Nintendo, Miyamoto Preview 2004 Releases

Thanks to Cube Europe for its article discussing forthcoming Nintendo products for 2004, including insight from Shigeru Miyamoto on his in-progress games. The information, sourced from Official Nintendo Magazine in the UK, "states that Metroid Prime 2, Geist, Pokemon Fire Red and Leaf Green will all be released in Europe before the end of the year", meaning a U.S. release for these games are also likely during 2004. Miyamoto is fairly guarded about his current projects, which also include Pikmin 2, and comments on the continued mystery behind the next Mario title: "With Mario 128 I have been challenging many unprecedented things, not found in existing video games... [and] prone to lose their freshness or to be imitated once they go public." Which Nintendo products are you most looking forward to this year?

oh boy..

[ziggles]

[we won't talk about the games at all because the ideas are] "prone to lose their freshness or to be imitated once they go public"

the old standby for Miyamoto/Nintendo. Let's just hope it's not another Mario Sunshine. They said the same thing about that, relating to the water pack idea. I really enjoy that game, but the mystery was more exciting than the reality, which should never be allowed to happen with video games.

Re:I want Mario 128 to be great!

[Rallion]

I wouldn't say he's losing it, my man. You listed his greats, so list his recent less-greats:

Wind Waker? I thought it was fantastic, myself! Maybe no OoT, but certainly better than Majora's Mask was.

Pikmin? Hey...you know what, that was a hell of a lot of fun! And it was...weird. Almost creepy in its weirdness. I like that.

Luigi's Mansion? My sister loved it more than me, but I still had a lot of fun with it.

Sunshine? Takes too much heat if you ask me. It was better than 64 was, based purely on gameplay, it was just less innovative.

Those are all the ones I've really played extensively. And you know, with the exception of Sunshine, I'd say this is his most innovative crop yet!

Also, it's not as if every game he's ever made has been up there with Super Mario Bros. Even within my favorite franchise ever, Zelda, there are certainly versions that are only good, and not great.

I really see no cause to fret, even if 128 isn't as great as you could hope for. Though I sure hope it is, too.

Re:oh boy..

[ziggles]

They are saying something about Mario 128. They are saying that it contains ideas which are so incredibly new and inventive that they're afraid of being ripped off if they actually tell us what these ideas are. That's saying a lot. And what's worse is it's very vague so people will start creating their own theories of what the great idea is.. when the game comes out it will inevitably not be what most people are expecting because everyone has a different idea of a perfect game. And unless it's a masterpiece on the level of Ocarina of Time, people are going to be upset that it's not what they expected.

They did the same thing with Sunshine and people were upset.

What they should do is either say absolutely nothing, not even confirm that it is in development. Or reveal enough to set people's expectations at a level where they won't be disappointed because their self-created hype was left unchecked.

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Re:oh boy..

[antin]

I wish people would stop complaining about Mario Sunshine, it is actually a great game - better than Mario 64 in my opinion, and very unfairly treated by critics who were expecting some revolutionary step forward from Mario 64. Where was there to go? Nobody really complained that there are a half dozen 2D Marios that all have you doing roughly the same thing, and yet when we get the first sequel to a 3D Mario, they were suddenly expecting something never seen before?

Anyway the water pack idea was brilliant, it solved one of the 2 problems with 3D platformers, that being difficulty controlling the character in 3D (the other problem being camera control, which Sunshine also improved). The addition of the water pack allows characters the ability to hover for a slight moment to better position their character after a jump - something that is often both hard and frusting in all other 3D platformers. Playing any other 3D platformer after Sunshine just leaves you feeling woefully unable to control your character.

Could someone tell me?

[Anonymous Coward]

Why the hell Nintendo isn't doing more with the Pokemon franchise than a few spin off titles and RPG's for the Gameboy Advance?

I'm a game developer, and let me tell you, if I could develop a game for that franchise, I'd develop a full 3D action RPG. Imagine if you will, Hyrule Field in Zelda Ocarina of Time. Remember walking around that as Link? Well why not as Ash, with Pikachu following faithfully at your side? The Cube can handle much more detailed outdoor environments than Zelda could. With proper level design, one could explore fields, woods, towns, and caves, battling and capturing Pokemon. One possiblity would be to have a system whereby you target a Pokemon just as Link targetted his enemies, and press a button to toss a specific pokemon into battle against it. Battles could then progress in a style similar to Pokemon Stadium, or perhaps a realtime or timer-based battle system could be created. Pokemon attacks, timer ticks down, you have 10 seconds to make a selection or it recovers from it's previous attack and attacks again.

What is stopping them from doing this??? This would be exactly the sort of game which would put them back on the map. A game with the depth and fun of the RPG, but with the great graphics and awe inspiring environments of a third person game.

They already have all the characters modeled and animated. What are they waiting for? Mario Sunshine shows that they could model the sorts of towns that are featured throughout the Pokemon anime very well. They already have battle systems worked out, the strengths of the various attacks. It seems trivial for them to do, and would have been a perfect way to put the Gamecube on top way back when. I thought when they developed Pokemon Stadium that it was leading up to this but the N64 came and went. Could they really be that shortsighted that they can't see what a great game Pokemon would make in 3D? They need something major to give Pokemon new life, and more limited 2D RPG's ain't gonna do it.

Ninendo would have to be fools not to have this kind of title for the next system. They need something fresh and new. Something expansive and grand. Something that takes games to the next level of detail and interactivity. A world teeming with life and filled with combat and adventure would be perfect.

Re:Could someone tell me?

[Anonymous Coward]

What on earth are you talking about? Pokemon Colosseum is coming out in just a few weeks, and it's a full blown, 3rd person perspective, 30 hour RPG.

Re:Starfox was not done by NOJ

[Ian_Bailey]

Starfox began as a short demo created by Argonaut games with the intention of simply showing of the power of the Super FX chip. However, it was never intended for release.

It was Miyamoto who saw promise in the game. He requested they work more on it, added the animal characters to the game (perhaps to add character to a simple polygon game?), and probably tweaked the controls (as he usually does whenever he working on something).

On top of this, the other post demonstrates that Japan had some involvement, at least on the management side of things. In any case, it seems unlikely that the game would have been released or been as popular had NOJ been involved.

Pokemon adventure

[AzraelKans]

I think pokemon has the potential to become a large adventure game on the vein of zelda wind waker, I even remember that final fantasy VIIi did some pokemon homage by allowing you to "trap" guardians and spells and I remember thats what made the game fun, unfortunately nintendo has opted has opted for bringing a clone of the 8 bit pokemon each year and name it after every color and/or element/gem they can get in the office thesaurus, what a shame.

Other than that every other nintendo game is offering fails to bring any enthusiasm. sorry.

Starfox all the way....

[DumbWhiteGuy777]

Starfox has always been one of my favorites. I remember back in the day when it was the first for SNES to have some kind of super FX chip, and it blew us away! And the Nintendo 64 one was even better. I'm super anxious for the next installment. That last Starfox didn't have anything to do with how the game is traditionally done, and it was pretty bland as a zelda rip-off.

more of the same.

[August_zero]

I have to put my chips on Metroid Prime 2, even if it isn't a first party title exactly. Geist looks interesting too.

I don't think there will be a Wind Waker sequel this year (not that I don't want to be proved wrong on that conjecture) I mean, if you think back to fall of 2002 (8 months before Wind Waker 1) there was a lot of buzz about it already, details were scarce because, well this is nintendo we are talking about, but there was at least something floating around about it. Granted, for a sequel you won't need as much advanced hype since people already have a good idea of what a cel-shaded cube zelda is going to be like but I can't imagine Nintendo wouldn't be tossing out some images here and there to encourage healthy sales of the now dirt cheap gamecubes.

The unexpected

[nicksthings]

Personally, I'd like for Nintendo to do something completely unexpected. Sure, you could argue that the announcement of the DS was "unexpected" and in a way it was.

But at the same time, Nintendo doing seemingly idiotic things (read: most decisions they seem to have made in the past who knows how many years) is the only I think you can really expect from them these days. I'd like for them to get me excited about their products rather than having me scratch my head wondering just what the hell they were thinking.

I can count the number of games I'm interested in that are coming out for the GCN in the next few months on one hand. What's up with that?