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StarTopic Nintendo First Party Software Development |ST| Nintendo Party Superstars

So yeah, we can jot down one Pokemon Day announcement at least.

https://together.pokemon.com/assets/langs/content.json

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I hope this isn't yet another remake and cheap looking
 
I know we all know about Splatoon 2 game designers missing from 3 (implying next 2D Mario). But there is one thing that I believe has a very good chance of happening and that is Tsubasa Sakaguchi (one of the directors of Splatoon and then director of LABO) and Yusuke Amano (the other director of Splatoon and Splatoon 2). What if they are doing new IP? Possibly for a new hardware? Altough the fact that Amano was NSMB2 director makes me think he will just be a director of a new 2D Mario.
 
I know we all know about Splatoon 2 game designers missing from 3 (implying next 2D Mario). But there is one thing that I believe has a very good chance of happening and that is Tsubasa Sakaguchi (one of the directors of Splatoon and then director of LABO) and Yusuke Amano (the other director of Splatoon and Splatoon 2). What if they are doing new IP? Possibly for a new hardware? Altough the fact that Amano was NSMB2 director makes me think he will just be a director of a new 2D Mario.
random thought, not much more: what if they're they ones doing danky kang, another reinvention.
 
I know we all know about Splatoon 2 game designers missing from 3 (implying next 2D Mario). But there is one thing that I believe has a very good chance of happening and that is Tsubasa Sakaguchi (one of the directors of Splatoon and then director of LABO) and Yusuke Amano (the other director of Splatoon and Splatoon 2). What if they are doing new IP? Possibly for a new hardware? Altough the fact that Amano was NSMB2 director makes me think he will just be a director of a new 2D Mario.
I think a next gen new IP is a good guess. I also think that if Star Fox ever comes back Amano will be one of the main people involved
 
Still kinda want NST to make their own full American franchise.

(And yes, Project H.A.M.M.E.R. responses are coming but I also kinda want them to redeem that thing in a way).
I am thoroughly interested in what NST do next. They've got some of their GameCube era talent back recently, Bowser's Fury was really good, and they've been on a hiring spree.
 
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I agree that NST is the one to watch, they could be gearing up for a potential renaissance. I'd also think they would be perfect to assist Retro on MP4, whether it's for a potential online MP mode, or just in general. Better fit than Next Level Games or working with EPD Tokyo instead IMO.

But most of all hopefully they are now cooking up revivals of Nintendo's key "western"-oriented IPs like Wave Race, 1080, Excite, Pilotwings, the works. Hell I'd even say Nintendo should work on getting a Left Field-esc team strictly on licensed sport games. Such a shame Nintendo Pennant Chase Baseball fell through, but more so that Left Field left back in the day when they could've been an ample supplier of such games. Not like we're drowning in the big stuff other than NBA 2K and the crappy FIFA/FC legacy edition garbage.

On the other hand, Next Level Games is glowing in potential for any sort of NHL game, being the sport of not just Canada, but in their home turf Vancouver! I still want to see them do a Super Mario Slapshot ice hockey game, or do a sort of successor to NHL Hitz Pro or something.

Nintendo just needs more stuff to cater to the west, as much as Mario and company are for "everyone", they need more diversity in franchises that target more than just "everyone" and "Japan" if you know what I mean? They had these in the N64 and early GC days but Iwata kind of killed off most of that bar the somehow miracle it even happened Excite Truck. But with Monster Games gone to iRacing, Nintendo has no real substitute right now. Lord knows what Monster would've given us if they hadn't given up after two AAA Nintendo ports. I bet Nintendo in the modern era would've given them some great projects to work on, maybe even new racing ones, but alas, they jumped ship. Hindsight and all that.
 
I don’t want NST to keep assisting. I want them to make brand new games. They’re in a much better place now than they were a generation ago.
 
I agree that NST is the one to watch, they could be gearing up for a potential renaissance. I'd also think they would be perfect to assist Retro on MP4, whether it's for a potential online MP mode, or just in general. Better fit than Next Level Games or working with EPD Tokyo instead IMO.

But most of all hopefully they are now cooking up revivals of Nintendo's key "western"-oriented IPs like Wave Race, 1080, Excite, Pilotwings, the works. Hell I'd even say Nintendo should work on getting a Left Field-esc team strictly on licensed sport games. Such a shame Nintendo Pennant Chase Baseball fell through, but more so that Left Field left back in the day when they could've been an ample supplier of such games. Not like we're drowning in the big stuff other than NBA 2K and the crappy FIFA/FC legacy edition garbage.

On the other hand, Next Level Games is glowing in potential for any sort of NHL game, being the sport of not just Canada, but in their home turf Vancouver! I still want to see them do a Super Mario Slapshot ice hockey game, or do a sort of successor to NHL Hitz Pro or something.

Nintendo just needs more stuff to cater to the west, as much as Mario and company are for "everyone", they need more diversity in franchises that target more than just "everyone" and "Japan" if you know what I mean? They had these in the N64 and early GC days but Iwata kind of killed off most of that bar the somehow miracle it even happened Excite Truck. But with Monster Games gone to iRacing, Nintendo has no real substitute right now. Lord knows what Monster would've given us if they hadn't given up after two AAA Nintendo ports. I bet Nintendo in the modern era would've given them some great projects to work on, maybe even new racing ones, but alas, they jumped ship. Hindsight and all that.
Chasing old flames never work out well. None of these studios are going back and they probably don't want to, especially Monster Games. With new blood, new hardware, and new leadership out of Japan, they're all better off forging new identities
 
Personally I think licensed sports titles are boring, and I'm glad Nintendo isn't wasting time on them anymore. Next Level making an NHL title would be terrible, a waste of their talent at making colorful and cartoony games. Thankfully, there's plenty of stuff available from third parties for people who want that sort of thing. Would love to see them on some sort of new Wario title! A character like him would be well suited for the expressiveness of Next Level's animation work.

As for Monster, I'm glad they left to make games they wanted to make. It must have been frustrating to be stuck on port and assistance duty. Why bother sticking around when there's no guarantee of getting to work on the titles they wanted to make? Better to move on and do what you want. After all, Nintendo is not the end all be all of games.

Now NST, what they should be doing... collaboration with Intelligent Systems on a brand new, HD Panel de Pon, complete with all the fairies. That would be incredible!
 
NdCube Presents: Panel de Party

This would be extremely funny and I would love it. Other possibilities:

Fire Party
Devil Party
For Frog the Bell Parties
Famicom Detective Party
Joy Mech Party
Sin and Party

The endless potential...
 
I agree that NST is the one to watch, they could be gearing up for a potential renaissance. I'd also think they would be perfect to assist Retro on MP4, whether it's for a potential online MP mode, or just in general. Better fit than Next Level Games or working with EPD Tokyo instead IMO.

But most of all hopefully they are now cooking up revivals of Nintendo's key "western"-oriented IPs like Wave Race, 1080, Excite, Pilotwings, the works. Hell I'd even say Nintendo should work on getting a Left Field-esc team strictly on licensed sport games. Such a shame Nintendo Pennant Chase Baseball fell through, but more so that Left Field left back in the day when they could've been an ample supplier of such games. Not like we're drowning in the big stuff other than NBA 2K and the crappy FIFA/FC legacy edition garbage.

On the other hand, Next Level Games is glowing in potential for any sort of NHL game, being the sport of not just Canada, but in their home turf Vancouver! I still want to see them do a Super Mario Slapshot ice hockey game, or do a sort of successor to NHL Hitz Pro or something.

Nintendo just needs more stuff to cater to the west, as much as Mario and company are for "everyone", they need more diversity in franchises that target more than just "everyone" and "Japan" if you know what I mean? They had these in the N64 and early GC days but Iwata kind of killed off most of that bar the somehow miracle it even happened Excite Truck. But with Monster Games gone to iRacing, Nintendo has no real substitute right now. Lord knows what Monster would've given us if they hadn't given up after two AAA Nintendo ports. I bet Nintendo in the modern era would've given them some great projects to work on, maybe even new racing ones, but alas, they jumped ship. Hindsight and all that.
We need to let go of this N64-era Nintendo that put out NBA Courtside and Baseball or American Football games. Nintendo shifted to global appeal, not "either" Japanese or Western. At best it's packaging their home-grown Japanese ideas and aesthetics in an accessible way for a global Nintendo audience.

If you ask me about a worst-case Nintendo scenario, I'd name exactly that "Left Field-esque" slide into hell where they have a developer dedicated to licensed(yuck!) sports games that only have appeal in one or maybe two regions (remember that in Europe, for example, nobody cares about Baseball or American Football outside of the Superbowl as a gimmick event). Not even Mario's Baseball games got released in Europe! Not even Mario! Licensed sports is a dead end. I cannot think of a worse waste of their resources and potential talent than this road.

Nintendo doesn't need to "cater to the West". Now, if you instead pitched this as have someone work on smaller/mid-sized projects that skew a little older than E-rated family stuff (I'm not talking "violence", I'm talking themes), that I could get down with. There's a lot of room there to play around with stuff that isn't "just" Xenoblade.

PS: do remember that NST now has established a successful working relationship with EPD Tokyo specifically (Captain Toad 3DS/Bowser's Fury).
Personally I think licensed sports titles are boring, and I'm glad Nintendo isn't wasting time on them anymore. Next Level making an NHL title would be terrible, a waste of their talent at making colorful and cartoony games.
this basically
 
We need to let go of this N64-era Nintendo that put out NBA Courtside and Baseball or American Football games. Nintendo shifted to global appeal, not "either" Japanese or Western. At best it's packaging their home-grown Japanese ideas and aesthetics in an accessible way for a global Nintendo audience.

If you ask me about a worst-case Nintendo scenario, I'd name exactly that "Left Field-esque" slide into hell where they have a developer dedicated to licensed(yuck!) sports games that only have appeal in one or maybe two regions (remember that in Europe, for example, nobody cares about Baseball or American Football outside of the Superbowl as a gimmick event). Not even Mario's Baseball games got released in Europe! Not even Mario! Licensed sports is a dead end. I cannot think of a worse waste of their resources and potential talent than this road.

Nintendo doesn't need to "cater to the West". Now, if you instead pitched this as have someone work on smaller/mid-sized projects that skew a little older than E-rated family stuff (I'm not talking "violence", I'm talking themes), that I could get down with. There's a lot of room there to play around with stuff that isn't "just" Xenoblade.

PS: do remember that NST now has established a successful working relationship with EPD Tokyo specifically (Captain Toad 3DS/Bowser's Fury).

this basically
I'm not saying that Nintendo has to make just this type of game, but there are Western-style games like Call of Duty, Diablo or Assassin's Creed that are liked and sold all over the world, including Japan.

I also think that this approach is the one they have with Next Level Games , Retro and other occidentals developments
 
I'm not saying that Nintendo has to make just this type of game, but there are Western-style games like Call of Duty, Diablo or Assassin's Creed that are liked and sold all over the world, including Japan.
I do agree with that. Having more development presence globally is something I always wanted Nintendo to do more of. The problem I had was that during the Wii U days, people seemed to think that Nintendo of America and Nintendo of Europe needed their own studios to make their own western games with no NCL involvement.

Why?... NoA and NoE know jack shit about making games, they had no actual developers, or executives well versed in game development. I still remember how people kept bitching about Retro making Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze and how Nintendo is obviously holding them back. Yet these same people fail to realize that Nintendo SPD was the biggest reason Retro made anything good to begin with.
 
I'm not saying that Nintendo has to make just this type of game, but there are Western-style games like Call of Duty, Diablo or Assassin's Creed that are liked and sold all over the world, including Japan.

I also think that this approach is the one they have with Next Level Games , Retro and other occidentals developments
Yea and that's just Zelda, Metroid, and Xenoblade. It's ultimately just about games where you play a regular-ish human character in a non-cartoony world and sports. They already do sports their own way (we need more goofy arcade sports, less licensed sports). There's not really any distinct approach with NLG or Retro. Retro made Donkey Kong Country, that's not really catering to Western sensibilities. It's brilliant and they nailed everything about it but there's nothing particulary Western about it. Same with NLG. Luigi's Mansion is just expanding on the original Miyamoto game. Same with Punch-Out!!. Strikers has a bit more of an edge but that's also just putting hot sauce on a dish we could have gotten elsewhere (they also make great Mario Sports in Japan). Again I'm not saying anything bad about these, I'm just trying to outline why there's nothing particularly "catering to the West" about any of these. The most "cater to the West" they have is Metroid Prime because it's a first person sci-fi game which is synonymous with lots of Western games (and as MagiCarbo pointed out what caused the heated gamer moments when their "dark sci-fi first person" darling suddenly made the monkey banana game^^).

Trying to cater to one specific region of your market is a bad idea. They can achieve these things a without limiting themselves that way. And btw, I'm all for them collaborating with developers from around the globe. New/outside perspectives are a good thing.
 
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I personally would rather they make more Famicom Detective Club over worry about some dumb COD game to chase trends. Nintendo has enough games selling literally more than the competitions exclusives and third party releases put together in some cases, there's room to dig into actual deep stuff that's interesting, and not some stuff that Nintendo YouTubers make videos about.

TLDR: More FDC.
 
I personally would rather they make more Famicom Detective Club over worry about some dumb COD game to chase trends. Nintendo has enough games selling literally more than the competitions exclusives and third party releases put together in some cases, there's room to dig into actual deep stuff that's interesting, and not some stuff that Nintendo YouTubers make videos about.

TLDR: More FDC.
Unless FDC has a hook to hit the charts next time, the series will struggle to get new games. Nintendo isn't in the business of continuously pumping out niche crowd pleasers
 
Unless FDC has a hook to hit the charts next time, the series will struggle to get new games. Nintendo isn't in the business of continuously pumping out niche crowd pleasers
Well they did below the bare minimum for FDC in the West outside of just localizing and don't even discount or let people buy with vouchers outside select regions.
 
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Nintendo's teams generally seem to do best on games with broad appeal though there's obvious value in titles with a more serious tone like Metroid. But I think the notion that Nintendo doesn't appeal enough to "Western" gamers is silly when you consider their strength in the US and some European markets. What people generally seem to mean is that they should cater to the same market Sony does: "18 to 35 year old Western males".
 
I personally would rather they make more Famicom Detective Club over worry about some dumb COD game to chase trends. Nintendo has enough games selling literally more than the competitions exclusives and third party releases put together in some cases, there's room to dig into actual deep stuff that's interesting, and not some stuff that Nintendo YouTubers make videos about.

TLDR: More FDC.

yea basically what I said here:

Nintendo doesn't need to "cater to the West". Now, if you instead pitched this as have someone work on smaller/mid-sized projects that skew a little older than E-rated family stuff (I'm not talking "violence", I'm talking themes), that I could get down with. There's a lot of room there to play around with stuff that isn't "just" Xenoblade.
 
I personally would rather they make more Famicom Detective Club over worry about some dumb COD game to chase trends. Nintendo has enough games selling literally more than the competitions exclusives and third party releases put together in some cases, there's room to dig into actual deep stuff that's interesting, and not some stuff that Nintendo YouTubers make videos about.

TLDR: More FDC.

Absolutely! FDC is one of their best series. Not impossible that a sequel happens, given that the games aren't as expensive to make as some other series would be. The biggest hurdle I think might be a developer; I remember hearing Mages is having some financial trouble. If they go under, they'll have to find someone else interested.

And before it gets suggested, no, Nintendo should not buy Mages.
 
Absolutely! FDC is one of their best series. Not impossible that a sequel happens, given that the games aren't as expensive to make as some other series would be. The biggest hurdle I think might be a developer; I remember hearing Mages is having some financial trouble. If they go under, they'll have to find someone else interested.

And before it gets suggested, no, Nintendo should not buy Mages.
how about we buy Mages
 
Nintendo's own most recent investor briefing had tidbits that point out regional skews; Zelda and Metroid more popular in North America than other regions, ditto Pokemon and Splatoon in Asia. In Europe, Kirby, Switch Sports and Mario Strikers outperformed expectations in 2022. They do enough different things across brands and genres that there's regional variation even with globally appealing titles.

I'm all for more stuff from Nintendo, but I can't really see that much appeal or business reasoning in them putting existing resources into licensed sports games. Wave Race or Excitebike, though? Yes please.
 
Nintendo's teams generally seem to do best on games with broad appeal though there's obvious value in titles with a more serious tone like Metroid. But I think the notion that Nintendo doesn't appeal enough to "Western" gamers is silly when you consider their strength in the US and some European markets. What people generally seem to mean is that they should cater to the same market Sony does: "18 to 35 year old Western males".
And with Microsoft already following Sony's suit, I don't think we need another company doing the same thing. It would be like every major player in the film industry releasing only MCU-style superhero movies.

Besides, with the Switch, we saw Nintendo working more with western devs, with titles such as Snipperclips (from the UK), Good Job! (Netherlands) or The Stretcher (Sweden). These gameplay-first games are more fitting with Nintendo's philosophy than a CoD clone. And of course, we also have NST, Retro, Mercury Steam and WayForward giving their "Western spin" to long-established Japanese properties. These two approaches are working pretty well, I think.

I'm not interested in Nintendo funding a CoD clone or getting the rights of NBL, and I don't think they are interested either (remember Geist? Nintendo basically wanted a Metroid Prime out of that game, while the developers were aiming for a traditional FPS). "Let's do what our competitors are doing" is literally the antithesis of everything Nintendo. With that said, something I could theoretically see is Nintendo pulling a Bayonetta and rescuing an AAA Western game of an established IP, but even this scenario requires the right game and the right developer (they should of course be OK with working on a relatively lower spech hardware, and tbh I think most AAA Western devs wouldn't be fine).
 
I'm happy with Nintendo making Nintendo games, and driving a platform that is appealing to third parties, which means that Nintendo doesn't have to serve all niches, and there isn't one company in charge of all of my entertainment decisions. It's wild that Sony and Microsoft, the "3rd party support" platforms, are in an acquisitions scramble to ensure no third parties exist, and Nintendo is the platform where you can be reasonably sure that you're not battling the platform holder in every genre.

I have no affection for the Western Developed IPs of the N64 era, as those aren't my kinds of games, and I didn't grow up with them, so I'm sympathetic if you miss a specific franchise that doesn't appear to be coming back. But my Nintendo fandom doesn't require Nintendo dominance.
 
Not directly related to Nintendo, but the credits for Theatrhythm (at 2 hours 55 minutes)



Game was co-developed by sAs as expected. Most of the Melody of Memory team is back. Only 6 or 7 out of the 20 indieszero staff credited on Big Brain Academy are also here. I wouldn't be surprised if they've been working on another project since that. Maybe another Nintendo collab?
 
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Not directly related to Nintendo, but the credits for Theatrhythm (at 2 hours 55 minutes)



Game was co-developed by sAs as expected. Most of the Melody of Memory team is back. Only 6 or 7 out of the 20 indieszero staff credited on Big Brain Academy are also here. I wouldn't be surprised if they've been working on another project since that. Maybe another Nintendo collab?

..."sAs"?
 
Quoted by: N75
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..."sAs"?
Co-dev of previous Theatrhythm games and Melody of Memory. Don't know much more than that.


 
Not directly related to Nintendo, but the credits for Theatrhythm (at 2 hours 55 minutes)



Game was co-developed by sAs as expected. Most of the Melody of Memory team is back. Only 6 or 7 out of the 20 indieszero staff credited on Big Brain Academy are also here. I wouldn't be surprised if they've been working on another project since that. Maybe another Nintendo collab?

perhaps rhythm heaven lives
 
Why isn't Aya Kyogoku listed in Splatoon 3 credits? She is now the manager of EPD 5 instead of Nogami.

Nogami is a Deputy Manager, which gives him jurisdiction over Production Group No. 05 and and certain IPs even when developed outside the production group.

The group managers tend to just be part of what is being developed inside or around their groups - and Kyogoku may be one of 2/3? With 2 big IPs, the group probably has 2 managers and 2 project leaders.
 
Co-dev of previous Theatrhythm games and Melody of Memory. Don't know much more than that.


Huh, intriguing. They're the OG dev of this game that got a Switch conversion and is coming soon in the west:

 
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@LiamRobertson You wouldn't happen to know if Toys For Bob did indeed work on a brand new Donkey Kong game? Recent discussions from DK Vine have suggested Toys For Bob may have been the outside studio set to work on DK, yet the project got canceled.

According to Hyle ( From DK Vine, same individual who first mentioned the EPD DK game on September 20th, 2020,) says EPD still liked some of the concepts from this canceled project.
 
@LiamRobertson You wouldn't happen to know if Toys For Bob did indeed work on a brand new Donkey Kong game? Recent discussions from DK Vine have suggested Toys For Bob may have been the outside studio set to work on DK, yet the project got canceled.

According to Hyle ( From DK Vine, same individual who first mentioned the EPD DK game on September 20th, 2020,) says EPD still liked some of the concepts from this canceled project.

Not quite the right former Skylanders studio.
 
Not quite the right former Skylanders studio.
If anything Velan is the proper choice as that's where seemingly a big chunk of Vicarious folks migrated to, as it was founded by the founders of Vicarious, including Karthik Bala who was right there with Reggie when DK and Bowser were revealed for Skylanders, plus of course they did Mario Kart Live.


 
If anything Velan is the proper choice as that's where seemingly a big chunk of Vicarious folks migrated to, as it was founded by the founders of Vicarious, including Karthik Bala who was right there with Reggie when DK and Bowser were revealed for Skylanders, plus of course they did Mario Kart Live.




The project in question was canned very early into the Switch era, so Velan isn't necessarily relevant. All i'm saying is that it wasn't Toys for Bob.
 


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