Japanese Famitsu magazine has interviewed the developers of Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat. N-Sider revealed to you during E3 that Takao Shimizu is producer and Yoshiaki Koizumi is director of the title at the new Tokyo EAD studio. The two men spoke with Famitsu and explained the progression of development and ideas that have gone into the title. Translations below are courtesy of IGNCube.
Koizumi explained his initiative with the idea for Jungle Beat saying, "I'd been hearing from many people that recently control [in games] is difficult, and that's when I first had the desire to make a game that was simple and easy to understand. Until now, I've only made games that make use of a standard controller, so I wanted to at last make something that had a different form of input. It was then that I was introduced to the Donkey Konga conga controller."
Shimizu said Koizumi came up with the idea for an action game after Shigeru Miyamoto gave a presentation that showed the capabilities of the conga controllers with the Namco-developed title Donkey Konga.
"While we were still at the Kyoto home office, Shigeru Miyamoto suggested that we make a game based off of Donkey Kong," said Shimizu. "Full development on the game began after we moved from Kyoto to Tokyo last July."
"You can't perform the same kind of moves with a conga controller that you can with a regular controller, so we had to think up some new mechanics," said Koizumi.
Koizumi and Shimizu are happy with the responses received at the past Electronic Entertainment Expo. The two men were on hand at the Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat kiosk (our editor-in-chief, Jason Nuyens, even had a chance to meet and snap photos of them.) In the Famitsu interview, both men noted that all who played the game were smiling.
When asked about the inclusion of action modes in addition to the modes shown at E3, Shimizu said, "Of course! We're preparing a whole lot, so look forward to it."