QA: 05-05-2003

I'm sure you've all heard about the recent rumors about Treasure becoming a Nintendo second party. So I was wondering, what do you think the odds of them being true are? The Local Riff-Raff,
-Jamesc359

Josh: The rumours do make sense, as Treasure has been favouring Nintendo for some time now, but until I hear them from more legitimate sources, I'll remain skeptical. Nintendo is not in the business of acquiring second parties unless they really feel the need, and I don't know if Treasure would be worth it in their eyes.

Jeff: There is certainly a great possibility that Treasure is, in fact, a Nintendo 2nd party developer. However, it really doesn't matter when you think about it. Factor 5, Camelot, and Zoonami are not Nintendo 2nd parties yet all three of them are pretty much Nintendo exclusive regardless. A company can sustain a tight relationship with Nintendo without being considered a 2nd party developer.

Zelda's ending

I was really disappointed with the ending of Zelda "Wind Waker". Does the second quest have a better ending. One that warrent's spending another week playing through.

P.S. I really enjoyed this weeks's cover story "Nintendo Partnerships". It's diffrent from anything else out their on the web. Original content like this is why I keep coming back. Keep up the good work.
-Dao Nguyen

Josh: Thanks for the compliments, but unfortunately I can't answer your question, as I have not yet completed Wind Waker's second quest. Other staff?

Cory: Unfortunately, the ending for the second quest is identical to the ending for the first - and I mean identical. Link's even wearing his green clothes again in the end cinema. The main draw of the second quest is being able to understand all of the Hylien that was spoken in the first quest. And believe you me, there are some interesting things that are said.

Nintendo not for all ages?

Nintendo likes to say that it makes games for all ages. so why doesn't it?

Sure, capcom or konami or silicon knights, or whoever else might make M-rated games, but Nintendo themselves don't make too many. If they were really a "company" for all ages, NINTENDO themselves would put out the same number of E, T and M rated games. Why do they steer away from M-rated games, especially with the franchises to go there? Mario and yoshi obviously are good where they are. Star Fox and F-Zero could be great T games. Metroid and zelda could be good M-rated games, though zelda has proven it's success as a T and E as well with WW and OOT. Wario would make a great M game, similar to Conker.

Nintendo has a great opportuity to make games for all ages, why don't they?
-NA

Josh: You're misinterpretting them. Nintendo was referring to the fact that their games can be enjoyed by people of all ages. Just because Zelda is rated "E" doesn't mean only children can enjoy it. By contrast, a game rated "M" or even "T" can only be enjoyed by a select demographic, albeit a large one.

I've said this before, and I'll say it again: if you're looking for a Nintendo-made answer to GTA or Resident Evil or Conker, just forget about it, because it's not happening. If you can't deal with that, perhaps you should be looking at other consoles.

Glen: I think this is the reason you see Nintendo forming all of these partnerships with third-party developers (see the Nintendo Partnerships feature). If it is Nintendo's games you enjoy, why would you want them to change? Nintendo is Nintendo; if Nintendo was to begin creating Grand Theft Autos and BMX XXXs, they would lose their identity. Nevertheless, while Nintendo itself doesn't deliver adult-styled games, that is what its second- and third-party partnerships are for. Through these partnerships Nintendo is bringing its gamers Eternal Darkness, Metal Gear Solid, Final Fantasy, Resident Evil, Killer 7 and many others. So without getting into the technicalities, Nintendo is making games for all ages.

Splinter sales and E3 surprises

Great site you guys,
First a quick question, do you know how well Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell has sold thus far on the Cube? games like these need to sell solid numbers in order for us to continue receiving titles like MGS: The Twin Snakes. Secondly, with Double Dash!! and MGS and Samus and Pilotwings, that only seamingly leaves Nintendo's Game Zero as a surprise for E3, of course that's as far as we know, any guesses as to what other surprises we'll see?
-AlexanderAlza-

Josh: We've not heard any official sales numbers for the GCN version of Splinter Cell thus far, but I can say that it has sold the least out of the three console versions, as is usually the case for third-party ports spanning across all platforms. I am fairly certain it performed well amongst GCN titles, however.

E3 surprises? Don't worry, there's still quite a few things that have yet to be revealed, not the least of which being a new game from Nintendo...

Mario on Xbox?

At ign xbox, they have a feature on the games of 2004 for xbox. At the end there is a couple of sentences about how the feature is going to continue tomorrow and they hint that a game with an Italian plumber that has a thing for red overalls. Please dont tell me that a Mario game might make it on xbox. Just wondering if you guys have any truth to this statement???????
-Geno

Josh: You're probably referring to this, a feature on IGN detailing the top five games that the editors would like to see on the Xbox 2. This list has little to do with fact, particularly where Nintendo withdrawing from the hardware business is concerned (I guess the IGN Xbox editors didn't hear Iwata's comment that the day Nintendo stops making consoles is the day they stop making games), so rest assured that you won't be seeing Mario on Xbox 2 -- or any non-Nintendo console -- anytime soon.

Metal Gear Solid and Mario Kart

1. Will the new Metal Gear Solid for Gamecube contain any substantial Brand New material?
2. In the upcoming Mario Kart will you be able mix and match the characters, ex. (team up Yoshi with DK)?
I think the US top 100 was an awesome feature, i look forward to seeing how Nintendo sales fared in April.
-Jason

Josh: 1.) Yes. Like the remake of the original Resident Evil for the GameCube, expect Metal Gear: The Twin Snakes to contain plenty of incentives to get people who've already played the game's PS1 incarnation to play again. You don't think Miyamoto would be involved in a mere port, do you?
2.) Yes, characters can combined in different ways than just their "natural" parings; Mario and Luigi don't have to be together.

Jeff: Unfortunately we have no concrete information about Twin Snakes currently. However, as Josh said, Nintendo and Konami have gone to great lengths in appointing the title to one of the best developers out there, Silicon Knights. On top of that, Konami's Hideo Kojima and Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto will be working together in guiding the project. Kojima has even gone on record in saying that he is very excited about working with his "mentor," Miyamoto. Now if this was anything less than a complete remake, why go to all the trouble? Especially considering that Silicon Knights already has a daunting project on its plate, Too Human. We haven't heard the last of MGS: The Twin Snakes and expect many new developments come E3.

Oh, and in regard to the comment on the U.S. Top 100 sales chart, we will do our best to keep N-Ticker readers up to date on this. Sadly, it tends to take quite some time before sales statistics are released here in the states due to various inefficiencies in the process. However, we are able to obtain Japanese sales statistics regularly and post up the latest weekly Top 10 Software Chart (all platforms) and hardware marketshare percentages, for the region, each and every week.

Q&A By: Josh Righter.

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