A new feature idea i thought up of. A monthly special we post with the latest "expert" analysis, rumors, or our usual hardcore dig ups of japanese news, copyrights, and patents presented in a nice little column.
- Issue 1 (work in progress)
The first issue of Kyoto Report Monthly Magazine tackles the euphoria and pandemonium of your typical post E3 in the Nintendo world. The Wii U presentation has signaled a new eon of hardware and software, alongside hysteria and confusion percolating throughout the community. Hopefully this first issue provides some sedatives and answers to some of the smaller questions.
One game noticeably absent from the presentation that surfaced on most prediction lists was Wii Sports U. But rest assured that the game is absolutely in development for the Wii U. At E3 2011 during a teaser presentation, Nintendo displayed a short video segment of some of the current work-in-progress prototypes that the company was developing. Untrained analysts postulated that they were all “quick tech demonstrations not representing games”. Which of course is something that we disagree with when understand the methodology of in-house development at Nintendo. All the games were real, early prototypes of games, but nonetheless playable prototypes with goals of reaching the consumer. Regarding Wii Sports U, the game is being developed in Kyoto and has director and programmer Keizo Ota once again heading the project with producer Katsuya Eguchi. Nintendo used the Kodak Theater during its E3 2012 presentation to put the spot light on Nintendo Land. Expect details of Wii Sports U after the release of Nintendo Land, with a probable target release date of the second-half in 2013.
Wii Relax is a mysterious game for Vitality Sensor that was initially scheduled to launch with the Wii. Nintendo President Satoru Iwata announced the peripheral and hinted at the software during Nintendo’s E3 2008 Press Conference. After two years of shrouded silence, Iwata addressed that the peripheral (and game) were still being developed but experiencing technical difficulties in reaching 99-100% compatibility with all the subjects. We've uncovered several details of the game before, re-confirming that the game was in development as of 2010 with Norikatsu Furuta and Goro Abe of Nintendo's Software Planning & Development Department handling development. The patents we've unearthed hint that the game had some type of main component detailing with relaxing exercises, alongside some WarioWare type mini-games. The development team was using research data from Tohoku University, similarly to the the original Brain-Age games.