Mario Kart 8 director on why arenas were replaced with tracks in Battle Mode
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 93 Comments
Mario Kart 8 introduces a major change for Battle Mode. For the first time, tracks from the main game are used as opposed to dedicated arenas.
You might be wondering why Nintendo decided to implement such a drastic alteration for Battle Mode. Kosuke Yabuki, director of the title, did explain the thought process to EDGE this month.
Yabuki said the following when asked why the team replaced arenas with tracks:
We’ve changed the style of Battle mode for Mario Kart 8 to use circuits that lots of people can play on. Players won’t know when a rival will appear from around a corner, which will bring a new sense of excitement and strategy to this mode. In terms of rules, we designed it for playing with 12 players, including the CPU. In the beginning, you have to defeat the CPU players and earn your score, and towards the end it becomes a battle between just human players. That’s the real thrill of it! It should also be a fresh experience for users to be able to race backwards around the circuits they are familiar with. I’m sure there will be a few people who aren’t so sure about us moving away from how we’ve done things previously, but I hope they try it out for themselves first. I’m sure it will be a new experience for everyone, [and] like no other battles in Mario Kart before
Thanks to joclo for the tip.
More: interview, Kosuke Yabuki, Mario Kart 8, top
Mario Kart 8 team pushed Wii U to its limits, but dev says the console “still has a lot of potential left”
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 58 Comments
Mario Kart 8 manages to push the “Wii U’s capabilities to their limits”, director Kosuke Yabuki has said. Still, Yabuki believes that the console “has a lot of potential left, and I suspect there are more ways to make use of its capabilities that we haven’t even imagined.”
Yabuki shared these remarks while speaking with EDGE this month. His full comments can be found below, which came about when asked how he thinks the team pushed the Wii U hardware.
More: interview, Kosuke Yabuki, Mario Kart 8, top
Iwata yet again explains why Nintendo isn’t interested in bringing games to smartphones
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 10 Comments
For what feels like the umpteenth time, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has commented on why the company doesn’t feel compelled to bring its games to smart devices.
According to Iwata, selling titles for such platforms has the potential to negatively impact other segments of Nintendo’s business. Iwata also believes that revenue from such an effort “cannot be a pillar” for the company. Smartphone development simply isn’t an option unless doing so could be successful.
Iwata told Bloomberg:
“The smartphone market is probably more competitive than the console business. We have had a console business for 30 years, and I don’t think we can just transfer that over onto a smartphone model.”
“Our games such as Mario and Zelda are designed for our game machines so if we transfer them into smartphones as they are, customers won’t be satisfied. If customers aren’t satisfied with the experience, it will decrease the value of our content.”
Iwata added that no games moved onto smartphones from game machines have continuously generated tens or hundreds of billions of yen in the long-term.
More: interview, Satoru Iwata, smart devices, smartphones, top
Bill Trinen talks Tomodachi Life’s gay marriage situation
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News | 0 comments
Nintendo of America product marketing manager Bill Trinen has issued some lengthy remarks regarding the situation surrounding gay marriage in Tomodachi Life.
You may remember reports that had surfaced from Japan about players being able to partake in same-sex relationships. This resulted from two scenarios: a data leak and players dressing up their Mii characters as males even though their gender was female.
The former scenario was caused by a free tool on the 3DS eShop which allows players to transfer Mii characters from the original DS game. Nintendo eventually patched the bug, though it’s obviously still possible “to create a male version of a Mii character and assign their gender as female.”
Trinen says that there have been some misconceptions in the west, but in Japan, there was no confusion. He also mentioned that Nintendo must “try to find what’s the best way to create this experience and really have a fun and entertaining experience.”
You can find all of Trinen’s comments below.
More: Bill Trinen, interview, Tomodachi Life, top
Silicon Studio president on Bravely Default’s action RPG origins, prototype
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News | 2 Comments
Bravely Default wasn’t always the straight-up JRPG that we know of today. Originally, developer Silicon Studio tossed around the idea of making it an action RPG.
President Takehiro Terada told Siliconera:
“We developed the first version with action combat, but overall we felt it was not the best form for the game so we went to turn based.”
“The city part was the same, the battle system was action based.”
Silicon Studio had created a prototype in which players would walk around a city, and when a monster was touched, an action-based battle would ensue. It only featured one playable character who could attack with a weapon and use a number of spells. No job system was included at this point.
Speaking about the prototype, Terada added:
Curve on bringing Stealth Inc 2 to Wii U, working with Nintendo, Iwata’s involvement with Fluidity: Spin Cycle, more
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS eShop, News, Wii U eShop | 1 Comment
CVG is among the outlets to have put up an interview with Curve Studios following the announcement of Stealth Inc 2 for Wii U today. Design director Jonathan Biddle and managing director Jason Perkins shared more about bringing Stealth Inc 2 to the Wii U eShop, past experiences working with Nintendo (including Satoru Iwata’s involvement with Fluidity: Spin Cycle), and more.
You can find Biddle and Perkins’ comments after the break. For CVG’s full article, check out this link.
Super Mario 3D World devs on game’s creation and more; new concept art
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News, Wii U | 0 comments
EDGE has published its full Super Mario 3D World interview/article with directors Koichi Hayashida and Kenta Motokura as well as producer Yoshiaki Koizumi. New concept art from the game is now available as well.
You can find some quotes from the three Super Mario 3D World devs below (with even more on EDGE). The concept art is posted above.
Curve talks Stealth Inc 2 – details, Nintendo asked for the original, future Wii U support coming, more
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U eShop | 0 comments
Earlier today, IGN published a new article about Stealth Inc 2 with details from Curve Studios managing director Jason Perkins and design director Jonathan Biddle. You can find information rounded up from the site’s article below.
– Game being brought to Wii U for many reasons
– Managing director Jason Perkins and design director Jonathan Biddle “love Nintendo and we want to give Iwata a hug”
– Stealth Inc incorporates many of the lessons learned while working on Fluidity for Wii and 3DS
– Nintendo asked Curve for a Nintendo version of Stealth Inc
– Curve couldn’t do it at the time since everyone was involved with bringing out an edition for Sony consoles
– Instead, Curve settled on bringing the game’s sequel to Wii U
– Designed exclusively from the ground up for Wii U
– Uses the GamePad features
– Co-op mode included
“I guess we really wanted to expand what we did the first time. One of the things with the original is because the levels are very short and built around this punishing loop, where you make a mistake and get sent back a very short time. They’re very cerebral, but also very precise. If you play too many of those levels in a row then you get burnt out very quickly. You’ll come back later as you enjoy it, but playing too quickly you get frustrated. So what we wanted to do was smooth that out a bit so you have the same gameplay but you’re able to have some downtime.” – Biddle
“What we’re doing with the sequel is still having that test chamber-based gameplay, but we’re pulling back. A clone will escape from the test into the facility at large, and then we’ll have a Metroid-structured game that sits in front of the test chambers. So you’ll explore the facility with a classic Metroidvania structure using abilities, getting to different areas and enemies in the exploration structure, but it’ll be more leisurely paced as regards the test chambers that you find and then enter in order to rescue the clones from within. There’s this dual-layer of gameplay so there’ll be intense tasks to do when you want, but also you can pull back and explore when you want to do more relaxed things. You’re not up against the clock any more so, if you can’t figure it, go off and leave it.” – Biddle
Capcom on Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate’s concept, G-rank quests, more
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News | 0 comments
Famitsu has published a new interview with Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate director Kaname Fujioka and producer Ryozo Tsujimoto. For quotes from the discussion (as translated by Siliconera), head past the break.
More: Capcom, interview, Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate
Kirby Triple Deluxe devs discuss the 3DS game, HAL’s relationship with Nintendo
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, General Nintendo, News | 0 comments
CVG has put up a new interview with Kirby Triple Deluxe director Shinya Kumazaki and Nintendo director Yurie Hattori. As you would expect, most of the discussion pertains to the upcoming 3DS game, but there’s also some interesting comments about HAL’s relationship with Nintendo.
For Shinya and Kumazki’s full comments, head past the break.
