Exclusive Interview with Monkey Ball creator Toshihiro Nagoshi
...on possibility of 360/PS3 Monkey Ball, Wii F-Zero and more!
SPOnG caught up with Mr Monkey Ball himself recently, and fired a few quick questions at him regarding the forthcoming Wii version of one of our all-time favourite games, Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz.
Nagoshi-san praised the intuitive nature of the Wii controller and told us a little more about the changing art style and gameplay in Banana Blitz, noting that the development team “so as to use a lot of flexibility of Wii hardware... purposefully adopted more active and dynamic gameplay.”
He also spilled more on specific control issues in the game, the use of the Wii's nunchuck attachment, the new characters and boss stages. He was a little more cagey when quizzed about the possible WiFi and WiiConnect features in the game, mind, telling us simply: “We are still studying the possibility of supporting these features.”
It also looks like we may well see our beloved Monkey Ball on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 at some point in the future, with Nagoshi ruminating that: “It is correct that Wii’s interface is completely different from other hardware and this Banana Blitz’s gameplay should be available only on Wii hardware but I still feel that there are the possibilities on other hardware.” Though we'd be surprised if SMB didn't make it to the "true" next-gen machines, SPOnG still crossed its collective fingers, toes, legs, arms and eyes in the hope that this pans out.
Finally, we asked Nagoshi if he would like to work on a new F-Zero on Nintendo's new console, using this Wii-charged Monkey Ball engine, to which he replied: “I’ve never thought about it but it sounds fun.”
Let's hope he thinks about that one a little more. Now, go read the full interview with Nagoshi-san.
Nagoshi-san praised the intuitive nature of the Wii controller and told us a little more about the changing art style and gameplay in Banana Blitz, noting that the development team “so as to use a lot of flexibility of Wii hardware... purposefully adopted more active and dynamic gameplay.”
He also spilled more on specific control issues in the game, the use of the Wii's nunchuck attachment, the new characters and boss stages. He was a little more cagey when quizzed about the possible WiFi and WiiConnect features in the game, mind, telling us simply: “We are still studying the possibility of supporting these features.”
It also looks like we may well see our beloved Monkey Ball on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 at some point in the future, with Nagoshi ruminating that: “It is correct that Wii’s interface is completely different from other hardware and this Banana Blitz’s gameplay should be available only on Wii hardware but I still feel that there are the possibilities on other hardware.” Though we'd be surprised if SMB didn't make it to the "true" next-gen machines, SPOnG still crossed its collective fingers, toes, legs, arms and eyes in the hope that this pans out.
Finally, we asked Nagoshi if he would like to work on a new F-Zero on Nintendo's new console, using this Wii-charged Monkey Ball engine, to which he replied: “I’ve never thought about it but it sounds fun.”
Let's hope he thinks about that one a little more. Now, go read the full interview with Nagoshi-san.
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Comments
GameGod 20 Sep 2006 15:55
1/1
I coudn't agree more, PS3 & 360 belong to the old true "next-gen" family of consoles, whereas the Wii belong to the new & futuristic "New-Gen" of consoles, I guess outdated teeny piss-contest powerfull hardware has the right to try to emulate new-gen games despite sucking at it... don't be sad teen PS3 lovers, if you don't get a PS3 power-grill for X-mas, you can still buy a pitbull or a shotgun to make you feel big in your pants!!!