I’m not going to make any bones about this: I love Iwata Asks. If you’re a fan of the big N, it’s hard not to read these fascinating and enlightening discussions about the trials and tribulations of game development at Nintendo without a smile on your face, not least because of the amount of laughter these round-table discussions seem to generate among the participants.

This time, it’s Wii Sports Resort which comes under the microscope, and among other fact-nuggets, we learn just how keen Miyamoto is to develop WuHu Island into a regular Nintendo ‘character’ (very - he even discusses a few game ideas he’s had for the place), the strengths and weaknesses of MotionPlus, and Miyamoto’s near-dictatorial management style.

Other highlights include the revelation that Air Sports was originally set to feature a hang-glider instead of a plane, that Miyamoto has spent ten years wanting to create some kind of water-skiing/wakeboarding game, and that the brilliant - if slight - skydiving was almost a last-minute addition.

There are also tantalising hints that Miyamoto might want to explore the more Pilotwings-esque events further, and news that the original concept for the game featured winter sports would perhaps suggest that Wii Winter Sports Resort could be a potential future release (although Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games might have nixed that idea).

Obviously, I strongly recommend you give it a read, but in the meantime I’ll leave you with my favourite exchange of the piece:

Shimamura: Well, no one goes to a resort for a sword fight, after all.
Miyamoto: Which isn’t to say that you can just make the sword fights take place on top of a banana boat!
All: (laughter)

Brilliant.

Bookmark It

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 7th, 2009 at 8:47 pm by Chris Schilling
#1.