Famitsu Reports

Sawaru Made In Wario Interview

Lots of interviews this week with the launch of the DS! This time it's the three head honchos responsible for overseeing the development of Sawaru Made In Wario. They are Yoshio Sakamato (Manager of Project Development at Nintendo, creator of the Metroid series), Nakata Yuichi (Main Director on Sawaru), and Abe Goro (Made In Wario Series Director, his name is not pronounced to rhyme with Babe, but ah-bay).

Famitsu
About how big is this game?
Nakata
There are more than 180 micro-games, divided into nine genres. There are also about 30 toy items, similar to the capsules in Mawaru Made In Wario.

Famitsu
Were there any difficulties using the touch panel?
Abe
It had to be made so that players would know what to do [in each game], whether they were used to playing games or not. That was the most difficult part, and the first thing we thought about.
Nakata
Yes, because there are a lot of ways of controlling [the games]. Some you just touch the screen, some you draw something, others you slide a little, scratch, turn... there are quite a few.
Abe
We've made it so that at first, you can tell what you have to do as soon as you look at each game. But later, you have to think about and use all the different things you've done so far.

Famitsu
This applies to the whole series, but the artwork has a special "flavour" to it, doesn't it?
Sakamoto
We tried within a certain limit to draw it that way. There are some pictures in the game done by a certain former designer who can't draw well at all... me! (laughs)

Famitsu
Finally, could you tell our readers the selling points of the game?
Nakata
I like to think that Sawaru Made In Wario is the best of the launch titles for learning how to use the touch screen in different ways. That's what I felt the purpose was when making it. Please have fun with this new kind of "touch control."
Sakamoto
I think that if you play this game, you will think that the Nintendo DS is a great machine. But this is not all the DS has to offer. It's like we're saying, "This is what we're showing you for now…". We certainly think there are many more great things ahead.

posted by CTU Kyoto @ 12/08/2004 08:18:00 am