• 3Jul 12

  Nintendo investor asks Iwata best question ever

  This is from Nintendo's latest shareholder Q&A on their investor relations website:

  Q:I would like to know about the current situation of the company?s operations in China and what problems you have in doing business there. Apart from this specific question, I have an idea for you: I would like you to energetically create software filled with dreams that is exciting for both children and adults. On NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation), I watched the news that Mr. Miyamoto, a senior director of the company, recently won a globally acclaimed award. To create such excellent games, I hope Mr. Iwata and Mr. Miyamoto will go through various experiences, including deadly adventures like crossing the Sahara on camelback or exploring the Amazon, full of piranhas, anacondas and crocodiles, together with the company?s other game creators.

  
  

  If you care about the answer, you can find it here:http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/stock/meeting/120628qa/02.htmlBut I guarantee you it can't be as great as the question.

  
  

  • Posted Jul 3, 2012 9:59 am GMT
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• 22Jun 12

  Nintendo embracing its inner Wario

  In season five of Fox's medical drama House, the episode "Here Kitty" opens with the grouchy-yet-brilliant doctor playing with Hot Wheels set up around the body of a comatose patient, sending a car down a ramp to literally jump a toy shark. It was a winking nod to the TV trope invoked to mean that a show's writers have run out of ideas, a clever acknowledgement to the audience that while the show would carry on (for another three seasons, it turned out), it would likely do so as a creatively destitute shadow of its already formulaic former self.

  At the time, I was a bit amazed at the honesty of the scene, as if the creators of what had until then been a largely excellent show were stepping outside the confines of the program for just a moment to communicate directly with me as a member of the audience. "Things are going to get bad," they seemed to say. "The realities of the marketplace and our need to put food on the table will keep this running for a while yet, but we just want you to know it's never going to be the same. We owe that much to you for your support all these years."

  

  That moment in a TV show I saw in 2009 was the first thing I thought of when I heard that New Super Mario Bros. 2 would be the first Mario game to feature downloadable content. I already had reservations about the game. When Nintendo showed off a glimpse of it during its Electronic Entertainment Expo media briefing, I was struck by the coin-grabbing focus of the game. Sure, Mario has always picked up coins, but as Nintendo marketing exec Scott Moffit noted on stage, "What you can't help but notice is that this Mario is all about the gold." Coin-lust is a theme Nintendo has played with before, but only with Wario, a character created to represent the opposite of everything Mario embodies. Conveniently, Wario has also been used to satirize shamelessly greedy game publishers in the WarioWare series, essentially presenting such operations as the opposite of everything Nintendo stands for.

  So a Mario game fixated on coins raised an eyebrow. But combined with the news of the DLC plan, it presents an irresistibly coherent picture of a creative team signaling a regretful epoch change to the faithful who happen to be paying attention. Well that's what I desperately want to believe, anyway. The truth of the matter is that I just don't think mainstream game developers put that much bigger picture thought into their work, and even when they do, they aren't bold enough to insert subversive candor into their titles. Especially not at Nintendo, proud home of corporate spokespeople with summer homes in the uncanny valley.

  Given that, I expect New Super Mario Bros. 2 to be welcomed as a score attack-driven approach to the classic platforming formula. That could be great in and of itself, as I think there are plenty of interesting mechanics the game could crib from latter-day shoot-'em-ups to make for some engaging leaderboard competition. But if this is the beginning of Nintendo's transformation into just another shamelessly greedy game publisher, if the company forsakes the stubborn vision that makes it Nintendo for better and for worse, then we can look back on this and pinpoint New Super Mario Bros. 2 as the inflection point. And we can at least say we were warned.

  • Posted Jun 22, 2012 4:20 pm GMT
  • Category: Editorial
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• 26Apr 12

  Putting down the HotSpot

  So we're putting the HotSpot out to pasture, which is a bummer for me because I really loved doing that show for about three years, and was excited to see where it would go with Magrino at the helm. Anyway, we said it was going on hiatus a month or so back, but we were getting a slow drip of comments on the old shows, e-mails, and PMs from people asking when it would return. It was great to see that people missed the show and wanted it to come back, but also frustrating because I had nothing to tell them. Eventually, we made the decision to end the HotSpot and put our time and effort into a handful of other projects (both audio and video) that we hope will fill the gap for anyone still missing the show.Once that decision was made, we figured it would be good to put together one last HotSpot to give any loyal listeners (and to be honest, us) some closure.

  The first HotSpot aired July 20, 2005. It ran for 330 episodes as an audio program and 29 episodes as a video program. It liked mom jokes, rambling conversations, and the marketing campaign for Ubisoft's Haze. It is survived by a Wikia page. In lieu of flowers, remembrances may be made by purchasing a copy of ZHP: Unlosing Ranger vs. Darkdeath Evilman for PSP (and downloadable for PS Vita).

  • Posted Apr 26, 2012 6:39 pm GMT
  • Category: Editorial
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