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News 
Nintendo Gamers' Summit Interview -- Into the Abyss [page 2]
- Posted By Mike
Schneider, 08.16.2000
AW: Pokemon, Mario, and Zelda; which one would you pick if you had to go with just one
FT: Personally, I like all three of them, I think they all have really great strengths, and I’ve had fun playing all three of them to be perfectly honest. All three of them hit different parts of my gaming wants and needs. I think that Zelda is probably the most exciting for me personally.
| Holy bazooka! It must be a Jedi-mind lapse, because the question was essentially answered |
AW: With the next-generation systems we may see shorter development times, correct?
FT: Hopefully.
| Feel free to substitute "hopefully" with any of the following phrases: 'I think I'll defer you to the PR people,' 'One can dream,' 'One word: Rare,' 'In the perfect world, yes,' 'That'd be news to me,' 'Nintendo never sacrifices its game's quality in order to meet a deadline,' or 'I'd like to think so.' |
AW: With those development times, would we be able to see multi-genre games?
FT: I think you have that with many games today and nine times out of ten they fail just because of the complexity of creating any one of those games individually, if you’re going to slap something together – a slap together racing game with an adventure game with a first person game – they’ll have weak elements in all of those. I mean, you’re really better off just focusing on the core gameplay of one of those genres and making it the best you can [rather] then trying to make it all games to all of those people. In the end, I don’t think the quote;"shorter development time" is going to guarantee people getting games like that that are of quality.
| So Nintendo, or at least Mr. Thompson, seems to be against multi-genre games. That much is clear. |
AW: Ok. How about third party developers?
FT: In regards to?
AW: Well, will we be seeing more quality 3rd party games in development?
FT: Hopefully.
AW: Why would that be? Why would that change? FT: I think ultimately you know the 3rd parties currently have to meet a minimum level of quality to have their games published on the Nintendo platform, but I would hope that the people [3rd party developer] would just take their time and make good games – that’s from a consumer, as a person that loves videogames and buys videogames – I would hope that 3rd parties would have the sense to take a little bit more time. But ultimately, this is a business. People need to make money off of their products as they see fit. But Nintendo, on the other hand, our cornerstone is quality.
| The question is still left unanswered, being that some 3rd parties and videogame annalists blame Nintendo themselves for the lack of quality 3rd party titles. But we shouldn't complain, considering what is still ahead... |
AW: Is there any truth to this quote from one of Sega’s representatives?: “What does worry me is Dolphin’s sensory controller, which is rumored to include microphones and headphones jacks; because there’s an example of someone thinking about something different.”
FT: I have no comment on that.
AW: You have no comment on that? Alright. How about, what does proprietary DVD mean?
FT: I’m going to have to defer to the PR people, for a textbook definition of that.
AW: Oh, it’s just that it’s [the term] been used, I’m just wondering…
FT: Proprietary means that it is exclusive to that company.
AW: What would make it [the DVD drive] exclusive to that company [Nintendo]?
FT: That you would have to ask the PR people.
AW: How about, on the Dolphin will we get some upgrades of NES games like Metroid?
FT: That’s unknown; you’d have to ask the PR people.
AW: Load times?
FT: I’ll defer to the PR people on that one as well.
| Five... By now, the infamous Soup Nazi could be heard laughing in the background, shouting, "No soup for you N64Shooters.com; no soup for you!" |
AW: Custom Robo 2. Will we see that in the states? There’s a lot of gamers who want that.
FT: I wouldn’t bet on it.
AW: You wouldn’t bet on it…?
FT: We haven’t seen Custom Robo One.
AW: So you don’t see that as an American type game that gamers would play?
FT: I think Japanese gamers and American gamers have differences. In Japan, robots are really popular, and a robot themed game is more likely to do better in Japan than it is in America.
| Tell Nintendo that we'd like to see Custom Robo in America. The game was given a perfect 100 by Gamefan.com in their import review. |
AW: Do the next-generation systems have sprite power? Like, can you do a 2D fighter, or a 2D Shooter? The 2D shooting and platforming genres have basically disappeared except for on Gameboy.
FT: Right. AW: Games like Radiant Silver Gun, will we ever see those again?
FT: Personally, I think that those types of games don’t have mass-market appeal, and I don’t think you see them, not because it’s not possible to do, but it’s just because the consumers are not interested in those types of games in America. Those types of games, I’m sure, will always pop up in Japan…
AW: But they rarely come here…
FT: But they rarely come here because the videogame market is not interested in those types of games. They occasionally come out but they just don’t sell very well.
| Perhaps with some creative ideas, a little effort, and clever marketing Nintendo could develop a mainstream 2D game? Castlevania: Symphony of the Night sold quite well on PSX for being a 2D game... |
AW: Alright, one of the last things I can ask you about would be the music games: Parappa the Rapper, Space Channel 5, Guitar Freaks; we haven’t really seen them on Nintendo systems…
FT: I think those games were Japanese phenomenons, and once somebody successfully releases one here, we’ll probably follow suit.
AW: Parappa the Rapper. I thought that was pretty successful.
FT: Yeah… It’s debatable how successful it actually was, you know, but obviously it hasn’t garnered enough audience so that everyone is jumping on the bandwagon to bring those types of games out. Personally I like ‘em, I think they’re great. I love Guitar Freaks, I love Dance Dance Revolution, Drum Mania for Playstation2 is one of the funnest games on the platform...
AW: and that’s not saying much…
FT: but that’s not saying much for the Playstation2. But I think once one of those games gets really popular – I see kids in the arcade playing some Dance Dance Revolution – but Konami has the marketing prowess to actually bring that out here and get good distribution and get people to buy it, then I’m sure you’ll see a lot more of those types of games.
| "I think those games were Japanese phenomenon's," he says. Pokemon was a Japenese phenomenon, we says. |
AW: Well, thanks for your time.
FT: Yep, no problem.
-Interview conducted by Andrew Weatherton on 8.8.00, typed up complete with witty analysis by Mike Schneider; put on site on 8.16.00
***Witty analysis added for humor value only, no offense should be taken from it by Nintendo. We still love you.
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