Video: An interview with Eiji Aonuma and Koji Kondo at The Legend of Zelda Symphony
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, Videos | 0 comments
More: Eiji Aonuma, interview, Koji Kondo, The Legend of Zelda, top
Splatoon devs on the project’s origins, why squids were chosen
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 6 Comments
Famitsu published its full interview with the developers behind Splatoon on its website today. Producer Hisashi Nogami, director Yusuke Amano, and co-director Tsubasa Sakaguchi participated in the discussion.
Siliconera translated some excerpts from the interview. You can find a summary of what was shared below.
“Many staff members that have worked on Wii U launch titles are working on this game, so now that we have a grasp of the Wii U’s functions, it started out with discussions about wanting to make something new with what we already know. There were many plans, but the one that stayed until the end was Splatoon.”
– Nogami says that it was just around the time Sakaguchi finished working on Nintendo Land, and Amano with New Super Mario Bros. 2, that Splatoon’s plans began
– Wasn’t always about squid characters
– Originally had tofu-like square characters
– Eventually chose to make it a competitive 4-on-4 game that required spraying the environment with ink
More: Hisashi Nogami, interview, Splatoon, top, Tsubasa Sakaguchi, Yusuke Amano
Aonuma on why Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D took so long, changes, more
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, General Nintendo, News | 4 Comments
IGN’s full interview with Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma has now been published. Aonuma talked all about The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D, including why it took so long, changes made in the game, and more.
View some excerpts from the interview below. You’ll find IGN’s full article here.
Capcom on lack of Resident Evil: Revelations 2 for 3DS, “no plans” for Wii U
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News, Wii U | 32 Comments
Resident Evil: Revelations was initially a 3DS-only game. So it’s definitely a shame to see that the sequel, Resident Evil: Revelations 2, isn’t planned for the portable whatsoever.
Producer Michiteru Okabe explained to DigitalSpy why this is so:
“The original game was released on home consoles a little while after the 3DS. It was called the ‘Unveiled Edition’ in Japan but just Resident Evil Revelations for consoles in the West. That’s where our starting point for the sequel is in a sense, the versions that were already on home platforms. It’s partly a technical reason. We have our own custom engine called the MT Framework, and as the mobile and home console versions are quite different technically, given that we were taking the home console versions as a starting point, it just led somewhat naturally. We tried to release it on as many platforms as we could, and that later became a selection of current and next-gen Xbox and PlayStation platforms as well as PC, so that’s how we ended up with that.”
You may remember that Resident Evil: Revelations eventually came to consoles – like Wii U. But as is the case with 3DS, there are “no plans” to bring Revelations 2 to Nintendo’s console, according to Okabe.
Aonuma on why Nintendo hasn’t experimented with the one-year dev cycle with Zelda again like Majora’s Mask
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 20 Comments
The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask was developed in just one year. Since then, we’ve never seen a Zelda game made in such a short timespan.
Speaking with IGN, Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma talked about why we haven’t seen another Zelda game like Majora’s Mask, and why Nintendo hasn’t tried the one-year development cycle again.
Aonuma stated:
“It’s interesting, because there’s definitely this way that we talk about that sort of thing in development circles here in Japan. It’s often presented as a challenge to the developers themselves to accomplish something like that, because it can be very difficult to do. Since I’ve been in the role of producer, though, it’s not something that’s been presented to me as a challenge to take on very often. Sometimes I think about issuing it as a challenge to developers that I’m working with.
“When I think about the kinds of games that you’re describing, where you took the engine and you took some of the original assets and made a new game from that, you know, the kind of creation flow that we had for Majora’s Mask wasn’t limited just to those ideas. We also had to think about how we wanted to change the world, to take something kind of familiar and then warp it. I definitely like that sort of a challenge. I think it’s really fun to think about how you would take that sort of a game in a different direction. For me, in order to properly consider doing that again in the future, I think you really need a compelling topic or a theme with which to start.”
Aonuma ended his comments by stating that hitting the three day cycle of gameplay allowed the team to come up with different game experiences, starting from a concentrated bit of source material. This led to the creation of Majora’s Mask.
More: Eiji Aonuma, interview, The Legend of Zelda, top
Damon Baker on Nintendo Direct content, third-party Wii U support, more
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Wii U | 20 Comments
Nintendo Life has now published its full interview with Damon Baker, Nintendo of America’s senior manager in marketing and licensing. You can find the full thing here, though we’ve grabbed some excerpts below. Topics include how the content for Nintendo Direct broadcasts is chosen, third-party Wii U support, and more.
More: Damon Baker, interview, Nintendo Direct, top
Aonuma on how Nintendo makes Zelda dungeons, Majora’s Mask’s melancholy tone, Anju and Kafei quest
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, General Nintendo, News | 5 Comments
Kotaku has gone live with a new interview featuring commentary from Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma. Aonuma touched on how Zelda dungeons are made, and shared more on The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask.
Find a breakdown of the interview below. Also be sure to check out Kotaku’s full feature here.
Nintendo’s Damon Baker on why North America doesn’t have the standard New 3DS, engaging with the community
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in New Nintendo 3DS, News | 49 Comments
Damon Baker, Nintendo of America’s senior manager in marketing and licensing, has offered further comments regarding the company’s decision to only release the New 3DS XL in North America. Unlike other territories, the standard model that supports cover plates is not being sold in the states.
Baker told Nintendo Life:
Yeah (laughs). Look, the face plates are super cool, but we’re a different market. And now we have clear differentiation between those three systems. Before, there was a very limited difference between the 3DS and 3DS XL: other than size. It was the same resolution, same functionality… now, there’s the 2DS, 3DS, and New 3DS XL, all of which have their own functionality and features. The different price points give it a clear message for consumers. The core audience… we weren’t going to win with them on that decision. But we had to think about expanding the user base, we had to be able to market it and make it easy to pick up for consumers.
Baker also commented on the topic of community feedback online. Regarding this, and how Nintendo’s social media accounts tend to avoid direct engagement with consumers, he said:
I’m there daily, multiple times a day. You have to go there with an open mind. I’d love to get to a point where we have marketing channels where we can promote direct communication with the community, where people comment on stuff and Nintendo can communicate back. That’s my dream. Right now, PR is driving our social media, we’re not actively engaging the community, or very rarely. People have a fascination with Nintendo and want to be close to it and we feed off that excitement. We need to be more active there.
More: Damon Baker, interview, top
Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker Miiverse interview with director Shinya Hiratake
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 1 Comment
A rather large Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker interview has been posted over on Miiverse. “MariChan” chatted with Shinya Hiratake, the game’s director.
Hiratake talked about Captain Toad’s development, amiibo support, and more. You can find the interview in full after the break.
Kirby and the Rainbow Curse devs on the art style, choosing Waddle Dee for multiplayer, more
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 7 Comments
This month’s issue of Nintendo Dream has an interview with the developers behind Kirby and the Rainbow Curse. The Japanese magazine asked plenty of questions, which brought about several interesting answers.
Nintendo Dream starts off by noting how Rainbow Curse is the first Kirby title for Wii U. Given that, the publication was interested to know why the game follows the system of Canvas Curse and isn’t a traditional entry.
That elicited the following response:
When we saw the Wii U GamePad for the first time, we thought it could be interesting to use the different roles of the GamePad and TV in multiplayer. From there on, we came up with an idea of using the Wii Remote to control Waddle Dee and the GamePad to draw footholds. And the system of Kirby Canvas Curse fit that, so we used it. The result, after applying everyone’s voice, was a very lively game.
