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Itagaki talks Nintendo
A 1up interview with Tomonobu Itagaki turns from DOAX2 into Zelda, Wario, and finally, the Wii in general. Sounds like an Itagaki developed Wii title may not be a pipe dream.
1UP: How do you feel about Zelda?
TI: I haven’t gotten my hands on Zelda yet, but I’ve been playing Wii Sports lately. The problem is if I start playing Zelda I’m not going to get any work done, so I have to be careful when I start that.
1UP: Have you tried Made In Wario?
TI: My daughter said she played it but I haven’t touched it yet.
1UP: If you look at a game like Made In Wario, which isn’t graphically astounding, but offers tons and tons of mini-games, most of which are funny or entertaining, does a game like this make you rethink how you should have approached the mini-games in DOAX2?
TI: I think they’re pretty much exact opposites. I don’t really think I could make a game like Made In Wario, but I do think that’d be a good game to help teach new developers, to raise them. Maybe not Made In Wario specifically, but a mini-game collection type of game. The reason for that is because as teams get bigger and as projects get bigger, there are less and less opportunities for each game designer to look at what fundamentally makes games fun, and that’s why I think as an educational tool for developers those kind of mini-game collections are interesting because each one has to have its own specific point and design element.
1UP: What do you think of the way that each console is positioned? The Wii de-emphasizes graphics and encourages innovation, whereas the PS3’s message seems to be high-def, high-def, high-def, while sidestepping innovation. What do you think about each approach?
TI: I think they’re both necessary. In our house, my daughter was playing DOAX2 almost exclusively, playing volleyball and playing Kokoro and getting all her swimsuits. But as soon as the Wii came to the house she’s been playing Tennis. And she plays tennis in real life, she can return a serve from an adult, so I’ve just been seeing her playing tennis a lot.
1UP: Do you think Nintendo should maybe as a slight concession to modern times at least support a minimum resolution? Because all of the people who are upgrading their televisions for their 360s and PS3 — and especially in Japan, where everyone is moving over to space-conserving high-def flatscreen TVs — do you think Nintendo should of at least supported 720p?
TI: Obviously technology is always going to be evolving. Eventually we’re going to reach a point where you can’t tell the difference between systems, but we’re still pretty far from that point. Right now, advancing technology aims towards realism, they’re all aiming for the same thing, so I think it’s important that Nintendo brought out a system that’s totally operating on a different wavelength, since it gives you something outside of that. However, the feeling I had when the Wii was first announced, the feeling I had at that time and the feeling I had when I actually played it were quite different, so that was interesting to me.
1UP: Different in a good or bad way?
TI: I thought it would be good, but I didn’t think it would be this good. I do think now that there are more types of games that are suitable for this machine than I actually thought. I thought there would be fewer games that would be suited to this machine, but now that I’ve actually played it I think there’s more possibilities than I originally thought.
1UP: Does that mean you’d like to develop something for the Wii?
TI: Well, I’ve got my hands full looking over my ‘daughter’ and my new ’son,’ [Editor’s note: DOAX2 and Ninja Gaiden 2] who’s going to be born soon, so I don’t really have the ability to think about that right now, but I think it would be once again handled by a young member of the team. So even when I’m playing with the Wii and I close my eyes, I envision myself holding a Japanese sword. So that’s the frame of mind I’m in right now, so I hope everyone looks forward to what we’re working on next.