Nintendo, Camelot give a detailed look at the dev process for Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash

The following interview from Famitsu includes discussion with:

Hiroyuki Takahashi (Producer, Camelot)
Shugo Takahashi (Director, Producer, Camelot)
Toshiharu Izuno (Producer, Nintendo)

- devs originally thought online global matches would be impossible
- pretty much everyone at Camelot is a big Mario fan
- developers made sure that every single character was well polished, including the minor ones
- Nintendo was against having Boo as a playable character, since he would be unable to hold a racquet in his hands
- Camelot thought his ability to disappear really gave that character a “Mario” flavor
- character balancing was a challenge
- if fans did not approve of something, then the developers also wouldn’t
- there were many failed attempts at character balancing, but things eventually came together
- the way the devs picked characters for the roster went as follows:

Priority was given to characters that were popular, would help sell the game, were requested by a lot of players, or appeared in previous Nintendo games
New characters were picked by the staff, who then deliberated
Camelot consulted Nintendo when it came to picking new characters

- Camelot wanted players to “raise” their amiibo in the game
- Camelot also wanted some RPG elements to amiibo play, as well as amiibo having a connection to online play
- devs didn't want the GamePad to draw the player's attention away from the TV, so they used it for a reverse court view
- Nintendo helped bring this feature together
- a demo was made in about 3-4 months in order to get some feedback
- this was Camelot’s first HD title
- the giant characters (with the Mega Battles) were implemented as some sort of test for HD
- the devs wanted the game to be as accessible as possible
- that's why Giant Goombas, Jump Shots and Chance Shots can be disabled
- Nintendo suggested additions such as the Jump Shots
- Mega Battles were Camelot’s idea, not Nintendo’s
- the developers were concerned about how they would work, and what impact they would have on basic actions