Every so often, a random game pops up from a developer you've never heard of that, it turns out, has some ties to games you really dug. I had heard absolutely nothing about Super Little Acorns 3D Turbo prior to being contacted by developer Pixel Toys. After playing parts of the game (look for our full review very soon), I was wondering where these guys came from, and after finding out Co-Founder Alex Zoro started at Rare around the time of Perfect Dark before he went to co-found FreeStyleGames, best known for DJ Hero, I knew I had to find out more.

So check out our interview below with Pixel Toys' Alex Zoro, and be sure to keep an eye out for Super Little Acorns 3D Turbo in the 3DS eShop.

Nintendo World Report (NWR): How did you get your start in the industry?

Alex Zoro (AZ): I applied to companies as I was finishing my Physics degree at Manchester University. I interviewed at a few different places and when I got the job offer at Rare I jumped at the chance to work at such a respected developer!

NWR:What are the origins of Pixel Toys?

AZ: I worked at Rare for a few years, and then co-founded FreeStyleGames where I worked with some great guys for a long time. After nearly ten years with the team there, I wanted to get back to a smaller team size, where we could all be involved with creative decisions and more quickly iterate our games and react to changes in the industry.

NWR: What games or other media inspired Super Little Acorns 3D Turbo?

AZ: The game was inspired by a love of traditional Nintendo games - games that are cute, colourful *and* still have great breadth and depth of gameplay. Great games are really fun to play even for newcomers and can still present a great challenge to expert or 'hardcore' players. The name of SLA3DT (and some of the features!) was partly inspired by classics such as Super Street Fighter II Turbo.

NWR: How have past games you've worked on (ranging from DJ Hero to Perfect Dark) inspired Super Little Acorns 3D Turbo?

AZ: I think my experiences over the years have led me to always focus on making games self-consistent, delivering features to as high a standard as possible, and of course making sure that the features you add allow you to have FUN ! Ensuring that games are initially approachable and have elements that keep hardcore fans challenged is also really important.

NWR: Why did you decide to bring it to 3DS?

AZ: Mr. Nibbles really deserved physical controls - platformers work best when you have real tactile feedback, and the Nintendo 3DS' controls are perfect. I also think the game has a lot in common with some typical Nintendo games - it's really cute *and* there are still some real hardcore challenges in there for fans of platform games. So we feel the 3DS is the perfect home for Mr. Nibbles!

NWR: What additions were made to the game when it was brought from iOS to 3DS?

AZ: First we got the super-tight controls working brilliantly, and added some subtle 3D visual effects, which add to the already beautiful graphics. Then we added 30 additional challenge levels which are themed around different gameplay mechanics, where we really tried to push how fun and challenging we could make levels within each theme. The challenges are available from the start, so you can jump straight in and test yourself, or take a slower approach to mastery by playing through the main game first! We also added a new Enemies Eliminated award to each of the original game's 60 levels, a bunch more costumes to unlock for Mr Nibbles, and to top it all off for the hardcore there's Turbo mode where you can re-try everything at a more challenging speed!

NWR: What's next for Pixel Toys?

AZ: We have another game in development at prototype stage, and we're considering some other things too - we just can't talk about any of them yet!

NWR: Do you have any plans to bring other games to 3DS and/or Wii U?

AZ: We don't have any confirmed plans that we can talk about yet, but I can say that we have ideas we would love to get the chance to make on both...

NWR: If you could make a sequel to any Nintendo game, what would it be and why?

AZ: We recently got really excited talking about the possibility of a new version of F-Zero, ...we'd love it if Pixel Toys actually had an opportunity to work on that!

Thanks to Andy and Alex at Pixel Toys!