"I think Nintendo chose us just because Smash Brothers is a fighting game. We have over 17 years of continuously developing titles in our franchise [Tekken], I think they felt we were a choice for that. Also, we’ve continually developed a very good relationship with Nintendo. Maybe not necessarily in the public spotlight but kind of behind the scenes. We have established a very good working relationship with them. Not just Nintendo, but as a company, we have a very good relationship with Sakurai-san at Sora as well. I think that we are in very good position to make a great game for the Smash Brothers series." - Katsuhiro Harada, Tekken series producer
I won't lie...after the Team Ninja/Metroid collaboration, I'm worried about Nintendo pairing with other companies on major franchises. Namco Bandai gets the benefit of the doubt for now. I'm hoping things turn out just fine!
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I won't lie...after the Team Ninja/Metroid collaboration, I'm worried about Nintendo pairing with other companies on major franchises. Namco Bandai gets the benefit of the doubt for now. I'm hoping things turn out just fine!
Link
Categories: Interviews, Portables, Consoles, Top Stories | Tags: Smash Bros., Namco Bandai, Tekken, 3DS, Wii U | Rating: 
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The Luna series, Grandia 1 & 2 and Ragnarok Odyssey are awesome games
sakamoto may have been involved with other M, but he has no part to play in the development of smash bros.
again, team ninja made other M- not namco.
i guess i'm one of the few who'd prefer sega over namco bandai because i feel the characters sega has can be compared to nintendo's ones easily and as i believe they are better suited to the smash bros realm. sonic, knuckles, ulala, bayonetta, beat from jet grind radio, aiai from monkey ball, rafael of rhythm thief, shadow the hedgehog, amy i could go on and on.
I think Metroid Other M was a great game. And, if I'm not mistaken, F-Zero GX was a collaboration between Nintendo, Namco and Sega... and it turned out amazing! I wouldn't worry so much.
i'm glad he admits that this great relationship is only behind the scene . Frankly their lack of support was surprising and now that we know about smash bros their wii u support remains so weak. I still prefer other m over many many games including some of the industry darlings . I'm not worried about the game, it's not going to change drastically , namco is merely a game arts replacement . And contrary to harada belief, nintendo probably chose them as an incentive for namco bandai aka the biggest third party in japan to support the wii u and 3ds with more projects . Let's say one piece musou for instance , or soul calibur , or anything really .
It doesn't seem to work but that was their intent , they don't need anyone to make the game a success , especially not a company which can turn around quickly and produce their own clone game .
It's going to be the poster child about why nintendo can't gain any third party support in japan . And people will stay say that nintendo could have done more to get support despite them giving namco their biggest ip .
Actually, Team Ninja was involved more in Other M than Sakamoto in a way. For one, they were the ones that decided against Sakamoto's initial decision of making the game a traditional sidescroller and instead told him to make it a 2.5d plane to which he agreed for some reason, to which the wiimote's dpad is horrible to use with, which they did.
Sakamoto only made the awful story and the prime-ish sections like the ''scanning'' whereas Team Ninja did everything else.
Come on now, don't be such apologists all the time.
I enjoyed Other M
I have full trust in Namco. Remember, these are the same folks who made the Soul Calibur series, and while V has a shoddy story [due to someone else doing it] it's still a fun fighter. I had a blast with the character creator.
I can't say the same for Tekken since I haven't played that series since the third entry. XD
Regardless, they won't change much without Sakurai's approval anyway. They already stated the core gameplay is done, now they're just tweaking it to make it better.
[I'm ignoring the Other M discussion. That did not need to be brought up at all, since it's completely unrelated to this topic.]
Nope, Sakamoto went to Team Ninja because he liked Ninja Gaiden and wanted Other M to play exactly like it.
"Frankly speaking, I have to admit that I am not good at playing 3D games myself, maybe because I have no sense of direction in real life. But after playing Ninja Gaiden I was really surprised because, first, I was able to play this 3D game and, second, because this particular game gave me a really good sensation. So I thought that maybe this team would be able to make my dreams come true. Ninja Gaiden was already doing a lot of what I wanted to achieve with the Other M project so I approached Team Ninja and briefed them with the details of my project and they agreed."
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"Metroid was originally a game for the Family Computer Disk System5, and so could be played using just the +Control Pad and two buttons. Back then the game had simple controls: Move with the +Control Pad and use the two buttons to jump and shoot. That's why I decided this time to make a game that just used one Wii Remote and didn't use the Nunchuk controller. Even in a Metroid world that ended up being constructed in 3D, the player feels more affinity with Samus when controlling her with the +Control Pad, even more so than with the Control Stick. "
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I think Namco Bandai will do an excellent job... as others have already pointed out, it makes more sense than Gamearts did, and Brawl turned out just fine.
Come on guys, it's been two years. We get it, you didn't like Other M. Those of us who liked it don't need the constant, unnecessary reminder.
Ugh, this. And it's not like it was the only collaboration that ever existed, either.
Get over it already, geez.
Edit: late to the party, but wasn't F-Zero GX a collab with Amusement Vision? And that turned out pretty fantastic, imo, even running off the Monkey Ball engine.
yep, and i agree that did turn out fantastic.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-Zero_GX
Other M flaws can be corrected, fans identified them very well. The idea still has potential.
And on-topic, this bodes well for Smash Bros because then there is a good environment for development.
@superjavado
Also, this.
@MoldyClay the problems I had where the cut scenes. Which was made by team ninja's animator. The story it self sounded pretty cool, the execution of said story was mostly team ninjas fault
Love how 90% of the posts here are bickering about Other M for the billionth time, that never gets old.
Anyway...I'm confident that with Namco's fighting game expertise and Sakurai's direction, the final product will be nothing short of amazing, gameplay-wise. I'm more concerned with how the roster/stage selection will turn out than anything.
Gamearts was not the main nor only developer. They did some legwork early on, but ultimately it was a massive collaboration between: Nintendo, HAL, Monolith Soft, PAON, Gamearts, and a crack team of various developing talents that Sakurai hired for the project. Which is why I called it a "pot-luck" approach, with Sakurai in charge, and it worked great. I can't really see how anyone could say Brawl WASN'T the best Smash game to come out thus far, unless they really want to sit and haggle over some minor nuances in the controls (I.E. wavedashing, etc.).
I just don't trust Namco anymore, and I certainly don't like the sound of them "handling most of the development" of this new game. People want to point out that F-Zero X was done by Sega/Amusement Vision, and it turned out good. That's ignoring the precise point.....that F-Zero X DID turn out really good (albeit retarded hard). However, Namco themselves "collaborated" on Star Fox Assault, and my personal opinion has always been (as you can see from my tag), that that game was a slap in the face to everyone like me who had patiently been waiting for a TRUE follow-up to the amazing Star Fox 64. I understand some people like it, but I'm sorry, that game was garbage. And while it doesn't need to be argued to death as it seems to be happening on this thread, Other M, while not TERRIBLE, certainly wasn't up to par for Metroid either. Yes, Sakamoto deserves credit for crafting such a "meh" storyline, and honestly Samus never should have talked at all in the first place. But the crappy game design and horrible loose, UN-Meroid controls, fall squarely on Team Ninja.
Some "collaborations" work out great. Others don't. Namco is one of many old companies who used to be great, but aren't anymore, similar to Capcom, Konami, Square, Sega, etc., and they ALREADY have a track record of taking a beloved Nintendo franchise (Star Fox), and changing it, putting their own stamp on it, and churning out a VERY sub-par effort. So excuse me if I, personally, don't have faith that they're going to do a "Great job" with Smash Bros. Let's just say I'll believe it when I see it. I don't want the core 2D style or gameplay or fighting system of SB to change, at all. And I have a feeling it's going to, with them involved.
Brawl is without a doubt the best game in the series for a lot of reasons, but that doesn't mean the game mechanics can't be improved on. Wavedashing? That's not really a complaint compared to how the slower pace of the game and the relative lack of hitstun make for a game that promotes defensive playstyles bordering (or for some characters almost completely relying) on turtling when it comes to competitive play. I'm not saying 'go back to Melee style!' but even Brawl Plus showed me that a small bit of extra speed and a little bit of stun to make combos and real offenses possible can really add to the depth of the game.
For the next game I'd prefer if it played out similarly to Brawl (as opposed to Melee) but with hitstun (and therefore actual combo possibility), Melee's air dodging (it's in Project M and it really helps to give players more options for recovering, getting back on the ground after attacks, and getting the hell out of the way of otherwise predictable and overly reliable edge guards), and a little more speed.
Never heard of them, ergo I can't really say I have an opinion of them. Just hope SSB4 is good.
Since Sakurai is in charge of development, i'm pretty sure that the gameplay of SSB will still be unchanged, even though he wants to bring a new experience for the series in this latest installment. He even said that he won't change the gameplay as a 3D fighter:
http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/08/07/ ... ash-bros-4
We won't know that until we see the very first screenshots of the game in action maybe next year in 2013.
I won't lie...after the Team Ninja/Metroid collaboration, I'm confident about Nintendo pairing with other companies on major franchises. Smash Bros. is gonna kick some major butt.
Seriously?! Was it necessary to bring Other M discussion to a topic about Smash Bros.?
http://hardcoregaming101.net/outfoxies/outfoxies.htm This is a game Namco made before Smash Bros. was even a thing. Add that with their handling of the Tales series in later years and you'll see why I have no doubts.
*stares blankly and remembers the molestation of the Star Fox franchise*...................
Sure. No doubts at all.......................................
http://www.mobygames.com/game/wii/super ... wl/credits
There was still a good chunk of GameArts staff though (I checked from Planning & Level design up to 2D design, being the core game itself. CG and music are a given or a mileage may vary deal really...) -- incidentally one of the main programmers was from BITS Laboratory who made the NES version of Ghostbusters.
Yes,THAT Ghostbusters
It seems more like they were just getting some gruntwork in along with some Konami and Sega staff helping along the way rather than pooling talent -- which was only in the music department as far as I know. There were staff from other companies besides Monolith and GameArts (the latter outnumbering the former in terms of how many of their guys were on the field) but they weren't as prominent. My guess is that since some of their extra guys were from other companies, it was only fair to put their companies' names in the credits.
If you want to get technical, that's more Nintendo's fault than anything.
Their intervention with RARE to alter Dinosaur Planet and Star Fox Command are cuts that still sting to this day. Assault could have been much better, granted, but it's more of a case of poor development choices than incompetence.
Nice game. ^_^ Never knew this game predates Smash Bros. Should be interesting.
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