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interview

Sonic Generations

Sonic the Hedgehog has two very different types of gameplay styles. There’s the classic 2D titles that have been around since the franchise’s early days, but a bunch of 3D entries have also been put out over the years. Fortunately, both versions of Sonic will be considered carefully going forward.

During a recent interview with Otaquest, Sonic Team head Takashi Iizuka was asked if the popularity of Sonic Mania has affected the way in which the studio approaches the handling of the franchise. Iizuka said in response:

Paper Mario: The Origami King

As part of a new interview with VGC, Paper Mario: The Origami King producer Kensuke Tanabe and assistant producer Risa Tabata have weighed in on fans’ reception to the series starting with Sticker Star.

Tabata said that the team avoids using the same idea twice since they want to “create new gameplay” and offer players “positive surprises”. Tanabe noted that he does check out some fan opinions after a game launches, but with cases in which he “can’t address those opinions exactly as fans want”, he tries to pursue “new, fun ideas.” Tanabe ultimately said “it’s difficult to satisfy certain fans with the adventure game direction if they think of Paper Mario games as simply being RPGs.”

Here’s the full roundup:

Paper Mario: The Origami King

Paper Mario: The Origami King producer Kensuke Tanabe has shared some interesting insight into how he’s approached the series in recent years.

Speaking with VCG, Kensuke was asked about how he ensures that the story of Paper Mario appeals to a broad audience. He revealed that Super Paper Mario had an “elaborate story” which “led the game away from the Mario universe”, so he’s avoided “using stories that are too complicated” since Paper Mario: Sticker Star.

Tanabe’s full words:

Square Enix has published the second volume of its Final Fantasy IX interview celebrating the RPG’s 20th anniversary. This time around, character designer and game artist Toshiyuki Itahana discusses some of the game’s memorable NPCs, having characters shorter in stature, and more.

Here’s the interview in full: 

Donkey Kong Country TV show

Back in 1997, Nintendo and animation company Medialab Technology formed a partnership to produce a computer-animated TV series based on Donkey Kong Country. A total of 40 episodes were ultimately produced.

Writer Simon Racioppa spoke about the experience as part of an interview with Polygon. He noted that the show had a “bible” with basic rules, but there wasn’t much in the way of story restrictions or input from Nintendo.

He said:

Borderlands: Game of the Year Edition

When you think about developers that have worked on notable Switch ports, the likes of Panic Button, Virtuos, and Saber Interactive come to mind. We should probably throw another name into the mix as well: Turn Me Up Games.

Although Turn Me Up hasn’t worked on a ton of Switch projects, the studio is starting to become more well-known. The company’s first project on Nintendo’s console was Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons. Then at the end of May, Turn Me Up’s ports of Borderlands 1 and 2 landed on Switch.

The Nintendo Direct Mini back in March treated fans to a surprise announcement and release. The office-themed puzzler Good Job! was revealed for Switch during the presentation, and then launched on the eShop immediately after.

Good Job! wasn’t actually a project made entirely by Nintendo as Paladin Studios was just as much involved. As part of an interview with Nintendo Everything, the two companies spoke about how they ended up coming together.

Paladin Studios lead producer Robert Abercrombie and Nintendo of America producer Takao Nakano told us:

Doom Eternal

Following a panel at Gamelab Live 2020, Gamereactor spoke with Doom Eternal developers Marty Stratton and Hugo Martin. Executive producer Marty Stratton was able to provide an update on how the Switch version is coming along, stating that the release date will be shared “pretty soon” and it’ll be “every bit as good as Doom 2016 was”.

Stratton stated:

Following the first couple of Paper Mario games on N64 and GameCube, some fans would argue that the series has experienced some bumps in the road. Whereas those initial entries stuck to the tried-and-true RPG format, latter titles started to venture in different directions. Most would say that the low point of the series was Sticker Star, which de-emphasized battles and featured throwaway stickers as its primary mechanic.

Nintendo and Intelligent Systems are now giving Paper Mario another shot with The Origami King, which launches in just a few weeks. The game will have another alternate take on battles with a ring-based system.

Speaking with Game Informer, Nintendo producer Kensuke Tanabe indicated he’s more interested in trying new ideas rather than relying on familiar gameplay systems:

Bravely Default II

If you haven’t been keeping up with the Bravely series, now might be the time for a refresher. The franchise started out on Nintendo 3DS with Bravely Default, which was followed up with a direct sequel, Bravely Second. Now Square-Enix is readying a new game in the franchise, Bravely Default II, for Switch this year.

In an issue of Famitsu, Tomoya Asano (leader of the Asano Team) and Masashi Takahashi (producer) commented on how they settled on the final name. We heard a bit about this previously, but now we have the full explanation.

As translated by Nintendo Everything’s Oni Dino, the two shared the following:


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