interview

Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS eShop, GameCube, General Nintendo, News, Wii U eShop | 0 comments

ONM has published a new interview with former Rare staffer and Gory Detail founder Chris Seavor. Seavor discussed his background, the indie project The Unlikely Legend of Rusty Pup for Wii U/3DS, and voicing Slippy Toad.

You can find a few excerpts from the interview below. ONM’s full piece is located here.

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Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 3 Comments

The Mario Kart TV feature in Mario Kart 8 took quite a bit of work to implement, director Kosuke Yabuki told EDGE this month.

Highlight reels are determined by several factors like “the way the race develops, the way items are used, as well as changes in position.” To get things working properly, Yabuki said the development team “spent a lot of time to make it what it is.”

Mario Kart 8 automatically creates highlight reels based on a number of elements, including the way the race develops, the way items are used, as well as changes in position. It may look fairly simple, but we spent a lot of time to make it what it is. In two player multiplayer, the AI focuses on moments that show the relation between these two players… I think it creates a really nice, enjoyable video, even if it does look simple.

EDGE mentioned that Mario Kart 8’s YouTube uploading ability “suggests a change of thinking at Nintendo.” When asked why the company included this sharing feature, Yabuki responded:

When we were preparing the automatic highlight reel feature, we wanted users to share these videos with others, not just watch them by themselves. For example, after uploading a reel to YouTube, you can re-watch the highlights of your online battle the next day in your office, or at school or even on your smartphone. It will definitely encourage people to keep playing, and may be a great way to invite others to join you for a game.

Thanks to joclo for the tip.

More: interview, Kosuke Yabuki, Mario Kart 8

Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 5 Comments

MCV has published a few new comments from Nintendo UK’s Mario brand manager Roger Langford.

Langford first spoke generally about the racer, stating that it “really harnesses the capability of Wii U”.

“Mario Kart 8 really harnesses the capability of Wii U, it has HD graphics and runs at 60 frames per second constantly in single and multiplayer. There are lots of tweaks in the game that on the face of it might not sound like much. But we are looking to seed these bits out to the core Mario Kart fans via our online and social media campaign, and get that word-of-mouth and buzz up to launch. So that when we get to release day, we have the big TV campaign to make the big splash, but also the fans are raring to go.”

Langford also mentioned how Mario Kart in general tends to be one of Nintendo’s “killer titles” and each entry tends to take advantage of the company’s hardware.

“Mario Kart is one of our killer titles. Looking back at Super Mario Kart and then moving through the ages, you can see how integral Mario Kart is to Nintendo hardware. It always brings out the best in whatever hardware it is on. Super Mario Kart was one of the first two-player racing games out at the time. The N64 version was one of the first to allow four-player split-screen play. Then the DS version encouraged wireless download play, and Wii had its online functionality.”

From a commercial standpoint, Langford believes “that Mario Kart 8 can be the catalyst that will broaden Wii U’s horizons.”

“I certainly feel that Mario Kart 8 can be the catalyst that will broaden Wii U’s horizons. It’s very important for us that we have a successful launch and continue the promotion throughout the year and beyond.”

Last but not least, Langford spoke about Nintendo’s offer that provides consumers with an additional free Wii U title on the eShop with the purchase of Mario Kart 8.

“That offer lends itself perfectly to those people looking to buy into Wii U. You pick up the Mario Kart 8 bundle, and you can also download Wii Party U or Nintendo Land if you’re getting it for the family, or if you’re a Mario fan you can get New Super Mario Bros U. We also cater for more core gamers, as well, with Monster Hunter 3 and The Wonderful 101. We are offering that variety because Mario Kart 8 does attract such a broad demographic.”

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Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Wii U | 8 Comments

Here’s a little bit of trivia for you: all Mario Kart games are made from scratch. Nintendo doesn’t reuse its programming, assets, or other material across entries in the series.

We know this thanks to a Mario Kart 8 interview with director Kosuke Yabuki recently conducted by EDGE. The magazine mentioned that vehicles are easy to handle once acclimatized to, but wondered if Yabuki ever worried about the possibility of making the game less immediate.

He said in response:

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Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 4 Comments

Kosuke Yabuki has discussed Mario Kart 8’s usage of integrated YouTube support.

EDGE, speaking with the game’s director, asked what made the team decide to support sharing videos in this way, as it’s different to what we’ve seen from Nintendo in the past.

Yabuki told the magazine:

When we were preparing the automatic highlight reel feature, we wanted users to share these videos with others, not just watch them by themselves. For example, after uploading a reel to YouTube, you can re-watch the highlights of your online battle the next day in your office, or at school or even on your smartphone. It will definitely encourage people to keep playing, and may be a great way to invite others to join you for a game.

For those unaware, Mario Kart 8 allows players to watch and share highlights from their races. In addition to YouTube, videos can be shared on Miiverse.

Thanks to joclo for the tip.

More: interview, Kosuke Yabuki, Mario Kart 8

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

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.

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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.

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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.

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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:

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More: Bravely Default, interview, Silicon Studio, Square Enix, Takehiro Terada