Nintendo's plans for the GC and GBA

Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto was interviewed in Las Vegas on March 2nd about Nintendo's plans for the GC and GBA.

Miyamoto on...

...the next Zelda: For a start, anyone still holding out for a Zelda game that doesn't look like a Saturday morning cartoon has a glimmer of hope up ahead -- but only that. Miyamoto said that he liked the look of the more realistic Link model seen in Soul Calibur II, but more significantly he admitted that Nintendo still have the character models and engine from the oft-cited SpaceWorld 2000 demo running and working. Before you get your hopes up though, temper it with the realisation that Miyamoto also ticked off the many benefits toon-shading has over a realistic look -- so the outlook is still grim for everyone holding their breath for a surprise unveiling of the "old" Zelda.

...online gaming: Online strategy? What online strategy? Though Miyamoto did comment on how interesting networking was in general, the following dreaded words also escaped his lips: "Nintendo is still at a point where we don't see online games as a business model being successful at this point, so I don't think you can expect to see any serious look at online games at E3."

...Donkey Kong, Metal Gear Solid, Pokemon Stadium and other new GC games: Coming, coming, coming (possibly in Ruby and Sapphire flavours) and coming. Though Pokemon Stadium should come as no surprise, the confirmation of both Metal Gear and Donkey Kong is exciting, despite the fact that we don't know anything else. Actually, we do know one more thing: Rumours of a GBA link-up for MGS are a bit tentative, since nothing has been discussed with Kojima yet. And anything new from Miyamoto himself? "Yeah, I do intend to show something at E3." Ooh.

...connecting GBA and GameCube: You might have guessed that this is a priority for Nintendo (given GBA SP, GBA Player, and the fact that it's not the online gaming strategy that everyone asks for), but he reiterated it today, citing Nintendo Puzzle Collection, Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles and the aforementioned Pokemon Stadium as examples. Incidentally, one interesting statistic indicated that those three are just the beginning -- 70-80% of all first-party GC games will have GBA connection features. And Nintendo are currently in talks with EA to convince them to use the GBA-GC connection more. Another partnership brewing?

...more Ocarina of Time/Master Quest-style bonus pre-order discs: Here's a possibility. Although nothing is in the works, and it was noted that the Ocarina disc was a special case with the Master Quest having already been completed but never seeing an N64 release, Miyamoto also noted how easy it was to port. He also responded to the suggestion that another unreleased title -- SNES sequel StarFox 2 -- would be a great bonus idea that he'd give thought to. Remember, a long time ago Miyamoto agreed with a journalist's assessment that StarFox would be a good fit in Dinosaur Planet before the hybrid horror that was StarFox Adventures: Dinosaur Planet emerged. Could history repeat itself? (In which case, I humbly suggest that a new Kid Icarus game would be a good idea. Please?)

...games on the back-burner: Remember Stage Debut, the weird and wacky "game" where you paste your head on to a body and... do stuff? It's been floating around Nintendo since the 64DD days, dredged up every so often and apparently readied for release (like at last E3)... and then it disappears again. Guess what? It's still a ways off. Ditto Roll-O-Rama, which first surfaced as a new Kirby game at SpaceWorld 2001, but has also been put on the back-burner while staff shifts to other projects. What's even worse for anyone anticipating either title is that Miyamoto doesn't mind if they float in development limbo for a while. "Even with three or four people working on a project like that for over two years, it's still cheaper than one month of Zelda's development cost!"

...the busy-bees of HAL design: Historically close partners of Nintendo (especially since ex-HAL man and Toad-coiffed Satoru Iwata took charge of Nintendo), HAL have expanded their ranks as well as the number of projects they're working on. So what do they have coming? Kirby's Air Ride and... that's all Miyamoto would admit to. He did spend an awful lot of time talking about Smash Bros., though...

...the developer of Wario World: Miyamoto answered this with a riddle. Of sorts. "Wario World is being developed by Nintendo in conjunction with a second party that we've worked with in the past." Not a great riddle, especially since we know who it might be. After all, Nintendo have referred to Treasure -- previously "known" to be developing this game -- as a second party in the past, and worked with them on import-only gem Sin and Punishment...

...the impact his new dog will have on gaming: "I think maybe we'll put a dog in Pikmin that will come running out and just gobble up the Pikmin." I like it already.

This is just a summary of the full interview, if you would like to see the full interview click here.

Information from Gamers.com.