Dear Reader:
Sakamoto reflects on Balloon Fight creation, Iwata dev stories and more
The following comes from a Nintendo interview with Yoshio Sakamoto...
- Sakamoto joined the company in 1982
- he was originally hired as a Game & Watch designer
- he made titles like Snoopy, Donkey Kong Circus, and Mario Bombs Away using that panorama screen
- after that, he worked on an arcade game called Vs. Wrecking Crew, headed up by Gunpei Yokoi
- Yokoi believed that if you could draw, you could make a game, which lead Sakamoto to try out drawing & game design
- Sakamoto handled the logo, the title screen, and the drawing of Donkey Kong for Donkey Kong Jr.
- Yokoi said, “How about making a game that feels like you’re floating and has a combat element too?”
- this lead to the creation of Balloon Fight
- SRD was in charge of developing the arcade version and the Famicom version was developed by Mr. Iwata
- Yokoi suggested that bubbles be added to the game, but Sakamoto believed it to be impossible due to the Famicom's rudimentary graphics capabilities
- Yokoi told Sakamoto not to give up on the idea without trying, so Sakamoto set out to make it happen and everything worked out
- Iwata came to Kyoto and worked in a room provided by Nintendo doing while handling Balloon Fight
- Yokoi entered Iwata's room and sat down without saying a word, then he played the game and made a list of suggestions
- Balloon Trip mode was an idea Mr. Yokoi had mentioned and Mr. Iwata made it in three days
- Yokoi played the finished mode and suggested fixes
- this usually required consulting a large bundle of papers, which made making tiny changes quite a task
- Iwata heard Yokoi's request and took just a few minutes to make the changes Yokoi requested, which shocked Yokoi and Sakamoto
- Sakamoto suggested a similar suggestion to the NES Classic Edition 10 years ago
- he wanted to make a Famicom shaped Gameboy Advance that played games on the television
- his idea made it all the way to the mock-up stage, and also a box was created