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

Mario Kart 8 director on why arenas were replaced with tracks in Battle Mode

Posted on 11 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 11 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 11 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.

Source

More: interview, Satoru Iwata, smart devices, smartphones, top

Bill Trinen talks Tomodachi Life’s gay marriage situation

Posted on 11 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 11 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:

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

Curve on bringing Stealth Inc 2 to Wii U, working with Nintendo, Iwata’s involvement with Fluidity: Spin Cycle, more

Posted on 11 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.

More: Curve Studios, Fluidity: Spin Cycle, interview, Jason Perkins, Jonathan Biddle, Satoru Iwata, Stealth Inc 2, top

Super Mario 3D World devs on game’s creation and more; new concept art

Posted on 11 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News, Wii U | 0 comments

ValueError thrown

Path cannot be empty