Quote:Zelda Tops 250,000 Preorders
And the official pre-sell program has yet to start, says Nintendo.
February 13, 2003 - Nintendo of America today announced that more than 250,000 gamers in the US have already pre-ordered its anticipated action-adventure Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. That figure is made all the more impressive, according to the publisher, because it's official pre-sell program for the game has yet to start.
Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker follows child hero Link on an all-new epic quest, this time to rescue his kidnapped sister. The game's unique cel-shaded style mingles with traditional play mechanics and never-before-seen additions to the franchise. Wind Waker has repeatedly garnered high praise by the press and Japanese importers alike and is considered to be one of the most important releases of the year.
Nintendo said that on February 16 it would kick off the official pre-sell program for the next chapter in the Zelda series. The firm reiterated that with a deposit for the game at participating retailers, consumers would immediately receive a bonus disc that includes both Ocarina of Time and Master Quest Zelda games free of charge to "keep them busy" until the March 24 release of Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker.
"This truly is Zelda cubed! Two impressive Zelda games, leading to the highly anticipated new Zelda adventure, for the price of one and only for Nintendo GameCube," said George Harrison, senior vice president, marketing and corporate communications, Nintendo of America. "What better way to celebrate the forthcoming release of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker than to give Zelda fans a collectors item that will provide a nostalgic or for some, a classic introduction to the series."
We'll have much more on Zelda in the coming weeks. Stay tuned.
Cool, I got my comment posted at Nintendorks again. This marks the third time I've gotten into a Vibe Entry (the first time was as Daniel Coleman, the rest as OB1). I've also gotten my comments posted in five DRCs. I feel special.
I pulled a Dark Jaguar by being serious while not being serious at the same time:
Quote:Actually there is a real answer to that question. The rumor started in the Japanese gaming magazine V-Jump (or something) and it was about a Gamecube game that was going to star some of their staff, so they were joking by saying that it was going to move a bunch of Gamecubes. Seriously. It was a joke. - OB1
Brandon: WHAT WOULD WE DO WITHOUT YOU!?!
CJ: Seriousness has no place at this house of sarcasm.
Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of some of the most highly-regarded series in the history of videogames, recently sat down with Japan's Weekly Famitsu magazine for a chat. In the interview, Miyamoto revealed that he wil be unveiling a new "remarkable" game at this year's Electronics Entertainment Expo and it will take advantage of Game Boy Advance-to-GameCube connectivity.
Recently, Miyamoto stated that he'd like to work on a new Zelda game, in addition to the Mario and Pikmin games he's currently cooking up. Whether the title set to be shown at E3 is one of these three titles, or an original project is cloaked in shadow.
This year's Electronics Entertainment Expo will take place at the Los Angeles Convention Center in smoggy Los Angeles, California from May 12th to the 14th. GAF will be there representin', so expect full coverage from the show floor.
Source: QUITER/Famitsu
Posted by: Nintendarse - 13th February 2003, 11:52 AM - Forum: Tendo City
- No Replies
There are very few things within the video game industry that carry immense mindshare among the American consumers: Doom, Mortal Kombat, Pokemon, Grand Theft Auto, and duct tape. If the hardcore fans are any indication, Zelda is a part of this elite group. 250,000 preorders are on record for the Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker so far. This news comes right before the kickoff of Nintendo's preorder campaign, which officially starts February 16th. Once the mass-market retailers like Walmart, Toys R Us, and KB Toys become privy to the deal, this number will grow.
This is encouraging news for Nintendo of America. Analysts and Nintendo fans feared that the new Zelda look might turn away consumers, but 250,000 seems to be a very strong at the start of a preorder campaign. The strength of this program will be demonstrated in the March sales of Zelda:WW, which will account for the first week of sales.
For comparison's sake, Super Mario Sunshine sold 300,000 in its first week. It is likely that, with the Zelda name and the inclusion of free merchandise, Link will outperform his Italian plumber counterpart.
Posted by: Weltall - 13th February 2003, 7:20 AM - Forum: Tendo City
- No Replies
Sega to Merge with Sammy, Slashes 02/03 Forecast
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese game maker Sega Corp. and pachinko slot machine maker Sammy Corp. said on Thursday they had agreed to merge their operations on October 1 in a bid to form a comprehensive entertainment firm.
The tie-up would bring together Japan's largest maker of pachinko machines with Sega, Japan's largest game arcade operator and also creator of videogame character Sonic the Hedgehog.
The companies gave no details about how the merger would be carried out but said that Sammy President Hajime Satomi would head the new firm.
"By combining both companies' technological and developmental abilities, Sammy's high growth power and Sega's global brand power, we will be able...to address the needs of a large range of global customers spanning a wide age range," the two firms said in a statement.
After pulling out of the game console business in 2001, Sega has been struggling in its efforts to become the global leading game publisher, pulled down by its performance in North America.
In a separate announcement on Thursday, Sega slashed its group net profit forecast for the year to March to 500 million yen ($4.12 million) from a previous forecast of five billion yen, citing poor games sales in the United States.
The earnings revision was largely due to poor U.S. sales of "Sega Sports NFL 2K3," an American football simulation game released in August.
The Tokyo-based company has been shifting its focus to software development in consumer games since pulling the plug on its loss-making Dreamcast game console early in 2001 in the face of stiff competition.
U.S. sales of the football game were a major disappointment for Sega, prompting its top management to declare "total defeat" to its U.S. rival Electronic Arts Inc and its American football game "Madden NFL 2003."
Sales of another sports game, "NBA2K3," recently launched in the United States were also lower than its original estimate.
Sega said it had decided to postpone the domestic launch of two major game titles for Sony's PlayStation 2 console -- originally planned in March -- to some time after April, which would also drag down its earnings for this business year.
The announcement came after the close of Thursday trading. Earlier, shares in Sega ended up 1.81 percent at 901 yen, while Sammy closed up 1.86 percent at 2,470 yen. The Nikkei average was down 0.74 percent.
Quote:Halo 2 is a lot like Halo, only it's Halo on fire, going 130 miles per hour through a hospital zone, being chased by helicopters and ninjas. And the ninjas are all on fire, too."
-Jason Jones
Official X-Box Magazine
Posted by: Weltall - 12th February 2003, 11:12 PM - Forum: NES Reviews
- No Replies
<small>Review: Tecmo Bowl Platform: NES Release Date: 12/13/1991 Rating: 7.0/10</small>
<blockquote>Tecmo Bowl was a rather nice football game that appeared on the NES years ago. Featuring all 28 teams (at that time) and rosters for the main defensive and offensive players on a team, and displayed from a 2D side angle, Tecmo Bowl was a pretty good game that remains playable, and is a source for nostalgia (ah, the times when Bubby Brister quarterbacked the Pittsburgh Steelers). </blockquote> Graphics:7.5
<blockquote>Each team has it's own helmet and logo, which was unusual in the day. The players themselves are all nondescript little guys on the field, but each team has their own colors to eliminate confusion. There seems to be just one stadium where all the games are played, and the end zones have different colored Tecmo logos instead of team logos. Special plays, like sacks, interceptions, touchdowns, and such are accentuated by short cut-scenes to add a bit of drama and realism to the event. It's still the only football game in my memory that actually has a halftime show, with cutscenes of various halftime events. Overall, it's not flashy, it just does the job well.</blockquote> Sound:8.5
<blockquote>Tecmo Bowl features, among other things, digitized voices, mostly referee signals, and they are done pretty well. Crowd noise is alright, but hardly important. Another thing that Tecmo Bowl has that other games no longer do is a musical score, and it changes in various situations. It's a nice touch, one I miss in the days of sports games trying ever harder to perfectly emulate the experience of watching a game on TV. </blockquote> Gameplay:6.0
<blockquote>Excecuting plays is usually a cinch. However, you will often find yourself picking the wrong play because you press the button wrong, and that can lead to you giving up a big play, especially when you mistakenly pick a running play on 3rd and 18. An audible system would have helped. It also seems that sometimes the computer opponent is either totally outmatched or ends up nailing you for 30 yards every play. Another problem is that once you pick the defensive player you want to control for the play, you're stuck with him until it's over, and that's irritating as can be when you select a cornerback, the offense calls a run and you can never even get within 20 yards of the running back.
Negatives aside, the game is fun, it's fast, and most importantly it's easy to get into. There doesn't seem to be any money plays either, which is a bonus. My favorite play, the HB sweep, sometimes gets me 50 yards, sometimes gets me a 3 yard loss. The stats system is impressively comprehensive, considering it's an NES game, and allows for entire seasons of play (a downside though is that unless you want to control all 28 teams, you'll have to simulate every game you do not play, and that can take awhile). </blockquote> Overall:7.0
<blockquote>All in all, this is the best NFL football game to be found on the NES. Despite it's shortcomings, the game is fun, and is still playable after all these years, and that's primarily due to there being nothing like this game anymore. It's definitely a different experience from your Maddens or your NFL2K3s. It's worth a shot, definitely.
Anyhow... check out ign's new screens and movies of this crappy-looking game. I'm sure it'll be fun, but it looks like the N64 game, damnit! Here are some screens:
AAAGGHH!!! Those textures! That aliasing! Those models!!
I'm still convinced that this is an N64 game and Nintendo doesn't even realize it. How else can it look this bad?
The US developer and Nintendo top brass - including Shigeru Miyamoto - discuss Samus's breathtaking 3D adventure
18:51Metroid Prime was today dissected and explained in a conference call boasting attendees from developer Retro Studios, Nintendo of Japan and journalists from across Europe. With the incredible first-person action title gearing up for release in Europe next month, staff members from East and West took the time to discuss the massive title in great depth.
The conference was preceded by a brief address from gaming legend Shigeru Miyamoto, who said of the project: "Like any other game by Nintendo, Metroid took a long time to create. But I can tell you the development process was very smooth." Both Retro and NCL then fielded questions from journalists, the full, must-read transcript of which we've provided below. Enjoy.
Answering the questions were:
(NCL)
Mr. Miyamoto
Mr. Tanabe
Ms. Tabata
Mr. Otani (co-producer) from EAD
Mr Minagawa (translator)
(Retro Studios)
Steve Barcia, Executive Producer
Mark Pacini, Lead Designer
Michael Mann, Producer
Karl Deckard, Senior Designer
Metroid has traditionally been more popular in the West than in Japan, why do you think this is, and do you think Metroid Prime will change this?
Barcia: When we were creating Metroid Prime, we were thinking about the worldwide market, and what would appeal to both the Western and Japanese markets. We took some of the best parts from the old game that we thought were important and upon that built a quality product.
What has NCL learned from its development partnership with Retro Studios, and has it made NCL more aware of what excites Western gamers?
NCL:How to make games that are cool and appeal to the West is something we've learned through working with Retro. But we know that there must be a difference in expression, as different things are cool in the US and Japan.
Those who developed the original Metroid game were very enthusiastic. But having worked with Retro people, their enthusiasm exceeds the original team - that's something else we've learned.
Did you ever envisage a multiplayer option for Metroid Prime?
Barcia: When we first came up with the game, we considered all possibilities, but we decided to focus on creating the best single-player game possible.
How difficult was it to turn a classic 2D title into a 3D adventure while retaining the feel of the original?
Pacini: When we first discuseed things with the core design team and were trying to decide what made Metroid Metroid, everyone came with something different that they felt was "Metroid." For example: exploration, a cool character and the mood of the game - things that Metroid were.
There are some things that are fun no matter if it's 2D or 3D. Those are the things we tried to bring from the original.
Then we tried to bring this to life in the first-person environment - and a lot of that had to do with the visors. Much of how the visor works came from the exploration part of the original.
Is a sequel to Metroid Prime your sole focus or do you have other projects in development at present? Can you tell us anything about the sequel?
Barcia:We are still working on the Japanese conversion of Metroid Prime and don't have the time to talk about the next game now.
Metroid Prime is an FPS that has received incredible praise across the board. How do you feel you've evolved the genre?
Deckard: We were trying to break away from the mould of FPSs actually. We felt that a lot of FPSs on console were similar and difficult to control and that the genre didn't translate from PC too well. Therefore we had a different set of goals for what we wanted to do. We were concentrating more on exploration and making it feel like previous games in the series.
If it was just a typical first-person shooter I don't think it would have felt the same as the rest of the Metroid franchise. So we had different goals in creating a first-person adventure
We have heard stories about the troubled development of Metroid Prime. How did you manage to turn the tides and finish the game this way?
Barcia: We focused the entire studio's efforts on Metroid Prime. Originally we'd had other projects in development, but didn't have the focus we needed to complete any of them, so making the studio's focus just on Metroid Prime is how we turned it around.
Did the GameCube controller have any influence on the innovative first person game controls in Metroid Prime? Or did you design the new control scheme first and try to fit it to the controller later?
Pacini: We had the unique privilege to design Metroid Prime for one console, therefore we started to develop for the new controller before GameCube was out. Our attitude was that Metroid Prime might be the first GC game people play, so we wanted to realise the uniqueness of the GC controller.
Did we design the game around the controller? To a large degree yes, but at the same time we wanted to breakaway a little from some of the other problems faced by FPSs on other formats. Dual analogue is a good control scheme, but we felt we'd try something a little more approachable for people who play this as their first first-person shooter. This steered many of our ideas.
NCL: When we designed the controller we were thinking in terms of games like Metroid Prime. When we started working with Retro on Metroid, we discussed which features could make use of the controller's unique features. And now you are going to see other games like Wind Waker, which were in our minds when making the controller. Nintendo titles always make best use of the controller.
By actually holding it it's not strange, very natural. The controller has been developed by Nintendo, therefore, for those who have had access to original Zelda and Metroid titles. We have made sure that by using the controller, the new games will still feel the same.
Did you work together with the creators of previous Metroid-games, or have you created Metroid Prime all on your own?
Barcia: We worked with both EAD and the original team. It was originally their game - we knew what we liked about it but it was a very collaborative effort in designing the direction of Metroid Prime.
Why was it not possible to release Metroid Prime simultaneously worldwide?
Barcia: This was simply not achievable at the same time. We've had to make the best effort to tailor certain aspects of the game for each territory and do the best job with each one.
What was the most frustrating aspect of developing Metroid Prime?
Pacini: I don't know about frustrating - we enjoyed the whole experience and were proud of how it turned out.
The level design is excellent. How much time did you spend conceiving the Tallon IV world?
Pacini: As far as the world is concerned, it pretty much took the entire project to make it as high quality as it is. The original idea was more of an overview of what we wanted the game to be, how large.
But as far as each individual level is concerned, it took quite a while to work out what to do in each room and so on. As far as coming up with the ideas for the worlds, that was the part of the initial development stage.
The 3D map is really useful. When did you decide to make it in full 3D?
Deckard: From the very beginning, we knew that was something we wanted to do. It fits the future-tech nature of Metroid Prime and makes sense as something Samsus's suit would feature.
During the Metroid development it is true that Retro cancelled all its other projects to focus on Metroid Prime? If so, what happened to all your other projects?
Deckard:We still have all of the material involved with the other projects, but our focus went on to completing this game to the highest quality.
How did you feel when Nintendo asked you to develop such an important game as Metroid Prime?
Barcia:Very enthusiastic - everyone had a tremendous sense of excitement.
Deckard: Most of us are huge fans of the original anyway. As soon as we found out we could get involved we started coming up with ideas.
Pacini: When it was announced we had the opportunity to have the project at Retro, it was around the same time as Star Wars: Episode I, so I was equating it with that. It seemed to me that it had that much anticipation. The excitement and possibilities it compassed were enormous.
Do you think it would be possible to introduce some type of multiplayer mechanics, or is that just impossible for the type of game Metroid is?
Barcia: It's possible, but it's something we have to investigate thoroughly.
Did you have any movies or games that inspired you?
Pacini: People see things in movies and games that are fun to do. Super Metroid itself is great fun - we're big fans so what better game to draw ideas from than this? As far as movies go, we're really big into looking at scenes in different movies and seeing how they can translate into a game. In particular, we were looking at any sci-fi with a powerful female lead - the Alien movies were obviously important here.
What feature of Metroid Prime makes you particularly proud?
Pacini: I think I'm most proud of the morph ball. It was by far the most challenging aspect of development. It's a staple of the original series and to have a fluid transition and fluid gameplay experience between first- and morph ball mode was extremely challenging, but which worked really well and defined many of the elements of the game. I'm extremely proud of that part in particular.
NCL: Of the initial experiments we carried out, a large portion of them were to do with the morph ball. It's not overstating the matter to say that if we could not have had success with the morph ball, the whole project might have been cancelled.
The morph ball experiments were that important, specifically the move between first- and third-person. What Retro showed us at the beginning was very smooth, much smoother than we expected. That was the time we realized this was a project which was going to work well.
There are nearly no loading times in the game - how did you do that?
Barcia:The engineers did a really good job, and we always wanted practically no load times. It's something we recognised early on and we worked towards that end.
NCL: Metroid moves very fast, whereas software from other developers on other platforms often suffers from long loading times.
There have been rumours about a Metroid film - do you know anything about it and which actress would you like to see in the role of Samus?
Barcia: Jennifer Garner! If you're listening... [laughs]
NCL:Mr. Miyamoto is going to be the hero! [long pause] It's a joke! [laughs] The fact of the matter is that with almost each title we developer someone offers a film opportunity or other. There are a lot of possibilities and rumours.
Metroid Prime received overwhelming positive feedback, achieving an average review score of around 97%. At which point during the development did you truly believe that Metroid Prime could be a hit?
Pacini: We could tell very early on in the level that is a pirate ship that this was gonna be a solid game.
NCL:We agree. Even before we started making the game we knew about the technology and the team at Retro, so knew the game would be successful.
What were the biggest difficulties during development of the game?
NCL:I wouldn't say we had difficulties, but what I should say is that at a very early stage we had to emphasise exactly what the game would be - a first-person exploration title. When we started working on it, didn't people say it would become just another FPS? We say it is a combination of various things like FPS, morph ball and exploration.
That kind vision has to be shared by all of the people in the team. There were many discussions to identify these specific goals.