Interview: Zack and Wiki Producer Hironobu Takeshita

In addition to the producer interview contained in the Zack and Wiki reviewer’s guide, the Wired blog also has a fiery little interview with the Zack and Wiki producer Hironobu Takeshita.

In addition to correctly putting the blame for getting owned by the game’s devilish puzzles squarely on the shoulders of *you*, the scrubby player, Takeshita also gives Spelunker (one of the most hated games of my misspent youth) a shout-out. Good stuff.

Posted in Wii, Interviews, Zack & Wiki | No Comments »

MTV Interviews Ace Attorney Producer Minae Matsukawa

While we’re pretty sure no one is going to pass the bar exam just by playing Ace Attorney, curiosity still often begs the question of just where Ace Attorney’s legal system and inspirations come from. MTV finally put this, and other questions in front of Minae Matsukawa, the producer of Ace Attorney, so that we can obtain some inner peace.

MTV: The “Phoenix Wright” games are very funny, but as far as I know are not at all accurate to the way the legal system works. How did you decide upon the legal system in “Phoenix Wright”? Is it based on any real-world legal system? Or is it just designed to be one that simply works well as a game?

Matsukawa: Well, going back to how the game system was conceived, the team didn’t think of the court idea first, and instead was focused on the idea of uncovering lies and contradictions. Actually, what’s funny is when the Japanese press asks us about this same issue, they usually think we based the game’s system off of the American judicial system! But if we really had based the game off of a real court system, it might not be quite as interesting as a game, simply because court proceedings usually aren’t interesting, right? I think that more than the setting, the game itself has to be interesting. The system in the game is really, at its core, about chasing down witnesses and trying to catch them in the act of lying, so keeping this as the most important aspect of the game and gameplay in mind, we didn’t base the judicial system in “Ace Attorney” off of any real systems, but instead created something unique to the “Ace Attorney” world.

You can read the whole interview on MTV Multiplayer.

Posted in Nintendo DS, Interviews, Ace Attorney™ | No Comments »

Bionic Commando Interview With Ben Judd

GameInformer has posted their 2-part interview with Ben Judd, producer of Bionic Commando. Besides talking about Bionic Commando, Ben actually shares his non-traditional path into the gaming industry, which may be of particular interest to many of you, since one of the most common questions we often get is, “How do I get a job in the gaming industry?”

Game Informer: For the readers who don’t know the real Ben Judd, can you explain how you got started at Capcom and what you used to do before you started work with this game?

Ben Judd: It was actually an interesting story. I was living and working in Japan as an English teacher, and they hired me into Capcom USA from Japan, which is kind of strange because they had maybe 25 or 30 different candidates and they chose me - and I was certainly not the cheapest person, because they had to hire me all the way from Japan to the U.S. I worked there for a year as a marketing specialist, which meant that I would interpret and translate for most of the business meetings, at the PR events and whenever people like yourself would come over and there were ROMs that were all in Japanese, I would sort of walk people through that. It was a really nice job at first, but after about a year —

Be sure to read both Part 1 and Part 2 to get the full interview!

Posted in Bionic Commando, Interviews | No Comments »

Hiroyuki Kobayashi Interview On ActionTrip

Those action fanatics over at ActionTrip recently tracked Devil May Cry 4 producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi and managed to squeezed some DMC4 information out of him, such as the development of DMC4 on the PS3, the effect of Nero being the main character (As opposed to Dante), what’s new with DMC in this 4th iteration, and making DMC more accessable to everyone.

ActionTrip: The Devil May Cry series has always retained a great number of devotees. Are there any particular aspects of the game fans have complained about earlier, which you are looking to improve upon in DMC 4?Hiroyuki Kobayashi: There were a lot of fans who felt that the Devil May Cry 3 controls were very difficult. Giving consideration to that, we have tried to give new users as well as older fans an easier starting point from which to get into the game. There are some tutorial elements at the beginning that help players learn the basic controls, and the difficulty ramps up at a bit of a slower pace. I’m not saying the game will be simple, as there will be plenty of difficult gameplay for veterans of the series. These games have always been noted for their challenge, and that will continue. However, this game will certainly be easier for anyone to pick up than Devil May Cry 3 was, and should also provide satisfaction for veterans, especially in the later stages of the game where some significant challenges await.

Head on over to ActionTrip read the whole interview.

Posted in PS3, Xbox 360, Interviews, Devil May Cry® | No Comments »

Lost Planet Developers Answer Your Questions: Networking Info

Just got some interesting behind-the-scenes information on Lost Planet networking for XBOX Live, straight from the development team. Some interesting stuff and news you can use to optimize your XBL Lost Planet experience. Click HERE!

Posted in Xbox 360, Interviews, Lost Planet™ | No Comments »

Kotaku Interviews Hironobu Takeshita

Gaming blog Kotaku managed to catch up to the very busy Hironobu Takeshita, producer of Zack & Wiki and the recently announced We Love Golf!, during the Tokyo Game Show. Takeshita-san lends some insight into interesting topics such as how the name for Zack & Wiki was arrived at, and the fact that he hasn’t actually played any golf!

To start he said that Treasure Island Z was out because they couldn’t secure the international right to the name because of the book. They went through almost two hundred other names before settling on Zak and Wiki.

Click on the links below to read the interviews.

Zak & Wiki Producer Talks Puzzles, Name Changes and Family Fun.

We Love Golf Creator Does Not Love Golf

Posted in We Love Golf!, Wii, Interviews, Zack & Wiki | No Comments »

GamesIndustry.biz Interview With Mark Beaumont

GamesIndustry.biz has finally posted an interview they did with Mark Beaumont, who is our boss here at Capcom Entertainment Inc. in North America, as well as the boss over at Capcom Europe. In the interview Mark you can read about the future direction of our platform strategies, who race between the next-gen consoles, and even a little about Resident Evil 5.

GI.biz: Resident Evil 4 was a success both critically and commercially. To what extent will you stick with that winning formula for the sequel, and to what extent will you introduce new innovations?I can’t say too much, quite honestly. The dev team did the teaser trailer to keep people interested in what’s going on with the product. I can tell you we will absolutely doing some innovative things with the game and the gameplay.

There’s a reason why we picked the setting for the game, which is Africa, and it has to do technologically with light and shadow and things of that nature. Basically we will really push the envelope, so you should expect to see some new things in the game.

Click on the link below to read the whole interview.

Link.

Posted in Mark Beaumont, Interviews, Resident Evil® | No Comments »

GayGamer.net Interviews Minae Matsukawa

GayGamer.net has posted their interview with Ace Attorney producer Minae Matsukawa that was conducted during last week’s Comic Con in San Diego.

In addition to the typical questions asked about the upcoming release of the third game, Matsukawa also talked about the possible release of the fourth game:

Yes, we would like to very much, and were working to make sure that happens. But its kind of pointless if number three doesnt do very well, so we want to make sure people know about that, buy it, and tell their friends!

Well, there you have it! So get out there and buy Ace Attorney when it comes out!

Click on the GayGamer.net link to read the whole interview.

Via Kotaku and GayGamer.net

Posted in Nintendo DS, Interviews, Ace Attorney™ | No Comments »

PS3 Fanboy Interviews Udon Comics

PS3 blog site PS3 Fanboy yesterday posted an interview they conducted with Udon Comics. In the interview, they discuss how Udon hooked up with us in the first place and how they became involved in the Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix project.

PS3 Fanboy: When were first plans for SSFIIHD discussed? How did Udon join the project?

Udon: Capcom first mentioned the possibility to us last summer. As with any video game project, schedules and budgeting can take a while to get hammered out. As far as we know, Capcom wanted UDON to be a part of the project right from the get-go.

Click on the link to go and read the full interview.

Link.

Posted in PS3, Xbox 360, Interviews, Street Fighter® | No Comments »