Miyamoto interview excerpts about Zelda Wii U
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 10 Comments
We shared iJustine’s new interview with Shigeru Miyamoto a short while ago, but I figured this was worth a separate post. When we get comments about Zelda Wii U, they’re certainly worth paying the extra attention to.
Here’s the Q&A about the new game:
You showed the Zelda trailer and that’s such a huge world. How is that going to be for you guys to approach as far as gameplay and story, because it’s such a huge world.
With Zelda games, what we’ve always done is try to make them where you enter this big world of Hyrule and there’s a lot to explore and discover, but because of the hardware limitations, what we’ve had to do is segment off each area and piece those segments together in a way that make them feel like a big world. Now, with the hardware capabilities of Wii U, we first started by saying if we can take an entire world the size of the world from Twilight Princess, and make that the size of one of the areas in the game.
Do you see that as a game where people will go to complete a certain mission and they end up doing fifty things along the way?
Yeah, there may even be times where you forget what your goal is, because you are doing other things on the side. There may be times where you go in to one big one long dungeon, or you’re headed for a dungeon and doing other things on the side. What we’re trying to do is design it in a way where you don’t have to play it for a super long time, but more matched to today’s lifestyle where you can think for a little bit, and say “maybe I just want to play for a little bit today and do this one thing.” and get that thing done, then take a break.
More: interview, Shigeru Miyamoto, top, Zelda Wii U
WayForward on supporting Nintendo platforms
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 31 Comments
Destructoid recently conducted an interview with Matt Bozon, creative director at WayForward. Bozon primarily chatted about Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse, though a couple of side-topics were brought up as well.
Bozon shared the following when asked why WayForward continues to show support for Wii U despite the relatively small install base:
We’ve been there supporting Nintendo with every system launch starting with the Game Boy Color. We want to be first in line to make games for these legendary platforms. Whether they reach a massive audience or not, Nintendo fans occupy an extremely loyal corner of the game industry. They like intelligent design and visually iconic characters, and they typically understand that games of high quality take time. Sure, we want our games to appear everywhere and be played by everyone, but I feel we have a real connection with Nintendo and its fans.
We’re working to expand our fan base, but Nintendo fans got us here which is why we go the extra mile to serve them when we can.
On another note, Bozon said that he’d “love” to see Shantae in Smash Bros. and would even be supportive of a Shantae amiibo.
Yes, I would love to play as her in Smash and I want a Shantae Amiibo. Her move set aligns nicely, since she dances to charge up her bigger moves, can get extra jumps by way of Cannon or Harpy Transformation. And she brings more girl power, and has been Nintendo exclusive since back on Game Boy. So yeah, Shantae.
But if I HAVE to choose someone else, then it’s easy. Bomberman! He’s has an enduring Nintendo legacy, comes in various colors, and his bomb-based move set would make him a blast to play.
More: interview, Matt Bozon, WayForward
Koji Kondo’s favorite Zelda overworld theme is from Ocarina of Time
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, General Nintendo, News | 5 Comments
Koji Kondo has been making Zelda music ever since the series’ first entry. As such, you might be curious as to which game takes the top spot as Kondo’s favorite overworld theme.
That honor goes to Zelda: Ocarina of Time. In an interview with Polygon, Kondo spoke about how he “broke it into 8-bar sections and there was some random phrasing that was implemented so that the melody would be changed up.” He hoped to create a track that players wouldn’t get “tired of listening to”.
Below are Kondo’s full words:
“That’s a tough question. Looking back, I think the version that we used in Ocarina of Time. …this is the overworld theme that we’re talking about here.”
“For Ocarina, we wanted something that didn’t play so often that players got tired of listening to it. So I broke it into 8-bar sections and there was some random phrasing that was implemented so that the melody would be changed up. Again, these are 8-bar sections that I created to all work together, but when combined, they change, and there’s some random stuff going on there. I really like the way that worked out.”
The Next Penelope will use Wii U’s dual-screen setup for multiplayer, 3DS version not ruled out
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U eShop | 1 Comment
Nintendo Life has a new interview up with Aurelien Regard, the creator of The Next Penelope. Regard was asked about things like using the Wii U’s dual-screen setup and release date, the possibility of a 3DS version, and plans for the future.
You can find those excerpts below. The full interview is located here.
More: Aurelien Regard, indie, interview, The Next Penelope
Majora’s Mask 3D music has been cleaned up but is the same, Kondo supervising Zelda Wii U theme
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News, Wii U | 8 Comments
Another new Koji Kondo interview has popped up online, this time coming from GameSpot.
Kondo was asked about a number of topics. He answered some general questions as well as ones that were a bit game-specific. Naturally, Zelda was one of the franchises GameSpot brought up.
When asked if The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D will feature music that is mostly the same as the original, Kondo responded:
Actually, with Majora, we thought it was really important to protect the feeling of the game because the music was tied so well to the original gameplay. We’ve done some clean up on the audio quality, but the music itself we haven’t changed.
We did some rebalancing, of course, to make it sound good on the Nintendo 3DS. Before you were hearing it out of you TV speakers, and we just needed to do some rebalancing for that now that it’s on a handheld.
Sakurai: Smash Bros. Wii U/3DS will continue to be improved online, but no further balane patches
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News, Wii U | 2 Comments
The online experience in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U/3DS will continue to be improved. However, director Masahiro Sakurai has indicated that there will not be any additional balance patches.
Sakurai told Famitsu in this week’s issue:
—In the future, do you plan on adjusting or balancing the game further through a patch?
Sakurai: We don’t have any such plans, but at the very least we will be working on a few things connected to the online play experience, bit by bit.
If we were to do something like tweak characters’ customized special moves, then there’d be no end to it. But with that said, if there are any glaring issues, we may address them.
—That’s because with customized special moves or items, you can only play with them enabled online with players who are in your friends list, isn’t that right?
Sakurai: When playing with your personal friends, I think it’s probably more interesting that you can almost cheat a little through customizing your character. *Laughs*
FAST Racing Neo has been in the works since the end of 2012
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U eShop | 14 Comments
Shin’en has been working on FAST Racing Neo for quite some time. In an interview with KonsoliFIN, the studio’s Manfred Linzner revealed that Neo’s development kicked off at the end of 2012. The game began soon after Shin’en wrapped up Nano Assault Neo.
Linzner also spoke about how the team faced a “major challenge” to match or surpass other racers on the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC from a visual perspective. The task was made all the more difficult since Shin’en wanted to hit 60 frames per second.
Below are Linzner’s full words:
We started with FAST Racing Neo right after we were done with Nano Assault Neo. So this was end of 2012. A major challenge was to get on par or even beyond what other racing games on PC,PS4 or XB1 offer visually. Those games are done by very large and professional teams (around 30x to 100x times bigger then us). Just the sheer amount of geometry you need to produce for that sweet ‘Nex Gen’ look is insane. Not even to mention the nearly impossible task to render that all at 60fps on the Wii U. Anyway, we liked that challenge. We feel we do our best work when being challenged. You need to find creative ways.
More: FAST Racing Neo, indie, interview, Shin'en
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney localization editor originally suggested “Roger Wright” name
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 5 Comments
Phoenix Wright is a character we’ve all come to love over the years. But did you know that he could have had a different name?
Alex Smith, a localization editor working on Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, said he originally suggested the name Roger. ‘Pierce,’ ‘Xavier,’ ‘Marcus,’ and ‘Zane’ were also on the list of proposed first names for Phoenix.
Smith told USgamer:
“My original suggestion for Phoenix Wright was ‘Roger Wright.’ I had come up with a list of first names and a list of last names, and submitted that to Capcom. And, in those, ‘Phoenix’ was one of the first name options, but pretty far down on my list. And Roger was at the top. And ‘Wright,’ I felt, had to be the his last name, because of the pun in Japanese… ‘Naruhodo’ was used so many times in the text as a joke. Also, it’s just self-deprecating humor, where the one guy whose name is ‘I get it!’ just doesn’t get it. I needed something that was bold and like, ‘Yeah right, I got it!’ so he could say that and kind of own that attitude, even though he had no idea what he was doing.
“So ‘Wright’ was there, and ‘Roger’ was my first choice, because heroes—they like to have alliteration. Also, if you’ve ever seen the movie Airplane, [‘Roger’] is a great source of silly jokes as well. So that seemed like a name with a lot of potential. They ended up going for ‘Phoenix’ because they liked the heroism of it, and there was a comment from the Japanese dev team—they felt like ‘Roger Wright’ sounded too much like ‘Roger Rabbit.'”
Sakurai talks Duck Hunt inclusion in Smash Bros., 8-Player Smash originally planned for Melee, more
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News, Wii U | 11 Comments
Super Smash Bros. for Wii U launched in Japan last week. As such, Japanese magazine Famitsu sat down with director Masahiro Sakurai for a chat about the latest entry in Nintendo’s successful series. Some very interesting tidbits were shared, to say the least.
One of the topics Famitsu brings up is the inclusion of Duck Hunt. “The original Duck Hunt is a quite major game,” Sakurai said. He notes that the title could be the best-selling shooter game in the world since it was included with the NES in America.
Koji Kondo on the difficulty making Super Mario Bros. 3’s theme, why the title screen didn’t have music
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 0 comments
In a recent interview with USgamer, Koji Kondo was asked about what soundtrack/piece of music gave him the most difficulty. Kondo pointed to one game: Super Mario Bros. 3.
As he explained:
The most challenging [piece] was the main theme for Super Mario Bros. 3. The [original] Super Mario theme itself was almost a little too empowering. That indelible impression it left in the user’s mind with how it matched up with what Mario was doing on the screen—that was a big mountain to climb when we started working on the music to Super Mario 3. I remember creating lots of different music in different styles, trying to come up with something that would match that game and be different enough from the original Super Mario theme. It was tough. It took me a long time to come up with something I thought would work, and it was really me and Mr. Miyamoto and Mr. Tezuka—the three of us—right up until the very last stages of development, listening to all of these different music pieces that I created, before we finally settled on what we ended up using.
Any time you’re working off of existing music, and you’re revamping it for the next title, that’s just always a tough gig. And that’s true for every title, starting from the first [one]. It’s tough for me, of course, but maybe even more so for the people on my staff, who are working on different arrangements of music they didn’t even compose. They’re working on music that I composed, and now they’re having to go back and do some rearranging to match [music from] current games. So if it’s tough for me, I think it’s even tougher for them.
