Miyamoto – Mario’s origins, VR, approach to consoles, Wii U’s struggles, training staff, staying with Nintendo, more
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Wii U | 74 Comments
NPR has put up a massive interview with Shigeru Miyamoto. There’s tons of talk about Mario’s origins, but plenty of other topics as well.
We’ve posted the Q&A breakdown below. You can find the original piece here as well. I’d recommend giving this interview a look, since it’s very interesting!
More: interview, Shigeru Miyamoto, top
Activision on why this was the right time to bring back Guitar Hero
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 4 Comments
Guitar Hero games were releasing yearly between 2005 and 2010. From that point on, however, the series went on hiatus. It’s only just now that Guitar Hero is returning in the form of Guitar Hero Live.
So why bring back the franchise after all of this time? Activision’s Eric Hirshberg told GamesBeat:
We had the right idea and the right execution. We set a very high bar for ourselves internally. It’s obviously a strong brand and a strong franchise. It’s something people had a lot of love for. But it was clearly also out of gas. It was in need of meaningful reinvention. We made a deal with ourselves that we wouldn’t bring it back just to bring it back. We wouldn’t bring it back unless we felt like we had reinvented it for the next generation of gamers and hardware, and we have.
Miyamoto: “I would never call Mario a kids game or a mascot that only kids understand”
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 20 Comments
Mario has the capacity to resonate with kids, but that doesn’t mean that’s the franchises only demographic. This is something that creator Shigeru Miyamoto echoed in an interview with NPR.
He told the publication:
I would never call Mario a kids game or a mascot that only kids understand. It taps into fundamental building blocks of play. It’s fun to jump and it’s fun to run and feel free and fly up into the sky and all those things.
You can have a full listen to the interview below.
More: interview, Mario, Shigeru Miyamoto, top
Inafune on Mighty No. 9 – IP ownership, didn’t want to copy Mega Man, next game won’t be on Kickstarter, more
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 3 Comments
In an interview with Engadget, Keiji Inafune commented on a number of topics pertaining to Mighty No. 9. He commented on the benefits of owning the IP, how the team didn’t want to copy Mega Man, confirmed that a sequel wouldn’t be funded via Kickstarter, and more.
Read on below for Inafune’s comments. You can find Engadget’s original piece here.
On owning the IP…
“As a creator, as myself, the best thing that happened to this project [Mighty No. 9] is that I have the IP. The IP is mine. The IP is the company’s IP, so we can do whatever we want. And that will actually speed things up really nicely because once the backers ask for something, we don’t have to go over to the publisher or the first-party [studio] … or whoever we’re working with. We can just make the decision.”
More: Comcept, Deep Silver, interview, Inti Creates, Keiji Inafune, Mighty No. 9
Reggie indicates that NX is a home console
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch | 288 Comments
Nintendo announced a few months ago that it’s working on a new platform called “NX”. The company hasn’t elaborated any further, and never confirmed if we can expect it to be a home console or new portable system.
That’s why recent comments made by Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime are quite interesting. Here’s what he had to say about NX in an interview with The Wall Street Journal (see a Q&A breakdown here):
We’ve also said publicly that we are already hard at work on our next home console and that’s another element we’ll be talking about much later.
Remember: Metroid Prime series producer Kensuke Tanabe, speaking with Eurogamer this week, also referred to NX as a console.
So what can we make of this? This definitely seem to be a strong hint – if not a confirmation – that NX will be a console rather than a handheld.
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Reggie on the Skylanders partnership, amiibo shortages, Wii U sales, more
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Videos | 24 Comments
The quotes below comes from Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime…
On how the partnership with Activision for Skylanders SuperChargers came about…
Reggie Fils-Aime: Activision came to Nintendo at the outset of Skylanders development four years ago. So there was always this thought of, wouldn’t it be great if Nintendo [intellectual property] could somehow be integrated into the game?
Jump forward to last year’s E3, when we introduced amiibo, (Nintendo figurines that work with its games) and we articulated our strategy of having figures that could work across games. At the same time, Activision shared with us their vision for their next installment of Skylanders that would include vehicles. And that’s when the conversation became serious.
On why Donkey Kong and Bowser were chosen…
Fils-Aime: Skylanders is all about creatures. So as we looked at our roster, those two fit the game. They’re much more creature-like in their gameplay mechanics and their movements, so those were the two that we agreed would make sense.
On the business strategy behind the collaboration…
Fils-Aime: It was a great opportunity for Activision to create something special that would play only on the Nintendo platforms. It was an opportunity to create these figures that would work on both the Skylanders games, as well as all the compatible games that either Donkey Kong or Bowser plays in. And so it really was an opportunity to do something unique but fit what each company was trying to do.
More: Amiibo, interview, Reggie Fils-Aime, top
Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice details (aimed to play more like classic Sonic)
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News | 3 Comments
This information comes from the Sanzaru Games interview we posted earlier today…
– The team is listening to fan criticism
– They studied the map layouts of past 2D Sonic titles, especially Sonic Rush and the Genesis games
– Controls have been revamped to feel like classic Sonic
– Not necessary to gain collectibles to move forward through the game
– 5 playable characters (Amy now playable)
Bloodstained may get transformations like Castlevania
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 0 comments
This information comes from creator Koji Igarashi…
“We’re not 100% sure that we’re going to add in transformation aspects to the game, especially at this early phase of development, but I can say that all of the developers attached do love transformations as a key concept—it’s been prevalent in a lot of our games before after all—so I think there’s a good chance you may see that element in the game. Beyond the curse, as you mentioned.”
SMT X FE was initially a a turn-based strategy game, devs on FE characters and pop idol focus, more
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 6 Comments
Genei Ibun Roku # FE, the working title of the Fire Emblem/Shin Megami Tensei crossover project in development with Nintendo and Atlus (and loosely translated as “Mirage Spinoff # FE”) is the result of one woman’s passion for Fire Emblem.
In an interview at E3, Fire Emblem producer and Nintendo group manager Hitoshi Yamagami told GameSpot that a Nintendo employee who loved Atlus games initially came up with the idea.
Yamagami on how a Nintendo employee who loved Atlus games came up with the idea…
“In our team at Nintendo Co., Ltd, there’s a woman who really loves the Shin Megami Tensei series. This is how this all started. And when she started this conversation within the company, we were working with Atlus at the time on a purikura [decorative photography] program for DSi and 3DS. At the time she said, ‘Mr. Yamagami, there’s something I would like to do. I want to make a game that mixes Fire Emblem and Shin Megami Tensei.’ And we said, that’s exciting, let’s give it a shot! But when we brought it to Atlus, they said, we’d like to but we can’t, we’re busy.”
– Nintendo abandoned the idea, until two years later
– Atlus approached them to revive the concept
“When they asked if I wanted to [work with Nintendo], I was heading the Devil Survivor series. So once that series finished, two years after that conversation, I said, let’s give this a shot.” – Takada
Image & Form on why SteamWorld Heist is on 3DS first, next game likely set before this one, more
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS eShop, News, Wii U eShop | 0 comments
On how it was decided that 3DS is getting SteamWorld Heist first..
We thought about it long and hard… no, it was actually quite easy! At one point we discussed going to PC/Mac/Linux first, but please see the next question for the main reasons behind the decision to go with the 3DS first. SteamWorld Heist will come to 3DS first, and then to all other current-gen platforms. The order among them is yet to be determined. It could be important to mention that we haven’t made any deals – we’ve decided to let the release schedule rest on our own choices.
