Donkey Kong Bananza producer hoping the game leads to 2D and 3D branches, similar to Mario
Posted on 1 week ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch 2 | 0 comments
In a new interview, Donkey Kong Bananza producer Kenta Motokura shared that he’s hoping the game leads to separate 2D and 3D branches of the series, similar to what we’ve seen with Mario.
Mario clearly has a subset of 2D and 3D games. With Donkey Kong, however, things are murkier. Part of that is simply due to a lack of games. We’ve seen a good amount of 2D Donkey Kong titles, but 3D has been underrepresented – fans know that Donkey Kong 64 was the last time there’s been something in the 3D space.
More: Donkey Kong Bananza, interview, Kenta Motokura, top
Nintendo explains how Donkey Kong Bananza was upgraded on Nintendo Switch 2
Posted on 1 week ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch 2 | 0 comments
In an interview published today, Nintendo went into detail as to how the team behind Donkey Kong Bananza was able to take advantage of Switch 2.
We recently heard that the game was initially in the works for the original Nintendo Switch. However, Kenta Motokura said the team “ran into some challenges” and started thinking about moving to the new console around 2021.
Nintendo explains why Pauline was made young in Donkey Kong Bananza
Posted on 2 weeks ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch 2 | 0 comments
It goes without saying that Donkey Kong is the star of Donkey Kong Bananza, but young Pauline – who’s 13 years old in the title – is pretty important as well. Aside from accompanying Donkey Kong on his journey, she plays a role in the gameplay.
Now thanks to an interview with producer Kenta Motokura and director Kazuya Takahashi, we have some information about why Pauline is in the game. Having a character journey with Donkey Kong was always a part of the plan. Eventually concept art for the zebra transformation was made, it was prototyped, music was made, and that music was turned into a song.
Super Mario Odyssey producer pushed for new 3D Donkey Kong, dev explains how destruction focus came to be
Posted on 2 weeks ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch 2 | 0 comments
If you’re wondering why we’re finally getting a new 3D Donkey Kong game with the upcoming launch of Donkey Kong Bananza, you can thank Yoshiaki Koizumi.
According to producer Kenta Motokura, it was Koizumi that made the push. Koizumi was most recently the producer of Super Mario Odyssey. He was also the director of Donkey Kong Jungle Beat.
Motokura told IGN in a new interview:
More: Donkey Kong Bananza, interview, Kenta Motokura, top
Donkey Kong Bananza was originally a Nintendo Switch 1 game
Posted on 2 weeks ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch, Switch 2 | 0 comments
Donkey Kong Bananza is continuing the trend we’ve been seeing as of late, which is that while it’s coming to Nintendo Switch 2, it was originally planned for Switch 1.
That news comes from Kenta Motokura, the game’s producer. He said that it was always the plan to use voxel tech and consider “lots of different ideas for applications.” However, when Nintendo Switch 2 started to become a reality, the team “realized that the best implementation of these ideas and technology would be on Nintendo Switch 2.”
Director Kazuya Takahashi chimed in on this as well, telling IGN:
Koizumi says Mario Sunshine was influenced by his childhood experiences, Motokura’s love of Super Mario Bros. 3 led to Mario Odyssey’s Kingdoms
Posted on 4 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in GameCube, General Nintendo, News, Switch | 0 comments
In an interview with The Guardian, a couple of top developers at Nintendo reflected on how their past experiences impacted entries in the Mario series.
Yoshiaki Koizumi, who has directed 3D Mario games starting with Super Mario 64, says Super Mario Sunshine was influenced by his childhood. He mentioned wanting to “recreate the experience of a hero jumping from rooftop to rooftop like those heroes” and “playing in water and enjoying the coolness on my skin.”
Koizumi said:
Mario devs on F.L.U.D.D. in Super Mario Sunshine, importance of “function” in character design, more
Posted on 4 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, Mobile, News, Switch | 0 comments
The Washington Post recently spoke with four key developers behind the Mario franchise. Shigeru Miyamoto, Takashi Tezuka, Yoshiaki Koizumi, and Kenta Motokura spoke about the different entries and series in general.
Here’s a roundup for some of their comments:
Nintendo on Mario’s movements and abilities, “very likely” to continue seeing new types of actions
Posted on 4 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 0 comments
Mario fans have likely noticed that the character’s abilities and movements are never static. Just like gameplay tends to change with each new entry, the same can be said of what Mario is actually capable of doing.
As part of an interview with The Washington Post, Super Mario 3D World and Super Mario Odyssey director Kenta Motokura spoke about Mario’s movements. Motokura noted specifically that with the more recent games, Nintendo has looked to give players “a little more control in mid air” and make some enemies “easier to be jumped on”.
He said:
More: interview, Kenta Motokura, Mario, top
Super Mario Odyssey music lead and director share messages about the game’s soundtrack
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch | 0 comments
In Japan, the official soundtrack for Super Mario Odyssey was recently released. It was more than just music on CDs, as there was also a booklet with concept art of Pauline, messages from the team, and more.
A couple of these messages we wanted to highlight in particular. Read up on what music lead Naoto Kubo and director Kenta Motokura had to say below.
More: Kenta Motokura, Naoto Kubo, Super Mario Odyssey, top
Super Mario Odyssey devs on wanting to surprise players and more
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch | 8 Comments
CNET spoke with the developers of Super Mario Odyssey not too long ago. Kenta Motokura, the game’s director, as well as producer Yoshiaki Koizumi talked about the new game.
Something Motokura brought up is how Koizumi challenged him to surprise players. The team took that to heart, and it became a key words while development was ongoing.
Motokura said:
