Splatoon’s UK marketing campaign on the same level as Mario Kart 8
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 10 Comments
Nintendo has a rather substantial marketing campaign lined for Splatoon in the UK. Marketing manager Chandra Nair, speaking with MCV, mentioned that it will be on the same level as Mario Kart 8.
According to Nair:
We have a substantial campaign planned for Splatoon. To give you an idea of the scale, we’re matching Mario Kart 8 – that’s the potential we think Splatoon has. We have the utmost confidence in the potential of Splatoon. It gives retailers a fantastic art style that stands out in-store or on-screen and it also offers various up-sell opportunities with the accompanying Amiibo. It’s a really interesting game for us because it allows us to expand out to a group of people who may never have considered Wii U before.
Thus far, Nintendo has already been involved with digital billboards, cinema ads during Tomorrowland and Mad Max, a sponsorship of Cartoon Network, and a digital campaign that started in April. That’s on top of a Splatoon-themed skatepark in Corby which opened last month.
More: Chandra Nair, interview, Splatoon, UK
Video: “Harnessing The Disney Empire For Disney Infinity 3.0”
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Videos, Wii U | 0 comments
Game Informer published an extensive interview with John Vignocchi from Disney Interactive. In addition to talk about the company’s gaming approach within Disney, he also touches on how things are managed to fuel the Infinity brand. Check out the interview below.
Star Fox Command’s initial prototype was “very much like the original Star Fox”
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in DS, News | 1 Comment
Star Fox Command could have ended up as a very different game. Initially, the plan was to make it “very much like the original Star Fox,” according to developer Dylan Cuthbert.
So what happened? Cuthbert recently stated that Shigeru Miyamoto “specifically told us to take the game in the direction of Star Fox 2”. He wanted the game “to be more experimental” and to use the “DS’ tow screens in as interesting a way as possible.”
Cuthbert’s comments in full:
The initial prototype we made was very much like the original Star Fox, but Miyamoto specifically told us to take the game in the direction of Star Fox 2 and I was happy to explore those more strategic themes. Miyamoto told us to be more experimental, using the DS’ two screens in as interesting a way as possible. Takaya Imamura was stationed in our office permanently during development and created the story lines and other character-based parts to the game.
More: Dylan Cuthbert, interview, Star Fox Command
Completed version of Star Fox 2 exists
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 6 Comments
According to Q-Games boss Dylan Cuthbert, who worked on the original SNES title, Star Fox Command, and Star Fox 64 for 3DS, a finished version of Star Fox 2 exists.
In an interview with Nintendo Life, Cuthbert mentioned that he was able to play the game during the development of Star Fox Command.
Even after the decision was made we went ahead and completed it, taking it to be fully QA’d through Mario Club. During development [of Star Fox Command] we received a copy of the mastered Star Fox 2 ROM to play, and it was quite a blast.
Cuthbert also noted that ROM images found on the Internet are unfinished prototypes, as they are missing elements that make it complete. Unfortunately, it sounds like we probably won’t ever see what the finished version looks like.
The legal problems regarding the now-defunct Argonaut Software are probably a nightmare. Never say never though! The fully complete Japanese ROM at least does exist.
More: Dylan Cuthbert, interview, Star Fox 2
Rodea: The Sky Soldier – interview with the game’s creator and director
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, Videos, Wii U | 2 Comments
NIS America uploaded a new video interview for Rodea: The Sky Soldier with creator Yuji Naka and director Zin Hasegawa. Watch it below.
Xenoblade Chronicles X executive director on the game’s Skells
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 6 Comments
The most recent issue of Famitsu has an interview with Tetsuya Takahashi, the executive director for Xenoblade Chronicles X. One of the topics the magazine touched on regularly was the Skells – otherwise known as Dolls.
Regarding what Monolith Soft ordered from Skell designer Takayuki Yanase, Takahashi said: “We ordered frame structures that are easy to design, easy for us to create and easy to turn into 3D.”
Bear Box talks StarLight, says UHost is now targeted for Q4 2015
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U eShop | 0 comments
Bear Box Media has a couple of new Wii U eShop games in the works. The first is StarLight, which was revealed at the end of April.
Bear Box shared an update on the project with Pure Nintendo, with the studio’s Andy Ford stating:
Although designed to be addictive… StarLight is hard… very hard. It’s composed of 75 standard levels, 5 secret levels, and 3 modes to choose from. Pure, Easier, and Hardcore. Pure is the way the game was designed to be played. It’s all about reactions and timing. Once players complete Pure Mode, they unlock Mirror mode. Each level has been carefully designed to create an entirely different puzzle both forwards and backwards, so in this mode you effectively have 150 levels to work your way through.StarLight gameplay 2There’s no mirror mode for easier players. Hardcore is the tough one. As soon as a player collides with a single barrier, they must start all over again… from the very beginning. It’s a pretty big challenge, so we felt it deserved a worthwhile reward. We’ll be running a competition from the game’s launch stating that the first player to post an image of the final screen of Hardcore mode on Miiverse will win $100 worth of eShop vouchers. The highest I’ve personally been able to get in this mode is level 56… So it’ll be interesting to see who manages it first.
You may recall that along with StarLight, Bear Box is also working on UHost. The original plan was to have it out towards the end of last year, but the team is now targeting Q4 2015.
Here’s the latest from Ford:
Regarding UHost, our original plan was to release the game in Q4 of 2014 at a low price, and then increase the price each time an update was created, bringing in new content. This would have been great, but unfortunately we missed our window. It was then decided that the additional content would be added to the game, aiming for a release this year, Q4. It’s given us time to add in some great new mini-games, even more questions, and a lot of extra polish.
Monster Games on the tough task of porting Xenoblade Chronicles to the New 3DS
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in New Nintendo 3DS, News | 0 comments
Xenoblade Chronicles is a massive game. So it should come as no surprise that Monster Games, who handled the New 3DS port, encountered some challenges in making the portable version. You can find out what the studio had to say about creating Xenoblade Chronicles 3D for Nintendo’s latest handheld above.
Playtonic talks Yooka-Laylee – Kickstarter success, characters, more
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Videos, Wii U eShop | 0 comments
Beta64 recently had an opportunity to speak with some of the folks at Playtonic. The developers talked all about its upcoming game Yooka-Laylee, but there was a decent amount of chatter about Banjo-Kazooie and Donkey Kong 64 as well. Check out the interview in full below.
More: indie, interview, Playtonic, Yooka-Laylee
Nintendo assisted with Xenoblade Chronicles X’s online functionality
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 9 Comments
Xenoblade Chronicles X was a huge undertaking for Monolith Soft. Not only is the game quite a bit bigger than the original title on Wii, but this was also the studio’s first time working with HD development.
Xenoblade Chronicles X executive director Tetsuya Takahashi spoke about some of the challenges in making the project in this week’s issue of Famitsu. On the topic of having trouble creating a map five times the size of the original Xenoblade Chronicles in addition to numerous quests and equipment, Takahashi said:
As the volume was large, the most troublesome thing was debugging (laughs). As this was our first HD title, it was decided from the start that we won’t use cutting edge technology. When I considered what is the strength of Monolith Soft, I came to the conclusion it’s the ability to neatly put together huge volume.
