14 DAY TRIAL // Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto, one of the most celebrated game designers of all time, shared his insight about the company's new handheld device, the Nintendo 3DS, and how it will make its most popular franchises, Mario and the Legend of Zelda, much easier to design and play.
The Nintendo 3DS is getting ready to make its debut this February in its native Japan, and will then arrive in the rest of the world one month later, in March.
Besides bringing a new array of features over the existing DSi handhelds, the 3DS will make creating games in the Mario or the Legend of Zelda franchises that much easier, because of the new things game designers can use.
"It's not the issue of which is more attractive because each one [2D and 3D] has its own appeal," said Miyamoto. "In the past 3D Mario games, and 3D Zelda games for that matter, if there were several floors at the same height, it was hard for the players to tell if each one of them was located with the same distance between them or if just one was further away and higher than the other floors.
"On Nintendo 3DS, you can readily understand the height and distance of the next floor in front of you. You can feel the difference by switching between the 2D and 3D modes. You might have had a hard time trying to jump on a stump or to hit a floating question-mark block in 3D Mario [games] until now, but you will be able to do so easily on Nintendo 3DS."
The famous game designer also revealed a small piece of insight into game development, and how he makes sure that the characters feel as real as possible when being guided by the player in the virtual world.
"When I make games, I take great care of such details as the body weights of the players' characters. When the character jumps, can the player feel the weight? When the character lands, does the land feel like it is acting as a cushion? How long should the character stand still in order for the player to feel the weight of the character's body? I think about a number of such details. By making 3D games on Nintendo 3DS, such minute details can be felt, and the players can feel as if the world exists."
It seems that the Nintendo 3DS will certainly take the company's game development efforts on a whole new level.
The company is preparing an onslaught of titles for the 3DS, and third-party developers, including Capcom or Konami, are also preparing their top franchises for 3DS-exclusive games.