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Touch! Monsters in Miyamoto's patented RPG design
Shigeru Miyamoto still thinks about games that aren't about exercise, as evidenced by this patent for an unused DS RPG discovered by Siliconera. The concept is simple, but sounds like a lot of fun: it's your basic RPG with random battles, but the combat is all touch-controlled. In this patented game design, monsters move around on the screen, and you poke them with the stylus to cause damage. Jab a weak point for massive damage (of course), and less damage results from missing or hitting more armored areas.There's only one aspect of this design that confuses us: why it isn't a game yet. We'd love to see Miyamoto's take on the classic turn-based RPG.
Miyamoto to receive ELAN 'Video Game Hall of Fame' award
Canada's ELAN Awards, a ceremony celebrating achievements in animation and video games, has announced that it will add another trophy to Shigeru Miyamoto's collection. The Nintendo producer, "considered by his peers to be the greatest video game designer in the world," will be inducted into the organization's "Video Game Hall of Fame." One notable peer: last year's award winner, Microsoft's Don Mattrick.Voting for the honorary award, along with the ceremony's other honorary awards in the fields of animation and visual effects, was held online, hosted by IGN. The awards will be handed out on April 25 in Vancouver at an event hosted by Tom "Spongebob Squarepants" Kenny.
GameCube era even depressed Miyamoto
Sometimes, one might assume that super-genius game developers don't think the way that you do, but it's just not so! Take, for instance, Shigeru Miyamoto, who you might know for his work on pure undiluted joy. He recently told Japanese mag Famitsu that several aspects of the way Nintendo operated during the N64 and GameCube years made him "very sad." Hey, Shiggy, us too!Of course, we probably have slightly different reasoning. Miyamoto complained about the company trying to follow its competitors during that era, saying, "I was endlessly fascinated with 3D worlds, but what with all the issues I had to tinker with in terms of rendering and processing speed, it got to the point where I didn't know who was making the games any longer." We would have more simply said that "a lot of games for those systems were very, very bad," but it's nice to know the big guy gets where we're coming from.
Spore, Shiggy honored with Jim Henson awards
Shigeru Miyamoto and Spore have been recognized by The Jim Henson Company as part of their annual "Jim Henson Honors" awards. The legendary game designer was bestowed the Celebration Honor, which goes to an "individual, organization or product that makes the world a better place by inspiring people to celebrate life." Mario, Donkey, Wii ... yeah, you know the drill.As for Spore, it took home the Technology Honor, probably because it allowed everyone to create their favorite Star Wars characters or giant penis monsters. The other not so game-related awards went to artist Shepard Falrey (Creativity Honor) and the Center for Puppetry Arts Distance Learning Center (Community Honor). Congratulations to everyone. We can't think of a better way to celebrate than with the video after the break. %Gallery-25321%
Touching is (not) good: a Miyamoto-signed Phat
When Swedish eBayer Mikael was lucky enough to win a Shigeru Miyamoto-autographed DS at E3 2005, he did the only sensible thing: he sealed it away from the harmful effects of light and dust forever. Or at least, until now.This pristine, fingerprint-free Pearl White model is currently on eBay, where it lies at the $760 mark with over a week to go. Is it worth that? For something you're likely not going to use, probably not, but this is easily one of the nicest autographed DSes we've seen. The combination of gold on white reeks of class, and Miyamoto's famous signature is, as usual, fun and playful. The fact that it's a Phat only increases its appeal to us.See also: A very special deal on a Miyamoto-signed DS. %Gallery-25220% [Via Kotaku]
Wii Warm Up: Take the hint?
We're basically too dense to understand all the details, but a patent popped up for an in-game system that seems designed to provide hint movies on demand for puzzles, and also to play games for the player to a certain extent, on a time delay. The idea is clearly to let people with less experience, skill, or time enjoy longer games, without the actual difficulty having to take a hit.But what do you think? Does it ruin the game to give you the option to make it easier? Does the game become de facto nerfed due to a failure of self-control? Or do you feel some other justification for shutting the extremely casual out of something like Zelda? We're sure some of you will. Some of you, on the other hand, may welcome such bridging efforts.
New patent describes Miyamoto-developed hint system
While the language used in patents is miles above our heads, we feel obligated to try to report on it, because it's apparently Miyamoto's design, and it's potentially quite cool. If we understand correctly, Miyamoto has invented a system that allows players of vastly different skill levels to play adventure games like Zelda, with the ability to skip or receive hints at difficult areas. In addition to accommodating various skill levels, this is designed for people who don't have a lot of time to play games. In effect, it makes the skill level almost totally configurable.One component of the idea is low-resolution "hint movies" that display the solutions to difficult puzzles at the player's request. In addition, there is a "digest" component that allows players just to watch the game's storyline up to the point of their choosing -- but only after a specified time period (presumably to encourage people to play the game for some number of hours before watching). Finally, there's a DVD-style "chapter" ability that allows players to start the game from a previous "scene" -- rather like the save system in the new Pikmin remake.All the associated images use a Zelda-like game "Legend of OO" to demonstrate the concepts, but that might just be a context used to help explain the concepts. But if you want to call "OMG NEXT ZELDA CONFIRMED WITH HINT SYSTEM THING," have fun! And if the USPTO image viewer doesn't work for you, check the linked NeoGAF thread for a few images.[Via NeoGAF]
Miyamoto unsure about next Zelda announcement
There's an entertaining interview with Shigeru Miyamoto over at the Official Nintendo Magazine site, in which Shiggy mostly comes across as a bumbling, endearing eccentric: apparently, he "strummed on an invisible guitar" for the entire interview, and voiced his suspicions that his cat is hiding games from the Miyamoto family. Ha.Anyway, the article is mainly designed to promote Wii Music, but there is the odd very vague comment about the next Zelda. The opportunists at ONM couldn't resist mentioning the 'Z' word, but Miyamoto wasn't budging too much. "I'm really not sure when we'll be able to make a public announcement on that," he said, adding, "I can't even say if the next E3 will be the right opportunity to do so. But rest assured, our teams are working on new projects right now."So the next Zelda ... might not be at E3 next year! If that's the case, we could reasonably expect to see something at Nintendo's fall conference(s). We'd at least like to have a peek next year -- having downloaded Ocarina of Time from the Virtual Console over the weekend (spoiler: it's still unfathomably brilliant), this blogger is aching for a new entry in the series.%Gallery-29660%
Miyamoto still hopeful Wii Music will catch on
Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto recently conducted a rather large Q&A with Edge, talking about all kinds of fascinating things. Actually, to tell you the truth, the man could talk about used Q-tips and we'd still find it fascinating. To call it a crush would be a severe understatement. It's no secret that Wii Music hasn't been selling too well, but Miyamoto still has hope that the game will be a success. "I think a very large audience can enjoy Wii Music," Miyamoto said, adding that when Nintendo demoed the game, "many took to it." That can't really be said for the critics, however, who've not enjoyed the game overall."I really appreciate that the gaming media has a different view of anything as new as Wii Music today," Miyamoto stated. He said these scores help show "how different and unique Wii Music is" and that he has this "big ambition" for the game and "that it can eventually be something very influential so that it might be able to influence what music means in the world."It's a pretty lengthy interview, so click here to read the whole thing. It's always nice to get a glimpse into Miyamoto's mind.%Gallery-27713%
Miyamoto: We're not 'soft on graphics'
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/nintendo/Miyamoto_We_re_not_soft_on_graphics_Nintendo_Wii_Fanboy'; During a recent interview, Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto was quick to stick up for Nintendo's latest console and its graphical capabilities. It's one of the most criticized points of the console, as you're well aware, but Miyamoto thinks it's more than capable of getting the job done, stating that "When it comes to specific points such as generating high definition graphics we might appear to be rather relaxed and soft on graphics," further adding "the fact of the matter is that Wii is capable enough to cater to the needs of these hardcore gamers in terms of gameplay content as well as the graphical content, so I really don't want people to be concerned about that kind of attitude."When asked about a new version of Wii with HD, Miyamoto wanted everyone to know that Nintendo isn't behind the times. "the fact of the matter is that technology is evolving all the time and in Japan, for example in the year 2010 all the analogue broadcast will be stopped and shifted into the digital broadcasting. So many things are taking place and we are working in terms of the changes of the technologies all the time." So, Nintendo isn't totally out of touch, and we could see a HD version of Wii release, but will we? "I'm afraid we cannot confirm what we are doing today." Of course, Miyamoto.[Via CVG]
Miyamoto: Portal a triumph, Mario Galaxy 'conservative' in ways
He may not be intimately familiar with Ratchet and Whatshisface, but at least revered game designer Shigeru Miyamoto has had the pleasure of tumbling through dimensional shortcuts and outsmarting acerbic computers. In an interesting chat with MTV Multiplayer's Stephen Totilo, Miyamoto admits that he, like most rational human beings, thought Portal was "an amazing game." Games that go without the "amazing" label? The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, which the Mario maker describes as "not a bad game, by any means," but one that felt "like there was something missing." And while Miyamoto submits that Super Mario Galaxy did "some things that were very new and were very unique," he ultimately feels that some elements seemed "somewhat conservative."And it's at this point that we strongly advise you to open an umbrella or don a durable raincoat. When faced with the choice of vehemently defending two prominent Nintendo games or agreeing with the creator, fanboy brains tend to explode quite violently.
Iwata and staff discuss Nintendo DSi development, rumors of SDHC support abound
The latest entry in the "Iwata Asks" series has returned with an up-close look at the Nintendo DSi. For this exercise, Iwata carefully prepared a pot of green tea (possibly), sat down with three chaps from Nintendo's technology division (definitely), Yui Ehara, Kentaro Santa, and Masato Kawabara, and then talked some DSi.As usual, all sorts of interesting nuggets get dropped. Apparently, a new DS was discussed in late-2006 (just a few months after the DS Lite launched!), the chipset was basically completed by February 2007, and for quite some time the DSi was going to have one rotating camera, and two cartridge slots. As it happens, Iwata was concerned that a rotating device would break easily, and believed the extra cartridge slot made the DSi too big, so both got the chop.There was also some brief discussion of the DSi supporting SD cards. Supposedly, it was Shigeru Miyamoto himself who requested this feature, promising that he'd find a way to utilize it. In related news, a DSi spec sheet has appeared at NeoGAF with the SDHC logo on it, suggesting the new handheld supports the extended SD format. The DSi may only be two days away, but there's clearly plenty we're still not aware of!Source: Iwata asks!Source: Spec sheet hints! %Gallery-33263%[Via Tiny Cartridge]
Miyamoto (slightly) critical of Twilight Princess, Super Mario Galaxy
MTV's Stephen Totilo has posted the third and final part of a lengthy interview with Shigeru Miyamoto. Though the bulk of the article was lent to discussion of Wii Music, the pair broached other subjects, including what Miyamoto perceives as a lack of innovation in titles such as The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and Super Mario Galaxy.Though Twilight Princess was "not a bad game," Shiggy felt there was "something missing," and was also semi-criticial of the previously untouchable Galaxy, which he thought was "very new and [...] very unique," but "somewhat conservative in terms of how far we branched out with design." If we may mount the Wii Fanboy soapbox for a moment, we'd concur that Twilight Princess was far from being the best Zelda, but found Galaxy to be consistently creative and entertaining.Elsewhere, Miyamoto referred to the "next Galaxy," which may or may not mean we'll be getting another Mario-in-space game (we wouldn't read too much into it), and that he loves Portal. Nintendo fanboys we might be, but we can probably all appreciate that last statement.%Gallery-29660%
Miyamoto assures the core Nintendo is working on games for them
It's something Nintendo's been criticized of for awhile now, especially since E3: not caring about the core, and chasing down those almighty casual dollars. Well, during an interview with GameDaily, Miyamoto said a lot of the same stuff he's been saying ever since Wii Music has been completed (Nintendo hasn't forgotten about you, there's a lot of games in development, and so on and so forth).Miyamoto commented that 30 years he's been "making games" and for the majority of that time, these have been games "that the loyal Nintendo fans enjoy." He went on to say that those games are "the types of games that my career is based on and we're going to continue to make those types of games. In fact, we have many of those types of games in development right now." Sounds like a plan to us, Shiggy, but it doesn't make the waiting any less painful!
Breaking! Miyamoto laments violence, lauds cheap technology
In an interview with Channel 4, legendary game designer Shigeru Miyamoto -- currently promoting Wii Music -- lamented the current use of violence in gaming. "I don't want to curb freedom of expression but I am concerned that many developers focus just on excessive violence in order to stimulate people's mind," he said. "I believe that there are more ways of grabbing players' attention than violence alone."Miyamoto also discussed cheaper hardware, noting, "Nintendo's mission is to improve and to take advantage of cheap technology to create reasonable and affordable entertainment." ... Nintendo against excessive violence? In love with cheap technology? Breaking news! Why doesn't Miyamoto put his money where his mouth is? Oh, nevermind. Though we've rarely seen in a suit, Miyamoto's opinion goes a long way in shaping Nintendo's business philosophies. If there's one thing to take from this, it's that you shouldn't get your hopes up for a high-powered Wii 2.0.
Miyamoto talks to Channel 4 about gaming and the current financial crisis
If you were to tell us that Shigeru Miyamoto could see into the future and fire rainbows from his fingertips, we'd totally believe you. We just love the guy so much that we believe he's not even human and some kind of freakish evolutionary leap for our species, as his mind churns out these amazing things on a regular basis. So, it's no wonder that Channel 4 in the UK interviewed him out of all of the prominent figures in gaming about the current financial woes and if they'll have an impact on gaming. He plugs Wii Music a bit, but, for the most part, tells us how Nintendo has and always will make gaming affordable.%Gallery-27713%[Via CVG]
Miyamoto shows the kids Wii Music
Since we all know Wii Music is not a game, but a toy, the target audience has to be the really young. Why else would Miyamoto be at a Japanese preschool, showing off the title? But, hey, we have to give it up to Shiggy and Nintendo. If there's a great way to gather interest in a title, it's with a dozen or so cute, smiling children. %Gallery-27713%[Via Wiiblog]
Miyamoto wants 'big, new ideas' in next Zelda
The Zelda team is currently beavering away at the next game in the series, and it sounds like the title might introduce a different spin on the usual Zelda formula.Shigeru Miyamoto has told IGN that the Zelda franchise requires "big new unique ideas," and added that the development team "is very focused on trying to find those ideas." He ruled out adopting a first-person perspective for the series, after IGN reminded him that Eiji Aonuma showed The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess played through Link's eyes at GDC 07. May we recommend a side-scrolling game interspersed with lengthy, high-quality cut-scenes? Oh, uh, never mind.Anyway, while Shiggy's comments are rather vague, this does raise another issue: is the Zelda series growing stagnant? The initial outcry over Wind Waker suggests change is a delicate issue with the fans!%Gallery-29660%[Via Go Nintendo]
ESA to honor Miyamoto
The Entertainment Software Association has announced that they will award Shigeru Miyamoto with the 2009 ESA Champion Award -- because if Miyamoto needs anything, it's some more awards for his lifetime of achievements. The award will be conferred at the organization's "Nite to Unite for Kids" event on October 22, a fundraising gala for various children's charities. In the press release announcing the award, Michael Gallagher, CEO of the ESA, said that Miyamoto "truly has defined video games as we know them today."The ESA Champion award has been given in previous years to various well-known rich people, including Sega's Isao Okawa, GameStop's Dan DeMatteo, and George Lucas.
Miyamoto wins special CEDEC award
Yesterday, along with companies including Sega, Square Enix, Capcom, and Game Freak, Nintendo earned awards at the CESA Development Conference in game design (for the Super Mario series) and sound (for the the Zelda series). Shigeru Miyamoto was awarded his own CEDEC Special Prize. Miyamoto was in attendance to give a keynote anyway, and so he happened to be on hand to give an impromptu acceptance speech."Well... Tomorrow I'm going to talk for about an hour," Miyamoto said, "so today I didn't think I'd have a speech." In his brief speech, Miyamoto described his hope for the game industry to continue to grow so that "the number of the children who want to enter the industry multiplies." Presumably children with well-trained brains.[Story and translation via Kotaku]
