E3 Interview: Nintendo of Americas Tom Harlin
Interviewed by: Glen Bayer, Dean Bergmann
Transcribed by: Jeff Van Camp
At this years E3 (Electronics Entertainment Exposition 2003), N-Siders very own Glen Bayer had the chance to sit down and talk with Nintendo of Americas Public Relations Manager Tom Harlin. He has worked in the corporate communications department at Nintendo of America since May of 1996.
Mr. Harlin currently manages media relations and product publicity for hardware and software, such as The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker and Metroid Prime for GameCube. His duties also include supervising and training spokespeople for corporate events and consumer outreach.
Glen: How do you feel Nintendo has performed at this year's E3?
Tom: I dont know, I think the show has gone well. In some ways its difficult because we do have a lot of good product on the show floor. A lot of good things from third parties, as you know last year was mostly first and second party stuff. We have a lot of good third party stuff. For GameCube alone its like 35 games. Its really impossible to talk about all of them.
Glen: Yeah that is what I noticed, there is like more of an emphasis on third party software.
Tom: I think that over the last year Mr. Miyamoto specifically has made a lot of strides to reach out to third parties and its been done on the development side not on the business side, which is pretty cool because hes reached out to people who he would like to collaborate with on games and they have reached back as well. Would you guys like to do this in the office instead of out here on the show floor?
Glen, Dean: Sure
Tom: The noise is pretty intense.
Tom: So Mr. Miyamoto has kind of reached out to third party developers that he wants to work with, specific designers even. And companies like EA [Electronic Arts] have responded back saying theyd like to get Mr. Miyamotos touch and input on some things as well. I think most notably you can see it with the Metal Gear Solid [The Twin Snakes]. Mr. Kojima and Mr. Miyamoto, I think, have wanted to work together on a game for a while and they finally thought and decided that this would be a good project to do. With Silicon Knights added into the mix it becomes kind of a true collaboration. Even to the point where there are people from both EAD and Konami that are now in Canada working at Silicon Knights on the game. So it should turn out very well.
Glen: Thats cool. Is Nintendo Japan going to have a Space World this summer?
Tom: You know, I do not know. I havent seen any announcements about it. I just know what they tell me.
Glen: Mario Kart: Double Dash is your first LAN game right? Are there any other games on the show floor that are LAN capable?
Tom: Yeah, I think on the show floor this year there are a lot of experiments from Pac man to Tetras Trackers to Legend of Zelda: Four Swords and I think the LAN on Mario Kart is kind of a similar one. Even all the different colors of Game Boy Advance SPs [are experiments]; I dont know if you guys saw that area or not yet. We have been putting things out there and seeing how people react to them, hear their thoughts, what do you like, what do you not like, how would this work for you? We put out a lot of ideas to see how consumers respond. Also theyre out there to show other developers hey this is something that you can do with the GameCube or this is something you can do with the GameCube/Game Boy Advance connection. So, you watch these things and think for yourself is there a game where you would like to do something [like this]. Maybe something like the Pac man game or the Game Boy Advance connectivity that they did on Splinter Cell. So were trying to lead the way for developers so they can see the options that are available. The only other game that Mr. Miyamoto hinted might have link capabilities, somebody asked about F-Zero GX and he said possibly. But well wait and see how people react here at the show before any concrete plans are made.
Glen: How do you think they have reacted so far?
Tom: Pretty well, there has been about a half hour line just to play Mario Kart all day everyday. [smiles]
Glen: Yeah, played it twice already.
Tom: [Laughs] What did you think?
Glen: It was pretty fun.
Tom: Right on. What did you think of the two characters?
Dean: Wheres Toad?
Tom: [Laughs] God that is everybodys question. The characters there, its obviously, its a wide variety of characters from past games, but this is not a complete game by any means, soId have to say to wait and see on Toad.
Glen: So each character has their own unique item they use?
Tom: Thats correct. They get a special item so each character can get a banana, but only Donkey Kong can get a giant banana. Every character can get the mushrooms, but only Princess can get the golden mushroom, which has as many speed boosts as you want. Mario and Luigi get fireballs, Baby Luigi and Baby Mario get the Chain Chomp that drags everyone around. Thats pretty cool, one of my favorite ones. If you get it you can just devastate anyone in front of you. You dont even have to steer, it just pulls you for a couple of minutes.
Glen: Oh really?
Tom: Yeah, itll just drag you on, which can be dangerous because in the Donkey Kong level with the bridge it will pull you right off. So you have to be strategic about when you use it. Who elseWario and Waluigi get a bomb, which is pretty good, Yoshi gets a special egg, which does a variety of things and sometimes explodes.
Glen: Yeah Bowser has this huge
Tom: Enormous Spiky Shell, yeah. That thing is dangerous even for Bowser, because if you launch that thing in front of you, you have a good chance of hitting yourself, so
Glen: How did Treasures involvement in Wario World come about?
Tom: You know I do not know the background of the involvement. I know that its a cool game and everybodys pretty pumped about it.
Glen: So you dont know if Nintendo approached them or?
Tom: I dont. I dont. I know there are a lot of Treasure fans out there that specifically asked me Is Wario World made by Treasure? Can I go over and see that? Its a nice brawler. One of the things I like about it is that if you get a room with enemies and get a number of enemies going they will continually spawn. So if you hang out there you can brawl for a long time. Use pile drivers, throwing elbows and fists. Its pretty cool.
Glen: Its got different genres to it, puzzle levels and Super Mario Sunshine-like (the no watergun levels), those type of...
Tom: Yeah. Oh, Im not sure if you guys know about this but it has connectivity to Game Boy Advance so there are Wario Ware downloads. Which is pretty cool. To have Wario Ware to sample and I think thats an awesome game so I think that people who sample it are going to want to go out and get it.
Glen: Similarly, who conceived the idea of Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes for GameCube? Was that Mr. Miyamotos initiative or?
Tom: You know I dont know if either one initially initiated it. It sounds like Mr. Kojima and Mr. Miyamoto have talked for quite a while and that they have wanted to work on a game together. I know Mr. Kojima said that people have made comments that he doesnt like to work on the GameCube system and that always has been kind of a problem for him, but he hadnt found a project to bring over to GameCube. So I think they wanted to work on a game for a while and just talking they had similar ideas.
Glen: Do you know how involved Mr. Kojima is in the development of it?
Tom: Hes pretty involved. Hell kind of act as the director/producer of the game I guess. Mr. Miyamoto will be involved in collaboration and working with Silicon Knights and Konami to just get the two of them to talk so they communicate well and to make sure that the ideas turn into reality. But it sounds like Mr. Kojima is pretty heavily involved.
Ill be more specific. Mr. Kojima is doing the design elements and Silicon Knights is doing more of the coding, level design, and those kinds of things.
Glen: Yeah I noticed that the enemies are in new places and the objects are switched around and stuff.
Tom: Yeah it basically takes everything from the first game, the story and longer game play, and takes the engine and play mechanics of the second game. So it takes both games and combines them into what we hope will be one game that we hope will be superior to either. It will have some connectivity features, which will be announced later and hopefully some other special surprises for GameCube fans.
Glen: Is there a separate game that is going to be released for Game Boy Advance?
Tom: Thats not the plan. Its moreIm not going to comment on their specific plans because I dont entirely what they will do about it, but there will be some connectivity that will hopefully to enhance the game.
Glen: Cool. Perhaps like the radar screen on the Game Boy Advance or something like that?
Tom: Yeah that would be a possibility.
Glen: Who is developing Metroid: Zero Mission? Is that Retro Studios or back in Japan?
Tom: No, it sounds like it is back in Japan with EAD.
Glen: Is that like the Super Nintendo remake or is it a totally new game?
Tom: I dont know. I know probably as much as you guys at this point. [laughs] I know I want to play it though. I liked Metroid Fusion. I like getting a little more Metroid 2D and it seemed like Metroid Fusion had a positive response so I think that is part of the reason that there will be another Metroid 2D, but its kind of a wait and see on all the details.
Glen: Nintendos third party support has seemed to really increase this past year. So Im just wondering when you think we might hear about games from developers like Zoonami, Genius Sonority, or the newly formed Tokyo Studio in Japan?
Tom: For the specific third party developers I cant really say anything until announcements are made. For the Tokyo office essentially what has happened is that there are members of EAD that have been trained by Mr. Miyamoto and they are now the core team at that office. That office has begun recruiting and is in the recruiting phase to find talent. The reason for the office is that while Nintendo is a great name, being located in Kyoto, they cant always tap into all of the resources that are available in terms of talent as are available in Tokyo. So they are making this office as an incentive for talented designers and developers in Tokyo to come work for Nintendo. They are in the recruitment phase at this point in time.
Glen: Is Hiroshi Yamauchis Fund Q funding Genius Sonority?
Tom: I do not know. Im not going to speculate.
Glen: Is Giftpia set for a North American release at this point?
Tom: Its TBD (To Be Determined), we dont have a release date for it. What did you guys think of it?
Glen: Well I dunno. I think it is a unique concept.
Tom: Twisted?
Glen: Its different for sure.
Tom: It is different. Yeah we showed it video only last year and have it playable on the show floor this year. There isnt a release date in the U.S., but we have a number of titles that are on the show floor that dont have release dates. So well have to wait to hear more on them.
Glen: How about Fire Emblem for Game Boy Advance?
Tom: Im going to have to look that one up embarrassingly enough. It might be a TBD as well. [gets out piece of paper from pocket] Fire Emblem we have for Q4 (fourth quarter) so it will come out before Christmas, but what exact date were not sure. But its coming out, which I guess is the important thing.
Glen: How long has Star Fox been in development?
Tom: I dont know. Im not sure.
Glen: Is this the Namco Triforce collaboration or is this a different game?
Tom: It is Star Fox 2.
Glen: Do you know if Namco is developing it?
Tom: I dont. [laughs]
Dean: Its different than Star Fox Armada then?
Tom: I dont know. [smiles] Im not sure if this particular title is an experiment, if it is going to change into something different, or if there are other parts of the game we havent seen. What I know is that its Star Fox 2, kind of multiplayer, you have the ability to run around as Star Fox or fly in the Arwing to duke it out. So yeah what I know about the game is pretty much whats playable.
N-Sider would like to thank Mr. Harlin for taking the time to speak with us.