Tag Archives: iwata asks

Latest Iwata Asks Explores Pokémon Mystery Dungeon’s Development And Reception

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pokemon_mystery_dungeon_gates_to_infinity_artThe latest Iwata Asks is in, and this time it’s about our cute, loveable pocket monsters and their foray into the unknown mystery dungeons. Satoru Iwata sits down with The Pokémon Company’s CEO Tsunekaz Ishihara, and Spike Chunsoft developers Shinichiro Tomie and Seiichiro Nagahata to talk about the latest instalment in the series, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity, how it still works as a modern format, and how you came to play as the Pokémon protagonist.

Development for a Pokémon ‘roguelike’ dungeon-crawler had been in the works for some time, but it was Tomie who originally came up with the idea that the player is transformed into a Pokémon, in order to bring out the charm of the franchise.

“Ultimately, the question I sought to answer was: ‘How can I bring out the charm of the Pokémon?’ Actually, the first script I wrote was not one where you become a Pokémon, but something altogether different,” Tomie says.  ”When I showed this script to Ishihara-san, however, I said I had another idea of my own and proceeded to tell him about it…”

Ishihara simply loved the idea of the player becoming a Pokémon, and that was when the spin-off series found a place of its own among the main franchise development.  It allowed a certain charm and heart that no other ‘roguelike’ dungeon-crawler had experienced before, giving the player something to grasp onto when in a dire situation, and knowing that they couldn’t just give up when the fate of the world rested on their in-game success.

Later, Iwata asks why the team decided to bring ‘an ultimate version’ to the table, instead of two separate versions like the title’s predecessors. The developers chimed in by saying that they evidently thought it was unnecessary to bring a game with so much content by separating them into two different versions, so they gave us a much bigger version.

Ishihara said: “Simply put, we felt that one package was enough. The game already contains a number of different elements, including an enjoyable story, an adventure that involves scanning round objects, co-operative play, StreetPass features and more. We therefore thought it was simpler to just have one version – an ultimate version, if you will.

“I think this is our richest and densest title yet. Even if you get stuck on the story at some point, there are so many different ways of playing the game, it’s possible to try a different approach and still make progress.”

Iwata continues to ask the developers about a whole host of things throughout the interview, including how to create the perfect blend of easy and difficult modes for modern gamers, and how the Magnagates and AR were implemented to progress gameplay even in the trickiest of situations. To read Iwata Asks in full for Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity, you can see it here.

Game & Wario Was Originally A Pre-Installed Title For Wii U

Nintendo, Wii U, , ,

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The latest edition of Iwata Asks reveals that Game & Wario was originally meant to be a pre-installed title for the Wii U, according to director Goro Abe. Game & Wario started life as a game called Pirates which involved players using the Wii U GamePad as a shield to stop arrows that fly towards the television screen. Abe says that they had to refrain from making the game too quirky as it had to have mainstream appeal for consumers.

“At first, the idea was to make a game that would come preinstalled on the Wii U console. I became involved in the project when it was already underway, and I began by asking myself what kind of games the Wii U GamePad might make possible.”

“When I had an idea of the overall direction for the project, I knew that I needed to try these ideas out to see whether or not they would be fun, so I asked Intelligent Systems to work on realizing the ideas I’d had.”

“It wasn’t actually conceived of as being part of the WarioWare series. E3 was approaching, and we began working on something that we could present and which would be easy for people to pick up and play.”

“Our basic premise was that this should be a game that everyone could enjoy. The WarioWare team have always had free reign to come up with all kinds of zany ideas, but we now found that we had to restrain ourselves…”

Iwata Asks: Animal Crossing Interview Now Available In English

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animal_crossing_new_leaf_logoWe know it’s been a long wait, but the Animal Crossing: New Leaf Iwata Asks interview is now available to view in English. The interview, which was originally conducted and able to view last October in Japanese, sees Satoru Iwata asking software developers Aya Kyogoku, Isao Moro and Koji Takahashi about the new direction the Animal Crossing series will take, as well as joking that the previous DS version is really just about ‘repaying your loan’. That pesky Tom Nook, eh?

Iwata Asks For Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon Goes Live

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luigi's_mansion_dark_moon_ghost_chaseNintendo has published the Iwata Asks for Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon, in which company president Satoru Iwata chats with Shigeru Miyamoto, Yoshihito Ikebata, and Next Level Games‘ Chad York, Bryce Holliday and Brian Davis. Within the interview, the developers share several interesting tidbits on Luig’s Mansion: Dark Moon and its evolution. For example, throughout the game there are peek holes on walls and doors that players have the option of looking through. If players choose to look through them, they may receive hints for how to progress through the game, or they can spy on ghosts to see what they’re up to.

Fire Emblem Awakening Could Have Taken Place On Mars

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Nintendo has just published the latest English Iwata Asks segment which is focussed solely on Fire Emblem Awakening. One of the interesting excerpts from the article is the development team initially starting proposing that the game should take place on Mars. This idea was obviously discarded, but it didn’t stop the developers chuckling about it. Here’s what they had to say.

Iwata: What kind of proposals were you making?

Yamagami: (laughs) A game called Fire Emblem 2011.

Iwata: 2011?

Higuchi: Yeah. (laughs) We made proposals that were a complete departure from the medieval worldview so far—like Fire Emblem completely in the modern world or the one which has the sense of an fairy tale. But they were too far out, so we couldn’t get started. (laughs)

Iwata: Maeda-san, do you remember what the other suggestions were like?

Maeda: One idea that came up within the team was, well, it was Mars.

Iwata: Mars?!

Maeda: Yeah. Fighting on Mars.

Iwata: Fighting on Mars?!

Kusakihara: Now I know why Yamagami-san was like, “That’s too much!”

Everyone: (laughs loudly)

Latest Iwata Asks Gives An Insight Into Platinum Games

Nintendo, , , ,

platinum_games

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata recently spoke to Tatsuya Minami and Atshushi Inaba of Platinum Games to talk a little about game development and the company behind established games such as Bayonetta, Vanquish, and the forthcoming The Wonderful 101. Minami talks to Iwata about how the company is desperately trying to emulate the western relationship between the publisher and the developer, where the developer ultimately has more freedom to do what they want. Here’s a snippet from the latest Iwata Asks.

“If we fail, the company will break up, and if it goes well, we’ll be like, “Take that!” I think that kind of relationship is good. After all, the ones who think about the players the most and face them and strive to make something for them are the game makers.”

Capcom Had Resident Evil 5 Running On 3DS, Inspired Resident Evil Revelations

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During the latest Iwata Asks segment Capcom revealed that they had Resident Evil 5 for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 up and running on Nintendo 3DS hardware. The Resident Evil team said they had the game up and running on the Nintendo 3DS to help bring inspiration for Resident Evil Revelations. Here’s what Capcom had to say about the feat during Iwata Asks.

“What kicked off Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D was we needed to actually run a game on a Nintendo 3DS system, so we took Resident Evil 5 and ran it on a Nintendo 3DS, and the impact it made was more than we had imagined.”

“Then we thought, “We can make this into a product.” The difficulties of moving this forwards as its own project aside, there was reason to make it just in terms of experience. In regards to the controls, we were able to make changes to Mercenaries and finish Revealations looking at the players’ feedback.

“And by making Mercenaries first, I feel like we were able to determine the capabilities of Nintendo 3DS. In terms of it being a developmental challenge, I would say that Mercenaries is the one that’s really pushing it hardware-wise.”

“The Resident Evil: Revelations team had experienced making Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D, so they were on their second lap of development, allowing them to make it smoothly. Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D made use of know-how from Resident Evil: Revelations, and Resident Evil: Revelations drew on feedback from Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D, so I feel like we were able to interact with the players.”

Nintendo: ‘Wii U GamePad Has All The Functions Of A Handheld’

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The Wii U GamePad has “all the functions of a handheld,” according to Nintendo. The new controller boasts several features, including a 6.2 inch touchscreen, traditional button controls, two analog sticks, a front-facing camera, a microphone, stereo speakers, motion control and rumble support. Unlike handhelds, however, the Wii U GamePad is not a portable; people cannot carry and play it wherever or whenever.

Nintendo Shows Off Transparent Wii U (Iwata Asks Wii U Details)

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Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has released another captivating Iwata Asks segment. The latest edition focusses on the Wii U, and the hardware behind the console. There’s quite a lot of interesting information released, so here’s a quick but thorough roundup of what was discussed.

  • Iwata “never imagined” Wii would have a six-year hardware cycle.
  • Ko Shiota is the Deputy General Manager of the Product Development Department of the Integrated Research and Development Division. In simple English, he supervises the development of new hardware.
  • Wii U development felt like making a home console and handheld system at the same time.
  • Yasuhisa Kitano also works in the Product Development Department of the Integrated Research and Development Division. He was responsible for the mechanical design of Wii U. He made the casing for the system, as well as the cooling system and the connectors and cables.
  • Nobuyuki Akagi worked on the SDK (dev kit) software.
  • Development of Wii U really kicked off when HD hit a high point in terms of adoption rates in Japan and the United States. They wanted to make sure that everyone could enjoy the jump to HD without a disparate experience between users due to HD being a fairly new resolution.
  • Iwata: “In some respects, it was inevitable that if televisions changed, the video game consoles paired with them would also change.”
  • One of the aims with Wii U is shared with Wii – low power consumption, but high performance. (Versus high power to achieve high performance.) This is a strategy they’ve embraced since the GameCube.
  • The use of a multi-core CPU helped them lower power consumption. They’re also embedding it onto an MCM alongside the GPU in order to reduce cost and speed up the exchange of data while minimizing overhead. (In simple terms, it’s cheaper, faster, and wastes less processing power.) With GameCube and Wii, the CPU and GPU were separate. The MCM also takes up less space on the main board
  • The GPU and CPU are manufactured by different companies, so it was difficult to narrow down defects. In the end they needed to really pressure each company to narrow down potential problems.
  • They intentionally designed the Wii U system itself not to stand out. Instead, the focus will be on the GamePad.
  • Wii U generates about three times the amount of heat as Wii. Naturally, it comes with a more robust heat sink and larger ventilation fan.
  • There was a bit of a debate about whether the console should stand vertically like Wii or lie flat. The shape was settled upon pretty early on, and the focus on it being a horizontal system was introduced to distinguish it from Wii. They’re offering a stand so people who want it to be vertical can stand it up.
  • Even for Nintendo’s hardware and software engineers, it took a long time to optimize the performance of the CPU and GPU due to the hardware configuration! This is an encouraging sign for those who are hoping to see a substantial leap over last-gen’s HD systems.
  • Some defects weren’t detected until they performed an aging test (a test that requires that you place the hardware under sustained stress – i.e. leaving it on all day – before examining it).
  • Nintendo saw a lot of cooperation from its hardware partners in terms of optimizing the computer parts they used. They were able to take advantage of the engineers’ familiarity with Wii thanks to the backward compatibility. This familiarity helped lead to smaller parts that consumed less power.
  • They’ve made it easier to access USB ports and the Sync button on Wii U by putting two USB ports on the front of the system and placing the Sync button on the outside rather than behind a door. This time, the door for the SD port actually folds into the system instead of opening out.
  • Iwata: “No matter how great the numbers are that you can boast, can you only draw that out under certain conditions, or can you actually draw out its performance consistently when you use it? Insisting on the latter way of thinking has always been at the root of hardware and system development at Nintendo.”
  • Wii U not only allows the game system to not be a leech off the TV, it allows you to use it in many different ways even without turning on your TV.
  • The next Iwata Asks will focus on the Wii U GamePad.

 

New Super Mario Bros. 2 Was Going To Be Called ‘New Super Mario Bros. Gold’

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Compared to any other Mario game, New Super Mario Bros. 2 contains the most coins and golden objects. Throughout the game, it’s possible to collect over a million coins – most of which are golden. When Mario touches a Gold Flower, he transforms into Gold Mario, which grants him the ability of turning blocks into golden coins. For the first time in the series, most enemies can turn into gold. Because of all the golden objects and characters in New Super Mario Bros. 2, the game was going to be called New Super Mario Bros. Gold. Which title do you prefer?