Veteran Japanese developers including Hideo Kojima, Suda51 and the creators of Mega Man and Okami are all over Nintendo’s newest handheld.
Hey Nintendo, enough is enough already! I’m already well on board the 3DS hype train right by now, you don’t need to keep trying to convince me – and judging by the buzz I’ve heard on forums, I’m not alone in this.
The most recent issue of Famitsu revealed that in an online poll, 86.4% of Japanese gamers said they were planning on picking up the 3DS upon its release. In the same issue, we learned that apparently, even some of the most veteran developers aren’t immune to its three-dimensional siren call, either. Famitsu published a collection of quotes from senior Japanese game makers like Hideo Kojima and No More Heroes creator Suda51, and they all seem quite enthusiastic about the little handheld.
Keiji Inafune (Mega Man, Dead Rising): Video games need three things to be successful: a concept, a technology platform, and good marketing. The Nintendo 3DS is a perfect example of those three things bundled into one.
Hideki Kamiya (Okami, Bayonetta): 3D on a large screen has an impact on you and gets you that much closer to the game or movie you’re watching, but 3D on the 3DS’s smaller screen is interesting in its own right. Instead of feeling like you’re ‘really there,’ you feel like it’s ‘really in the palm of your hand,’ so to speak. Having these dynamic home 3D titles is great and all, but personally, I want to take a different approach and make games that take advantage of what a 3D portable has to offer.
Hideo Kojima (Metal Gear Solid): I wear glasses, so I’m happy that 3D glasses are not needed. I directed the E3 demo. It was based off Metal Gear Solid 3 Snake Eater, but the backgrounds and character modeling were all redone in high polygon. It’s not finalized, but we’re thinking about CO-OPs and other things – elements fitting of a 3D and portable game machine.
Goichi “Suda51” Suda (No More Heroes, Killer7): It really makes me feel the speed at which the history of video games is unfolding – like, ‘We’ve really made it this far, huh?’ You have a living, breathing world you can touch right in your hands. I think we’ve finally gone from an era of constructing virtual worlds from pixels to one where the world is truly, honestly there. If I had to sum up the sort of game I’d like to make, I would simply call it ‘the next game,’ because the 3DS marks the arrival of the ‘next platform.’
Shu Takami (Phoenix Wright): As a creator, I feel that a new challenge has started…I’d like to show a mystery in a 3D space.
These are some big names in the Japanese industry, and I’d love to see what someone as legendarily insane as Suda51 or Hideo Kojima could whip up using the 3DS – imagine the Psycho Mantis scene from MGS1, but in 3D.
It’s probably unlikely given the relative unpopularity of Western games in Japan, but I’d be curious to see what would happen if Famitsu went to big-name Western developers like Gabe Newell, John Carmack, and Will Wright (and so on) with the same question. I mean, other than Warren Spector saying it “changed his life,” anyway.
Like I said, Nintendo, I’m already on board. Stop teasing me with all this stuff. If the next things I hear about the 3DS are “how much money” and “when it will come out,” I will gladly give you my money, Mr. Iwata.
(1UP, Andriasang)
