Nintendo president Satoru Iwata mentioned in a recent interview that the company had a new handheld all set to go in the last three years, but ultimately decided to scrap the plan. Speaking with CNBC, Iwata declined to give any further details about the product, but did say that the most important thing for Nintendo when releasing new hardware is to maintain “momentum.” Iwata implies that the new handheld would not have accomplished that goal.
History lesson time: Many moons ago Nintendo discussed the “three pillar strategy” for its hardware. It was to be the console (Gamecube, then Wii) and the two handhelds (Game Boy and DS). With the runaway success of the DS, and now the DSi, it seems the third pillar became vestigial. Perhaps one day we’ll see what this mysteriously scuttled handheld was meant to be.
In this video interview with former Argonaut Software games developer Dylan Cuthbert you find out about the first 3D wireframe shooting game “X” Commander (1990-1992) on the original Nintendo GameBoy. And the resulting history of “Star Fox” (1993) and the SNES graphics chip Super FX and how they made that 3D shooter happen together with Nintendo.
Keep an eye out for the Winter Consumer Electronics Show 1993 that unveiled Star Fox, the laser setup was beautiful. It gets even better near the end when he talks about Shigeru Miyamoto’s habit of cutting things from games if they don’t fit, or worse, his cancellation of “Star Fox 2” because better 3D consoles like the PlayStation, Saturn and then-upcoming Nintendo 64 were already outperforming the 3D SNES graphics.
Enjoy, it’s absolutely fascinating! Click on the bottom-right corner arrow to view it fullscreen.
By the way, Mr. Cuthbert ended up quitting UK’s Argonaut Software in 1995 (after joining in 1988) and working for Sony in America & Japan for a few years on the PlayStation and PlayStation 2. After which he started his own studio as president called Q-Games in 2001 (working for both Nintendo & Sony), which is where this Points 02 Gamevideos interview was filmed in Japan.
The latest issue of the British games magazine Edge is reporting that “Animal Crossing for the Wii will be an MMO/social networking title. It’s no great surprise – in a few short years, Animal Crossing has become one of Nintendo’s most-loved and top selling franchises (over seven million copies of Animal Crossing DS sold), particularly in Japan. Nintendo refers to the title as a ‘communications game’ rather than a videogame, and playing already depends on real-world timekeeping, weather patterns, social conventions, and above all else economic interactions. In almost every way, Animal Crossing has always been the perfect MMO concept, and this development is simply a fulfillment of that promise.
The game has yet to be officially announced (although Nintendo has at least confirmed that an Animal Crossing game is in development for the Wii) and so details are not so much thin on the ground as nonexistent. But there are some indications of where the game will take the series: Katsuya Eguchi, head of development for the project, has made relatively non-committal noises thus far, but hinted that connection to mobile phones and PCs (for basic functions such as messages) would be included in an interview as far back as last year. Animal Crossing’s earlier iterations already feature travelling between towns, the ability for players to live in the same town (though not to play in it at the same time), and the ability to design your own clothing – and to sell it.”
But the exciting new future developments for Nintendo don’t end with Animal Crossing MMO. Nintendo would be wise to grant retro gamers wishes and offer a classic games emulation service similar to that on the popular Wii Virtual Console, Edge mentions that a DS Virtual Handheld emulation service is underway. To quote the next-gen transcription:
“Of similar importance is the imminent arrival of an official DS flash card, which will initially just be available to allow Nintendo to sell the back catalogue of Game Boy and Game Boy Color games. The uncontrollable homebrew and piracy communities that use the DS rely on similar devices for their more nefarious ends, but this should, in the long term, allow Nintendo to exercise some control over at least the former through the simple step of offering a path to publisher-supported content. Compared to the slightly vague WiiWare proposition, this has the possibility to revolutionize homebrew development – at least in terms of distribution and the possibility of mainstream success –- but how far the notoriously controlling Japanese giant will allow that community the creative freedom it requires to flourish will only be seen in practice. And before getting too excited, the device will launch exclusively for old Game Boy content, initially.”
Unless you're a citizen of Japan and own a Famicom system, this bit of news is likely to not affect you. However, should you fulfill those requirements, you might like to know that Nintendo of Japan has ceased to support the old piece of hardware. You're probably one who still plays the thing, we imagine, so you might want to take it easy on the old gal, as this goes into effect on the 31st of this month.
Also of note, Nintendo of Japan will be dropping support for the Super Famicom, N64, Game Boy and Game Boy Pocket, as well.
Nintendo canceled new handheld in last three years originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 07 Jun 2009 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
