14 DAY TRIAL // One of the most surprising presences in the lineup of titles that will be available on the Nintendo 3DS at its launch is Saints Row. In a recent interview, Danny Bilson, THQ Core's vice president, revealed that it wasn't just his company's idea, the game also being requested by Nintendo. It seems the Japanese giant is trying to give the platform a more diverse appeal than that of its previous handhelds.
“Nintendo really wants to launch with a very balanced portfolio. They really don’t want it to feel like a kiddie platform. They were very clear: they really wanted Saints Row on it,” he told IndustryGamers. “Now, we know how those go sometimes: sure, the first party wants it, but is it really going to work? The interesting thing about the game is we were already making it. We were already making it as our Xbox Live game and in 3D also. It’s designed for 3D already. So the 3DS version is an incremental cost.”
Furthermore, both the Nintendo 3DS and Xbox Live versions are part of the marketing plan for Saints Row 3. The games will be interconnected, allowing those who play the 3DS version to unlock bonus items and other stuff in Saints Row 3 and vice versa. “I don’t know if I was clear about that, but all of our extension properties all connect and unlock things in each other,” said Bilson in the interview.
The Saints Row series was intended as a trilogy and the third iteration coming in 2012 should wrap up some of the loose ends that remain after the recent second installment. THQ is promising Volition, the developer of the franchise, will expand on all the elements that made Saints Row 2 great, retaining the famous dark humor and crazy mini-games. Better visuals are also a feature boasted by the publisher when it announced the title, given the fact that one of the big flaws of Saints Row 2 was the mediocre technology behind its graphics.