Sakurai explains why Bandai Namco was brought in for Smash Bros. development
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News, Wii U | 1 Comment
Super Smash Bros. for Wii U/3DS marks the first time that Bandai Namco worked on new entries in Nintendo’s well-known series.
As for why Bandai Namco was chosen to handle development, director Masahiro Sakurai told Nintendo Dream in the magazine’s latest issue that having a single company create the games was thought to be the best option. And since Bandai Namco has the capability to create “a large-scale fighting-game, there was only this one company.” Sakurai feels that it would have been a difficult challenge for other developers to attempt.
Here are Sakurai’s full words:
Mod makes online play in New Super Mario Bros. Wii possible
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii | 6 Comments
New Super Mario Bros. Wii does feature multiplayer, but it’s limited to local play. It was simply impossible to play with a friend online… until now!
Fans have come up with a mod to allow for online multiplayer in New Super Mario Bros. Wii. You can see a demonstration above.
As for how it works on a technical level, YouTube user “MrBean35000vr” explains:
It works by sending a long stream of inputs over the Internet; button presses on a controller. An assigned host dictates RNG (random number generator, random elements in games like which item you get from a box in MKW for instance), and synchronises level loads so that everyone plays the game at the same speed. It also has an adjustable lag threshold, to allow smoother gameplay with people far away with you, at the cost of slight input delay.
There’s no word yet as to when the mod will be widely available. At the moment, its creator is still working through various issues. This is very neat though, and it sounds like online multiplayer could be implemented in other Wii games that have local multiplayer.
More: fan video, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, top
Reggie on Nintendo’s performance and sales, high-demand amiibo, more
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Wii U | 15 Comments
Last week, The Seattle Times put up a few new quotes from Reggie Fils-Aime. The Nintendo of America addressed the company’s performance and talked a bit about sales, high-demand amiibo, and more.
You’ll find a roundup of Reggie’s comments below. You can find The Seattle Times’ full article here.
On whether Nintendo is now on a rebound…
“(Nintendo is) doing better this year than we did last year. The way I would frame it: Our goal is to drive an ongoing positive trajectory. Certainly with the momentum we’re seeing with our hardware, the momentum we’re seeing with our key software titles, that gives us a lot of confidence.”
More: Amiibo, Reggie Fils-Aime, top
UK software sales (Week ending 12/27)
Posted on 9 years ago by Kirara Koneko(@KiraraKoneko) in 3DS, News, Wii U | 5 Comments
More: Chart-Track, charts, sales, top, UK
UK software sales (Week ending 12/27) – Wii U/3DS charts
Posted on 9 years ago by Kirara Koneko(@KiraraKoneko) in 3DS, News, Wii U | 2 Comments
This week’s UK Wii U/3DS specific software sales are as follows;
Wii U
1. Super Smash Bros. – Nintendo
2. Mario Kart 8 – Nintendo
3. New Super Mario Bros. U – Nintendo
4. Super Mario 3D World – Nintendo
5. Just Dance 2015 – Ubisoft
6. Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham – Traveller’s Tales
7. Bayonetta 2 – Nintendo
8. Hyrule Warriors – Nintendo
9. Nintendoland – Nintendo
10. Disney Infinity 2.0 – Avalanche Software
3DS
1. Pokemon Omega Ruby – Nintendo
2. Pokemon Alpha Sapphire – Nintendo
3. Super Smash Bros. – Nintendo
4. Tomodachi Life – Nintendo
5. Mario Kart 7 – Nintendo
6. New Super Mario Bros. 2 – Nintendo
7. Frozen: Olaf’s Quest – 1st Playable
8. Animal Crossing: New Leaf – Nintendo
9. Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham – Traveller’s Tales
10. Luigi’s Mansion 2 – Nintendo
More: Chart-Track, charts, sales, top, UK
Nintendo Download (1/1/15, Europe)
Posted on 9 years ago by Jarop(@gamrah) in 3DS eShop, News, Wii U eShop | 2 Comments
This week’s Nintendo downloads are as follows:
Wii U
Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker (from January 2nd) – €39.99/£34.99
Wii U VC
Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones (GBA) – €6.99/£6.29
F-Zero GP Legend (GBA) – €6.99/£6.29
Wii U Special Offers
New Super Mario Bros. U & New Super Luigi U – €59.99/£49.99 (Ends January 8)*
*New Super Luigi U is a free download if you buy New Super Mario Bros. U off the eShop until January 8th
Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate – €29.99/£24.99 (Ends January 8)
Shovel Knight – €9.99/£8.66 (Ends January 8th)
3DS Themes
Pokémon: Slowpoke – €1.99/£1.79
NES Fire-Breathing Bowser – €1.99/£1.79
3DS Special Offers
Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate – €22.49/£19.99 (Ends January 8)
Shovel Knight (Yacht Club Games) – €9.99/£8.66 (Ends January 8)
More: Europe, Nintendo Download, top
[Developer Musings] The New 3DS Dilemma: Developing around Nintendo’s hardware iterations
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Developer Musings, New Nintendo 3DS | 5 Comments
Nintendo has a notorious reputation when it comes to iterating their handhelds and in the past it has created an environment with a unique set of issues to consider for developers. Whether it was the Game Boy to Game Boy Color, DS Lite to DSi and now the 3DS to New 3DS, every generation there’s always questions among fans regarding the value and longevity of each new system. You don’t have to look very far to see how fans react to mid-cycle announcements like these, but how do developers react when a new system emerges from Iwata’s coat pocket?
We reached out to developers Stuart Ryall, Brjann Sigurgeirsson, and Ken Patterson to offer their thoughts on the announcement of the New 3DS and what implications it has on each of their development processes, if any. Will focusing on the extra processing power and C-stick split their player base too thin? Do these new units put too much pressure on fans to upgrade and consequently put pressure on developers to focus on the new units? How do these iterations impact the overall life of a console generation? Our guests this week help shed some light on the impact these mid-cycle hardware announcements have on developers, and what questions they have to ask when developing with these challenges in mind.
(Unsure as to what Developer Musings is about? Check out our first entry here for an explanation.)
Iwata talks hardware frustration and trying to fix things with previous systems
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in GBA, News, Wii U | 47 Comments
Yet another translation has come in from 4Gamer’s interview with Nintendo president Satoru Iwata.
In this latest excerpt, Iwata discusses hardware frustration and attempting to fix things Nintendo couldn’t do on previous systems. With the Game Boy Advance SP for example, Iwata pushed for sleep functionality when the system closed. This sadly didn’t make it into the final build. However, Iwata did inform the hardware team that implementing sleep mode into Nintendo’s next system (which would end up being the DS) was a necessity.
What may be even more interesting is what Iwata said about the Wii U. Soon after the console came out, Dwango’s Nobuo Kawakami provided some feedback.
“I had a similar feeling of frustration to the GBA SP situation then,” Iwata said, as he believed that Nintendo will need to implement some of Kawakami’s suggestions in future hardware. Iwata ended by saying, “because of that frustration, not only do we want it to connect with features next time, we are actually working to fix it for next time.” Hmm…
More: interview, Satoru Iwata, top
Iwata on his “Super Programmer” days, helped get Smash Bros. Melee out on time
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in GameCube, General Nintendo, News | 19 Comments
Satoru Iwata became the president of Nintendo in 2002. Prior to that, however, Iwata worked at HAL Laboratory for many years and helped program a wide array of games.
In an interview with 4Gamer (via StreetsAhead translation), Iwata spoke about his proficiency with programming. One notable thing mentioned: “… I believed things like that I could write better NES code than even Nintendo’s (EAD) engineers or that I could write the fastest, most compact code.”
Iwata also spoke about the development of Super Smash Bros. Melee, which “didn’t look like it was going to make its release date”. He “did the code review, fixed some bugs, read the code and fixed more bugs, read the long bug report from Nintendo, figured out where the problem was and got people to fix those.” Thanks to his efforts, Melee launched on time.
Head past the break for Iwata’s full comments.
More: interview, Satoru Iwata, Super Smash Bros. Melee, top
The Music of 2014 – Have Your Say!
Posted on 9 years ago by Patrick(@Patricklous) in 3DS, 3DS eShop, Features, Podcast, Reader Poll, Wii U, Wii U eShop | 3 Comments
It’s that time of year again! Last year’s game music podcast seemed to go over much better than I expected a two-hour show to, so let’s do the same thing for the soundtracks from this year. And once again I’m looking for reader (listener?) input to help put the thing together and narrow down a top 10 list.
The rules are pretty much the same as last year. Vote here to rate each of the twenty shortlisted games and add in any comments if you have them (you can also use that section to tell me if neglected to include certain soundtracks). Since some of them were included in last year’s show, the voting excludes games that were released in other regions last year like Bravely Default, but not ones like Fantasy Life that I previously forgot about. I’ve also excluded any games with an English release confirmed for next year like Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate – save it for the 2015 list! There are a handful of games like Guacamelee on the list that were released on other platforms last year, but as 2014 was their first showing on a Nintendo platform they’re up for voting.
So please get your votes in and look forward to the final podcast whenever it posts. Maybe there’ll be guests or co-hosts this time? Who can say. Since I’ll be out of the country for a while – I’ll probably have left by the time this posts – don’t expect any results until mid-January at the earliest. That’s kind of late for a retrospective, but I’m sure you’re all sick of top-10 lists at the moment. I know I sure am after putting together all that Nintendo DS stuff.
