watch the interview in full below.
More: interview, Splatoon, Tsubasa Sakaguchi
Mojang open to the idea of Minecraft on Nintendo systems
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News, Wii U | 41 Comments
Minecraft has graces most gaming systems, but it has yet to arrive on Nintendo platforms. That doesn’t mean developer Mojang is against the idea though.
“If I had my way, we’d be on everything,” COO Vu Bui told MCV. “We want to continue to be available to all players, and that means being on new platforms because everyone uses something different.”
MCV specifically asked if a Nintendo version of Minecraft could be possible. Regarding this, Bui said: “I’ve never heard a reason why we haven’t ended up on Wii U or 3DS. It just hasn’t happened yet.”
So how about it: is Minecraft something you guys would like to see on Wii U and 3DS?
DeNA: Partnership with Nintendo could “change the market”, Big N has best IPs
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Mobile, News | 8 Comments
DeNA West CEO Shintaro Asako has shared a few more words about the company’s partnership with Nintendo.
“I think this is potentially an opportunity for us to completely change the market. Nintendo has by far the best gaming IP,” Asako told PocketGamer. Asako added that “DeNA’s expertise is definitely backend.”
Nintendo will be handling the bulk of its mobile game development, but DeNA is pitching in on the technical end. DeNA will also be responsible for Nintendo’s new membership service, which opens this fall.
