Grezzo kept Ocarina 3D glitches on purpose

You know all those glitches from the N64 version of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time that re-appeared in the recent 3DS remake? According to Ocarina of Time 3D’s developer Grezzo, it deliberately preserved those bugs!

The studio talked about it in an Iwata Asks roundtable with Nintendo president and CEO Satoru Iwata:

Grezzo programmer Shun Moriya: One conflict arose when, as programmers, we wanted to get rid of bugs. But the staff members who had played the old game said the bugs were fun! We were like, “What?!” (laughs)

Satoru Iwata: Yes, that is an area of conflict. 

Moriya: It wouldn’t be fun if your friends couldn’t say, “Do you know about this?” So we left them in if they didn’t cause any trouble and were beneficial. 

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tags / ocarina of time / ocarina of time 3d / bug / glitch / grezzo / iwata asks / gaming / nintendo 3ds / 3ds / ec

Iwata asks about 3DS layers, anti-fingerprint coating, and other hardware features

Nintendo’s CEO and president Satoru Iwata is treating us with another in-depth look at the inner workings of his company, this time gathering the folks who worked on the 3DS’s hardware design for a roundtable discussion.

The conversation covers a number of small but curious points about how the system was shaped, revealing some of the challenges the team faced (like spending six months trying to strengthen the handheld’s hinge!).

One of the first topics the group brings up is the 3DS’s layer design, which I know some aren’t happy about:

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tags / nintendo 3ds / 3ds / iwata asks / ec

Nintendo: No short-term plans for 3DS Lite

For those waiting until the Nintendo 3DS’s inevitable redesign before jumping into the handheld stereoscopic 3D gaming pool, you might have to wait a while before the company releases a smaller/lighter/sleeker model.

Nintendo says the 3DS’s internals are “pretty packed from the start” this time around. The company’s hardware design Kenichi Sugino commented about the crammed design, “That’s we don’t have any short-term plans for creating a more compact version of Nintendo 3DS like we did with Nintendo DS Lite.”

Laughing (as he always does), Nintendo president and CEO Satoru Iwata added, “When making Nintendo 3DS, we used all our tricks for Nintendo DS Lite — and more — for cutting down on size right from the start.”

Preorder: Nintendo 3DS (March 27, $249.99)

See also: More Nintendo 3DS news and media

tags / nintendo 3ds / 3ds / 3ds lite / kenichi sugino / iwata asks / ec

Iwata Laughs: Nintendogs + Cats, StreetPass

Nintendo posted a new Iwata Asks/Itoi Shills discussion about the 3DS, and along with talks about the system possibly recording 3D video one day, the roundtable has a curious exchange about Nintendogs + Cats.

I know few “core” gamers are interested in the game, but I’m pleased it has significant new features beyond just cats, like the pets recognizing your face, an in-game camera for taking snapshots, and an augmented reality trick that superimposes your animals on real-world locations.

The Iwata Asks conversation also outlines this neat Nintendogs + Cats item that uses “StreetPass”, the new feature that automatically exchanges data between two nearby 3DS systems, even when they’re in sleep mode and have different games inserted:

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tags / nintendogs and cats / nintendogs / streetpass / iwata asks / nintendo 3ds / 3ds / ec

Nintendo Game Seminar back-ups, crybabies

Last week, we talked about how people are somehow ripping the ROMs for Nintendo demos, archiving hundreds of U.S. and Japanese trials for others to download after they’re no longer available through “traditional” channels. I recently discovered that someone’s done this for the Nintendo Game Seminar projects, too!

In case you’ve no idea what I’m talking about, Nintendo holds a ten-month development program every year that takes dozens of students through courses on game design, direction, programming, and sound. The students are eventually split into groups, in which they develop small and original Nintendo DS games.

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tags / game seminar / students / roms / piracy / iwata asks / imports / ec

How make-up accessories inspired Nintendo’s handheld designs

When most people discuss the innovative qualities of Nintendo’s Game & Watch line of LCD handhelds, they typically bring up its popularization of the directional pad or its dual display setup from the Multi Screen series.

Another feature gamers should thank the Game & Watch for is its clamshell design, allowing owners to halve the size of their portable while protecting the system’s screens and buttons. Also introduced with the Multi Screen series, Nintendo later brought back the folding handheld design with the GBA SP and, of course, the Nintendo DS.

Nintendo’s president and CEO Satoru Iwata recently talked with some of the designers behind the Game & Watch and its software, Makoto Kano and Takehiro Izushi, about how the team came up with the idea of a folding console:

Satoru Iwata: … in 1982, there was no such thing as a notebook computer, or any electronic device that folded up, was there?*

Takehiro Izushi: The folding idea was a natural one, though, since it was important to make something that could be played anywhere.

Kano: I wanted to research on things that folded up, so I went shopping for compacts.

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tags / game and watch / iwata asks / make-up / makoto kano / takehiro izushi / ec