Nintendo considered YouTube uploads for Super Mario Maker, but wanted players to experience things first hand
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 7 Comments
Nintendo’s Takashi Tezuka said the following when Game Informer asked about the ability to upload Super Mario Maker creation videos and replays to YouTube…
We thought about having YouTube uploading, but it’s not in our game. The reason for that is other than just watching movies of courses, we’d rather players play them and experience them in that way.
More: interview, Super Mario Maker, Takashi Tezuka, top
Nintendo – improving amiibo supply, 2015 not a transition year, Splatoon driving Wii U sales, eSports, partnerships, JRPGs
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, General Nintendo, News, Switch, Wii U | 14 Comments
The quotes below come from Scott Moffitt, executive vice president of sales and marketing at Nintendo of America, who spoke with GamesBeat…
On the surprises he’s seen now that the conferences have aired…
Scott Moffitt: From a Nintendo standpoint, our goal this year, our objective, was to showcase how we can leverage the power and imagination of our developers to transform how people are playing on our platforms. With iconic franchises like Mario, like Star Fox, or new franchises like Amiibo, you combine that with the imagination of our developers and you get magic.
What emerges are games like Star Fox, a new and exciting version of Star Fox that fans haven’t seen before. It has walker capabilities, two-screen gameplay, the drone capability. That’s an exciting game that fans reacted well to and they’re looking forward to it. It’ll be a big seller this holiday.
You take Amiibo. We’re transforming what consumers have come to expect in the world of toys-to-life. We’ll be the first with Amiibo Cards in Animal Crossing and Happy Home Designer. You’ll see how you can leverage smart cards, Amiibo Cards with the same NFC read-write capability. You can use that to energize or re-imagine a game like Animal Crossing that people have loved in the past.
On how it seemed like a lot of information that could be conveyed through cards, as opposed to toys…
Moffitt: They’re going to be easy for consumers to trade. We’ve announced 100 of them coming so far. There’s a great breadth of cards out there for fans to buy and to collect and trade. You’ll be able to do great things with them. There are special cards and regular cards. You can save your home design to that card and then bring it to someone else’s game. That’s an interesting application of the technology. We’re transforming what people have come to expect in Amiibo.
With Super Mario Maker, we had a great reaction. It’s a game we’ve shown before, but now it’s on the precipice of coming to market. We’re all about showing things that will be playable this year. We have 14 total games that we’re launching between now and the end of the year. That’s a lot of exciting content for fans – eight on Wii U, six on 3DS. The imagination of creativity, the transforming power of all those franchises, is spectacular.
With Super Mario Marker, for the first time, gamers are going to be able to play game designer and design their own levels and challenge others to complete their level. They can play other people’s levels. Celebrities, fans, YouTubers—you may have levels posted by people from all walks of life — kids, adults, pros, non-pros. We think people are going to have a lot of fun building imaginative and creative gameplay of their own with Mario. It’s transforming what people expect. You have a 30-year-old franchise in Super Mario, and now it’s re-imagined with user-generated creations.
More: Amiibo, interview, Scott Moffitt, top
Nintendo – Humble Nindie Bundle success, considered funding indies, Unity games on New 3DS this year, more
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS eShop, New Nintendo 3DS, News, Wii U eShop | 3 Comments
This information comes from a Gamasutra interview with Damon Baker…
On how the Humble Nindie Bundle went…
“We were quite pleased with how it went. The main objective of the promotion was really to reach a wider audience, and let as many people know about this great indie content as possible.”
“We promoted those same Nindies for the two weeks in the eShop, and their full version prices of those games were actually increased in sales.”
On defining Nintendo’s audience for indie games…
“It seems like a lot of the Nintendo fans and consumers they gravitate towards nostalgia, they gravitate towards platformer and puzzle action games. If I had one wish to be fulfilled, I would love to see Nintendo fans and consumers take more risks on eShop.”
“It’s my responsibility to make sure everything gets as much exposure as possible. There are titles that share a similar DNA to what makes good first party games,” he says, and those tend to perform well.
On the need for devs to promote games themselves if they want to succeed…
“The content that performs best on our platforms are the developers that have already been really proactive in creating a community and a lot of buzz. (Developers that expect Nintendo will take care of things for them, well,) there hasn’t been a lot of examples of where that’s been a successful relationship.”
“That’s the truest definition of what is doing well or isn’t doing well on Nintendo platforms.
On opportunities for promoting indies...
“We look at these opportunities all the time. We’ve done these super indie sales, (but these are) primarily driven by the developers — but we put a lot of support from first party behind it. I definitely have a vision of doing bigger grander promotions and activities.”
On funding indie games…
“We’ve given lots of thought to it. Nintendo is pretty famous for being pretty tight with our money; we want to be efficient with our funds. We continue to look for other ways to promote that key content, and that stuff we consider to be priority.”
“We’ve given a lot of consideration and we may have programs that we may offer in the future but nothing we can confirm at this time.”
– constantly having internal discussions
On Unity for New 3DS…
“It’s getting really, really close, and there is a ton of interest.”
– First Unity games on 3DS this year as a goal
– Tools coming to devs soon
More: Damon Baker, indie, interview, top
The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes director discusses Coliseum mode (PVP)
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News | 0 comments
This information comes from Nintendo director Hiromasa Shikata…
“In the Coliseum, you’re fighting in a limited space. It’s an enclosed environment and items are placed around that you can pick up to increase your chances of winning. In some of the stages, the terrain will transform.”
– Inflict the most damage on your opponent as possible
– Once the time is up, the player that has received the least amount of damage will win that battle
– Collect material to make outfits in Zelda: Tri Force Heroes
– The outfits provide the player with enhanced abilities
– Ex: an enhanced spin attack or bigger bombs
– Shikata said that high-level materials are necessary to make the best gear, but the ones you find in PVP have a distinct advantage
“There are materials that you can only get by competing in the Coliseum. Those material allow you to make clothes that are highly beneficial to competing.”
Metroid Prime: FF – 3 major planets, no scanning, will see Metroids and Samus, response to fans, more
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News | 47 Comments
This information comes from Metroid Prime series producer Kensuke Tanabe…
– Use the New 3DS’ second stick to look around
– Also runs on regular 3DS
– Tanabe feels Blast Ball could serve as a replacement for a traditional tutorial in terms of getting players accustomed to classic Metroid Prime controls
On the game’s premise…
Tanabe: I’m sure once you play the actual game you’ll be able to get a feel of it and a better understanding of what the game is. As you mentioned, when you experience Blast Ball, you can probably feel that the controls are exactly the same as the Metroid Prime series. And on top of the control scheme being the same as the Metroid Prime series, you can also tell that the whole environment is still in the Metroid Prime universe, including the background music as well.
On how it doesn’t seem like a Metroid game, and how it came to be…
Tanabe: Originally, since 10 years ago, I’ve been thinking about the concept for this game. Back then I was working on the three main Prime games…
So Metroid Prime Hunters [on DS] was one title that I wanted to shift the focus a little bit by introducing some new bounty hunters. One thing I wanted to do since back then was focusing on the galactic federation members, focusing on them and having a fight with the space pirates. It’s sort of like a different perspective that I’m taking with this game to create sort of an opportunity to expand, to broaden the universe.
Tanabe again says he wanted Metroid Prime: Federation Force out alongside New 3DS, why Next Level was chosen
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, New Nintendo 3DS, News | 4 Comments
This information comes from Metroid Prime series producer Kensuke Tanabe…
“Well, first I would say that the focus on the battle between the Federation Forces and the Space Pirates was an idea I had since I was involved in Metroid Prime 3. It’s similar to with Metroid Prime Hunters, how we relied on NST [Nintendo Software Technology] to do that. Hunters deals with the relationships between the bounty hunters besides Samus in the world of Metroid. We wanted to make something that would show the fight between the Federation and the Space Pirates, but there was no company that would make that for us.”
“In making this game we initially intended it to launch alongside the New Nintendo 3DS, but we were a bit late in doing that. The team who’s schedule was free at the time was Next Level Games, and so we turned to them.”
Metroid Prime producer – next proper entry would probably be on NX, more ideas, wants numbered release
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch, Wii U | 55 Comments
This information comes from Metroid Prime series producer Kensuke Tanabe…
“If we started for Wii U now, it would likely take three years or so. So it would likely now be on Nintendo’s NX console. It’s a long time but it would need to include a lot of content, which would take a lot of work on the development side.”
– Tanabe has plenty of ideas for the game
– This includes a focus on a single planet that has a time-shifting mechanic
“Instead of broadening it to more planets I would have one and would focus on the timeline, and being able to change that. That’s one interesting idea I have in mind… but I understand many people thought that [Echoes] was too difficult.”
Head past the break for more quotes, which may include Metroid Prime spoilers for some.
More: interview, Kensuke Tanabe, Metroid Prime, top
Nintendo considered Monolith Soft for Star Fox Zero’s development
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 10 Comments
This information comes from Shigeru Miyamoto…
“We didn’t really look around at that many different places. Our first instinct was to try and find an appropriate team within Nintendo. One place we kind of considered was Monolith Soft.”
“But it kind of came down to to there wasn’t really a place we wanted to work with other than Platinum just because they are so committed to creating exciting visuals. We kind of really wanted to improve the visual quality of the game.”
Miyamoto also said Nintendo felt comfortable trusting Platinum with an intellectual property due to the studio’s understanding of action games. Additionally, the team has a number of Nintendo fans.
Aside from that, Platinum was approached first mainly because of Miyamoto’s history with game designer Hideki Kamiya. Miyamoto mentioned: “A kind of another element is the fact that I worked for a long time with Kamiya, even going back to our Capcom days working on Mickey Mouse games. So that was definitely part of it, too.”
More: interview, PlatinumGames, Shigeru Miyamoto, Star Fox Zero, top
Metroid Prime: Federation Force – made with New 3DS in mind, thought about Wii U, tried multiplayer Metroid game for DSi
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, DS, News, Wii U | 11 Comments
Engadget has published a new interview with Nintendo’s Kensuke Tanabe about Metroid Prime: Federation Force. Tanabe discussed the game’s origins, revealed that a Wii U version was considered, and spoke about how Nintendo tried making a multiplayer Metroid game for the DSi. There’s that and much more in the interview roundup posted after the break!
More: interview, Kensuke Tanabe, Next Level Games, top
Video: Playtonic talks Yooka-Laylee
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Videos, Wii U | 0 comments
Nintendo World Report has put up a new interview with a couple of folks working on Yooka-Laylee. Check it out below.
