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Yoshio Sakamoto

This information comes from Enric Alvarez, Head of Studio at MercurySteam…

“Metroid is one of the most recognized Nintendo franchises and we are so honoured to collaborate with them on the latest game in the saga of space-faring bounty hunter Samus Aran. Our collaboration with Nintendo will give gamers around the world the chance to play this fantastic adventure in a completely new way not seen before”.

This information comes from Yoshio Sakamoto, senior officer of Nintendo’s Entertainment Planning & Development Department, and the producer of the overall Metroid franchise…

“The development of this Metroid game with Mercury Steam has gone very smoothly and more than anything, it has been very exciting. Metroid: Samus Returns is based on the GameBoy classic Metroid II: Return of Samus, and we are very confident that this collaboration with Mercury Steam is the reason we have been able to successfully pull together various features like actions never seen before in the Metroid series, a stunning recreation of the planet SR388 and classical Metroid gameplay elements into a single powerful package.”

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The final entry in Nintendo’s NES Classic Edition interview series has gone live. The last one highlights the original Metroid, with director Yoshio Sakamoto and character designer Hiroji Kiyotake participating.

During the interview, there was talk about how the team set up to make something different from Super Mario Bros., and focused on movement. We also hear about how Samus Aran got her name and how the team decided to make her female.

Head past the break for the full interview.

A couple of weeks ago, Nintendo published two interviews with Shigeru Miyamoto and Yoshio Sakamoto on their Japanese website. Miyamoto, obviously, created Donkey Kong, and Sakamoto developed Balloon Fight. Both of these NES games are among the games lineup of the NES Classic Mini, which was the occasion for these interviews. Now, Nintendo of America has provided an official translation of both interviews on their website.  We’ve already provided an overview of the Miyamoto interview here, but it if you want to check out the official translation, you can find it here. The Sakamoto interview about Balloon Fight is located here.

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We previously reported on an interview about Miitomo between Earthbound creator Shigesato Itoi and Miitomo producer Yoshi Sakamoto. The interview is split into multiple parts – a total of 6 will be released. Parts 3 and 4 are now available here.

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Update 2 (7/1): The second part is now live here. Looks like these are going up quicker than expected!


Original (6/30): Nintendo UK has put up a new transcript of a conversation held between Miitomo producer Yoshio Sakamoto and EarthBound creator Shigesato Itoi. The two go over the origins of the app that debuted a few months ago.

You can read the full discussion here. Five more parts will be added to the page over the next few weeks.

Who led the way on Miitomo, Nintendo’s first mobile app? It may not come as a huge surprise, but we now have confirmation that it’s a Yoshio Sakamoto joint. IGN’s Jose Otero shared that noteworthy tidbit of information during the latest Nintendo Voice Chat podcast.

Sakamoto was the producer on Tomodachi Life, and Miitomo takes several cues from the 3DS title. He’s also played a big role in Metroid as well as other series such as Rhythm Heaven.

Nintendo is keeping quiet on a number of other specifics surrounding Miitomo and other mobile apps. IGN asked about the team size and how long the app was in development, but couldn’t get answers to either question. Nintendo was also asked if the company has identified the other mobile titles they’re planning, but did not have much to say on this front either.

Yoshio Sakamoto is most well-known for playing a prominent role in three Nintendo series: Metroid, WarioWare, and Rhythm Heaven. But Sakamoto has mainly acted as a producer in recent years, and hasn’t done too much with Metroid as of late aside from Other M.

That being said, Sakamoto is still interested in working on the franchises he is most famous for. He told CVG the following when asked if he will continue to contribute to some of his more traditional game series:

I do not intend to do so. There might [currently] be various tasks I might be involved in with past series. However, even if so I would always like to introduce new entertainment and new fun to those series.

I would like to satisfy fans of those series, but also working with other talented individuals I would like to create entertainment that’s completely different and that brings new emotions. I would like to challenge myself in those unique directions.

This might be indirect, but if we can make new types of gamers enjoy video games for the first time through Tomodachi Life, then they might eventually become interested in the more conventional games. I think we need to ensure that video games remain attractive to consumers, and in order to do so new concepts and ideas are important. I would like to challenge myself to do that.

CVG has published a new preview for Tomodachi Life. Sprinkled throughout are quotes from producer Yoshio Sakamoto and director Ryutaro Takahashi.

For quotes from the two, read on below. Also be sure to check out CVG’s full piece here.


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