Nintendo's president chats about fishing, graphics, Classic Controller Pro and bundling the game with the black Wii. http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/newsArt.cfm?artid=22868 In the latest translated edition of Iwata asks, Satoru Iwata questions the Capcom duo Ryozo Tsujimoto and Kaname Fujioka, producer and director of Monster Hunter Tri for Wii. They discuss some of the gameplay aspects such as the online world with freedom to choose to do your own thing, as it's not required to hunt monsters and take on quests all the time to learn strategies from others. Talking about fishing and cooking meat reminds Iwata of Nintendo's own Animal Crossing, and dives into the topic of fishing.
The feature then focuses on the graphical aspect of Monster Hunter Tri. The team share their experience with minimizing or even removing one aspect to be able to get better results in another, for both artwork and programming. Iwata comments that the Zelda team is under great pressure to deliver a great presentation after this game.
For this series, Capcom found they had to think deeply about adapting the controls of the series for the Wii remote, as there are far fewer buttons than usual. During this process, Nintendo revealed the Classic Controller Pro, and for the first time in history they collaborated with a third party on the hardware design.
The full transcript is available at Nintendo UK, with embedded videos of Monster Hunter Tri gameplay. Below is a small extract from the article:
Iwata:
We had the Classic Controller Pro go on sale the same time as Monster Hunter Tri, but Nintendo would like it from now on if other software developers made use of it. We also released a new colour of the Wii console along with Monster Hunter Tri.
Fujioka:
I was really surprised when I heard that, too.
Tsujimoto:
IÂ’ve talked about this with Fujioka before, but we wanted to make Tri one of those titles you buy together with hardware.
Fujioka:
We had a strong desire to make a game that gamers would want to buy the hardware for.
Tsujimoto:
About the time we were talking about that, we heard Nintendo was really going to bring out a black Wii. At first, we thought, “Really?” (laughs)
(EditorÂ’s note: In Japan the black-coloured Wii console was released simultaneously with Monster Hunter Tri. In Europe, the black Wii first became available in November 2009).
Iwata:
It was something you could not believe right away? (laughs)
Tsujimoto:
Yeah. Then when we saw it, the colour change made for quite a different impression.
Fujioka:
It makes you want to sit the console in certain locations. And the colour really goes well with the blue slot illumination. ItÂ’s very cool.
Iwata:
However, when we tried to make the black hardware, the materials didnÂ’t exist to satisfy NintendoÂ’s standards, so we had to make them. When I heard from the developers, I was flabbergasted. They said it was taking more than two and a half years to develop the materials. We just barely made it in time.