The Wonderful 101: Remastered Kickstarter reaches $1 million mark, Time Attack stretch goal unlocked
Posted on 4 years ago by Matt(@OnePunchMaz) in News, Switch | 0 comments
Platinum Games launched the Kickstarter project for The Wonderful 101: Remastered yesterday and it’s been widely successful so far, easily reaching its funding goal within minutes. Now that the game is definitely coming to Nintendo Switch, focus has shifted to the Kickstarter’s stretch goals. One has just now been reached as the campaign has raced past the $1 million milestone: the “Time Attack” mode, described as “A speedrunner’s dream”, has just been unlocked. Next up is “Luka’s First Mission”, a 2D side-scrolling adventure, at $1.5 million. If you want to contribute yourself. you can find the campaign here.
More: Platinum Games, The Wonderful 101
Rumor: Are Platinum Games teasing something The Wonderful 101 related?
Posted on 4 years ago by Matt(@OnePunchMaz) in Rumors | 0 comments
A couple minutes ago, both the official English and Japanese Twitter accounts of Platinum Games posted the image above, showing Hideki Kamiya at his desk. His computer monitors are completely black, except for the Platinum Games logo and the date and time on the left one. You’ll notice that the time says “1:01” – a possible reference to The Wonderful 101. Many fans are already speculating that this might be Platinum’s way of teasing something related to The Wonderful 101, possibly a port of the game for Nintendo Switch. Naturally, this picture by itself isn’t confirmation of anything – while it’s unlikely that the monitor prominently displaying that exact time behind Hideki Kamiya, who was the director of The Wonderful 101, is a coincidence, Platinum Games are known for being cheeky and sometimes putting out references to their games that don’t necessarily mean anything.
Still, the company have talked about The Wonderful 101 and a possible future of the series recently. In June of last year, Platinum Games stated that they’ve been doing “a lot of intel gathering” about the game. Also, in February of last year, Atsushi Inaba, who was the producer of the game, said that he’s interested in releasing The Wonderful 101 again. Back in 2017, they posted some artwork of some The Wonderful 101 characters playing on a Nintendo Switch.
What do you think? Are Platinum Games actually teasing something here? Or are they just having fun?
Digital Foundry tests Bayonetta 2 on Switch
Posted on 6 years ago by Matt(@OnePunchMaz) in Switch, Videos | 114 Comments
The folks over at Digital Foundry have decided to take a look at Bayonetta 2 on the Switch. The main takeaways are that the game runs in 720p both in docked and in undocked mode and that the visual fidelity seems to be identical in both modes. Docked mode has the edge in terms of framerate, getting close but not always quite reaching a steady 60 fps. The framerate is the most obvious improvement compared to the Wii U version, since the game doesn’t seem to have received many visual improvements otherwise. Check out Digital Foundry’s video below for their full analysis:
More: Bayonetta 2, Platinum Games
Bayonetta 1 & 2: official Japanese website open
Posted on 6 years ago by Matt(@OnePunchMaz) in News, Switch | 1 Comment
Nintendo has opened up the official Japanese website for the Switch ports of Bayonetta and Bayonetta 2; you can find it here. It offers no real new information, but it does have several new gameplay videos spread throughout the site, so check those out if you want to see what both games look like in action on the Switch. A currently empty “Movie” listing on the site also suggests that we might be getting a new trailer for both games soon.
More: Bayonetta, Bayonetta 2, Platinum Games
Hideki Kamiya shares his personal top 10 tracks from The Wonderful 101
Posted on 7 years ago by Jake in Wii U | 5 Comments
The Wonderful 101’s soundtrack will be leaving distribution by the end of the year, and the game’s director, Hideki Kamiya, has shared his personal picks for favorite tracks from the game. You can read his full thoughts and listen to sections of each song here.
While the full post is worth a read, a few of the highlights:
His final remarks on the End Credits are especially enlightening:
This song was made at the very end of our development cycle (as I’m sure most ending credits songs are), so I remember passing certification and listening to this song while stumbling home, looking at the stars, feeling almost like an empty shell of a person, reflecting on how everything had finally ended.
More: Platinum Games, The Wonderful 101
Wonderful 101 soundtrack leaving digital storefronts after December; Kamiya reminisces
Posted on 8 years ago by Matt(@OnePunchMaz) in News, Wii U | 0 comments
Via their official blog, Platinum Games announced today that both volumes of the official The Wonderful 101 Original Soundtrack won’t be available on digital storefronts after December 31st. Platinum Games did not state a reason for this. Nonetheless, some key figures at Platinum Games took this chance to reminisce about the soundtrack. First up is director Hideki Kamiya:
I’m sad to say that TW101’s soundtrack is being taken out of distribution. I hope, though, that this announcement reaches as many people as possible and introduces new fans to TW101 and its soundtrack. I’d like to apologize in advance to anyone who, years from now, finds out about TW101 and gets disappointed to see that its original soundtrack isn’t available.
I’ve said this before, but if there’s one phrase that sums up TW101’s soundtrack, “hymns to heroism” would be it. As you’ve probably figured out if you’ve played TW101, I’ve loved superheroes ever since I was a kid. I’ve been blessed with several chances to make games about them throughout my career, even before TW101. But TW101 is the game where I really crammed in as much as I could of what makes heroes so appealing – both their aesthetics, and how they inspire us and give us something to aspire to – to capture what heroes mean to me.
So of course we put special care into the background music that colors the game as well. Superheroes shoulder the burdens of the whole world, and they risk their lives to fight for those weaker than themselves. Their souls shine bright. We aimed to express this through a symphonic orchestral sound, and the result of all our composers’ hard work was a lot of brilliant music.
The tracks appear on the soundtrack in the same order they’re used in the game, so you can experience the heroic story of the Wonderful Ones and their thrilling battles just by listening to it. This goes out to people who’ve played the game, of course, but also to people who haven’t played it yet: Please close your eyes and listen, imagining the heroes’ brief but tumultuous journey, and rally your own fighting spirit to Unite Up and face tomorrow.
…And oh yeah, please share this announcement with everyone you can, because again, I’d love for it to reach as many people as possible. Let’s give everyone a chance to get this special soundtrack before it’s gone.
Head past the break for a comment from Hiroshi Yamaguchi, the game’s composer:
Joe Zieja on voicing Fox McCloud, working with Nintendo
Posted on 8 years ago by Zack in Wii U | 12 Comments
In a recent Nintendo Life interview with Joe Zieja, the voice of Fox McCloud in Star Fox Zero – The Battle Begins, we got to hear what it’s like working with Nintendo as a voice actor.
On what it was like auditioning for the part, and the realization that he would be voicing none other than Fox McCloud himself, Zieja said:
I auditioned for a code-named project and had absolutely no idea what it was. I didn’t even know it was anything big. The specs just described what they were looking for and asked that only talent in the LA area audition, so I did. I didn’t hear about it for weeks (and I do so many auditions a day that my mental health demands I fire-and-forget). Then one Saturday I get an NDA from Nintendo, and I think “oh, cool. I probably got Shopkeeper #5 in something or other.” Then the next email came with Fox’s picture on it and I lost my mind.
More: interview, Joe Zieja, Platinum Games, Star Fox Zero
Star Fox Zero top selling game on Amazon
Posted on 8 years ago by Jake in News, Wii U | 11 Comments
Star Fox Zero seems to be flying pretty high, as it currently is the best selling game on Amazon. Hopefully this is a good sign for its sales in the future. If you haven’t backed up the squadron, you can still pre-order the game here.
Thanks to Jonathan for the heads up!
More: Amazon, Platinum Games, Star Fox Zero
Star Fox Zero Japanese website updates; includes opening cutscene
Posted on 8 years ago by Jake in News, Wii U | 3 Comments
The official Japanese website for Star Fox Zero has updated. Included in the update are Miyamoto’s Japanese interview, more shots of the SNES style Arwing, and the opening cutscene (in Japanese), which can be viewed below.
More: Platinum Games, Star Fox Zero
Rumor: Star Fox Zero facing development issues over the game’s motion controls
Posted on 8 years ago by Matt(@OnePunchMaz) in News, Rumors | 145 Comments
Some rumors regarding Star Fox Zero’s development have been floating around the internet lately, but since there was no credible source attached, we haven’t reported on them. This has now changed since Liam Robertson has weighed in on the rumors – he has an excellent track record and has proven to be a reliable source, making these rumors a lot more credible. Furthermore, Nintendo Life has followed up with Robertson and got some additional confirmation and comments from him.
It seems that Star Fox Zero’s motion controls are causing some issues and might lead to the game not passing Nintendo of Europe’s Quality Assurance check. Robertson says that the Nintendo of Europe QA team is “concerned” about players’ reactions to the game’s fairly unusual and complex Gamepad motion controls. He also revealed to Nintendo Life that the team who was in charge of Mario Kart 8’s fairly unpopular Battle Mode (which didn’t feature dedicated courses, but rather took place on the regular race tracks) is in charge of Star Fox Zero’s multiplayer. According to Robertson’s sources, the whole project feels “disjointed”. Because of these issues, another release date delay is supposedly possible.
As always, take rumors like this with a grain of salt, even though we’re dealing with a reputable source here. Either way, we should hopefully hear official news about the game soon. Right now, it’s still scheduled to be released in April – if Nintendo decides to stick to that release date, they will likely start promoting the game soon. If a delay does indeed happen, it would also be in Nintendo’s best interest to announce it as early as possible. We will keep you posted.
