Former SEGA of America CEO says Nintendo should continue what it’s doing, but extend to mobile
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 44 Comments
Former SEGA of America CEO Tom Kalinske shared high praise of Nintendo while speaking with GamesIndustry.
Kalinske said that Nintendo should continue making hardware and consoles. At the same time, he feels that it would be wise for the company to try expanding its games to mobile devices like the iPhone or iPad, since it would be “a form of marketing”.
That might just be a small suggestion. Ultimately, Kalinske proclaimed: “I don’t think they should give up what they’re doing because they’re damn good at it.”
I don’t think [Nintendo] should give up hardware or consoles. I am surprised that they haven’t formed a division to extend the IP. I’d love to play some of their games on my iPhone or iPad. It’s really a form of marketing for them in a sense. They wouldn’t even need to make that much money off it, but it would keep their brands relevant with the users, including people that are older, like me. So it seems to me it’s a marketing mistake, but I don’t think they should give up what they’re doing because they’re damn good at it.”
More: interview, SEGA, Tom Kalinske
Captain Toad producer wants to see the character in a variety of games… and maybe Mario Kart
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 26 Comments
Nintendo’s Koichi Hayashida wants to see Captain Toad “featured in a variety of games”. It also seems as though Hayashida would be interested in having the character end up in Mario Kart. That information comes from the latest issue of GamesMaster, which contains a short interview with the Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker producer.
When asked what he foresees in the future for Captain Toad, Hayashida said:
At this stage we don’t know. I personally want to see him featured in a variety of games. I’ve even ‘secretly’ emailed the director of Mario Kart to see if he’d consider including Captain Toad, but I haven’t heard back from him yet!
Director Shinya Hiratake also answered the same question. His thoughts are as follows:
Through the development of this game I’ve grown even fonder of Captain Toad. he can’t jump, and struggles to defeat his opponents, but it’s precisely that he is not a powerful character that he can show us his unique take on all these situations. as a developer of his game, and one of his fans, I look forward to seeing where he goes next.
More: interview, Koichi Hayashida, Shinya Hiratake, top
Aonuma on Zelda: Majora’s Mask – reusing character models, bottles tease, why Clocktown’s bank vault isn’t affected by time, and more
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, General Nintendo, News, Wii | 7 Comments
Surprise, surprise! Another interview with Eiji Aonuma has appeared. The latest one comes from Game Informer, who spoke with the Zelda producer.
There are actually quite a few interesting questions and answers. Aonuma was asked if Majora’s Mask is all a dream, teased a special event in the 3DS version for finding all of the bottles (plus there’s an extra one in this version), and shared a development nugget about Twilight Princess’ development.
Head past the break for some interview excerpts. The full talk can be found here.
Kirby and the Rainbow Curse devs on the art style, missing copy ability, faster movement thanks to the GamePad
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 1 Comment
GameSpot has a new interview up with the developers behind Kirby and the Rainbow Curse. Supervisor Kazuhiro Yoshikawa, art director Teruhiko Suzuki, director Kazushige Masuda, and HAL Laboratory’s Shinya Kumazaki participated in the discussion.
Read on below for some comments from the various developers. You can also find GameSpot’s full feature here.
Video: An interview with Eiji Aonuma and Koji Kondo at The Legend of Zelda Symphony
Posted on 10 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 10 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 10 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 10 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 10 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 10 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.
