Team Ninja has repeatedly proven itself to be one of the great reformers of fast-paced hyperviolent action games -- it should come as no surprise that the studio's new leader, Yosuke Hayashi, has a few things to say about the broader changes affecting the industry. In an interview with Gamasutra, Hayashi discussed his feelings on the way Team Ninja has been operating post-Metroid: Other M, as well as how the studio feels about new motion control technology and the 3DS.
The studio has a vested interest in the latter, having recently announced an entry into the Dead or Alive franchise on the eye-popping handheld. Hayashi explained the studio is "having fun" figuring out how to effectively use the 3D display -- though he figures gamers familiar with the franchise are expecting more than a bit of 3D ... jiggling. Of the fighters' ... assets. Why, we would never, sir.
Check out the full Gamasutra interview for more of Hayashi's thoughts on the industry big trends.
Reader Comments (25)
Posted: Oct 24th 2010 7:35PM Raffi256 said
They look like washed-up rock stars.
Posted: Oct 24th 2010 8:41PM MystileArmor said
@Raffi256
The guy on the right does look an awful lot like Gene Simmons....
Reply
The guy on the right does look an awful lot like Gene Simmons....
Posted: Oct 24th 2010 11:03PM TraceurRyuk Prepping for LBP2 said
@Raffi256
I was thinking the guy on the right looks like Penn Jillette
Reply
I was thinking the guy on the right looks like Penn Jillette
Posted: Oct 24th 2010 7:54PM Smugleaf said
Hey guess what, shut up.
Posted: Oct 24th 2010 8:24PM geniuswithagun said
Beach volley ball on 3ds xD
Posted: Oct 24th 2010 8:27PM Special Agent Bob said
the question is can it jiggle on DS
Posted: Oct 24th 2010 8:53PM Jack Kevorkian said
Team Ninja without Itagaki. Lol
Posted: Oct 24th 2010 9:41PM R Planteer said
@Jack Kevorkian
However, that also means its Team Ninja- Orginiality. Itagaki started DoA and revived Ninja Gaiden from the dead, and thats probably what they will coast on for the forseeable future.
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However, that also means its Team Ninja- Orginiality. Itagaki started DoA and revived Ninja Gaiden from the dead, and thats probably what they will coast on for the forseeable future.
Posted: Oct 24th 2010 9:55PM Jack Kevorkian said
@R Planteer After playing the Fist of the North Star demo I noticed Tecmo sucked the fun out of Koei as well. In my eyes Tecmo is developer Kryptonite.
Reply
Posted: Oct 25th 2010 9:35AM erac3rx said
Not to be too harsh, but I'd be more interested in reading their thoughts if they hadn't just wrapped up the total insult and abomination to one of my favorite franchises that was Other M.
'So, you just completely ruined the Metroid franchise for everyone.... what are you excited about doing next?"
'So, you just completely ruined the Metroid franchise for everyone.... what are you excited about doing next?"
Posted: Oct 25th 2010 12:35PM Mr Fister said
@erac3rx
Team Ninja had absolutely nothing to do with many of Other M's faults. The character development, storytelling, and progression of gameplay can be traced back to Sakamoto, the original creator of the Metroid series. All Team Ninja did was work on the core gameplay, which was solid once you got past all the other annoying things about the game.
If they combined Other M's core gameplay with the storytelling akin to the Prime series, they'd have a pretty good contender for best Metroid game ever.
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Team Ninja had absolutely nothing to do with many of Other M's faults. The character development, storytelling, and progression of gameplay can be traced back to Sakamoto, the original creator of the Metroid series. All Team Ninja did was work on the core gameplay, which was solid once you got past all the other annoying things about the game.
If they combined Other M's core gameplay with the storytelling akin to the Prime series, they'd have a pretty good contender for best Metroid game ever.
Posted: Oct 25th 2010 3:22PM erac3rx said
@Mr Fister
What? You're telling me that the original creator of Metroid, who had absolutely nothing to do with the creation of this game, forced Team Ninja to...
- have the overly long cutscenes and insultingly stupid narration
- to change Samus' entire personality
- to give Samus all of the upgrades from the beginning but have her choose not to use them until instructed
- and top it off with broken gameplay courtesy of the silly 'aim the wiimote at the screen to shoot missiles' nonsense
Give me a break. They changed the characters, the atmosphere, the gameplay, and the progression of capabilities-- basically all of the core principles of the Metroid series-- _for the worse_ and somehow it's Sakamoto's fault?
Reply
What? You're telling me that the original creator of Metroid, who had absolutely nothing to do with the creation of this game, forced Team Ninja to...
- have the overly long cutscenes and insultingly stupid narration
- to change Samus' entire personality
- to give Samus all of the upgrades from the beginning but have her choose not to use them until instructed
- and top it off with broken gameplay courtesy of the silly 'aim the wiimote at the screen to shoot missiles' nonsense
Give me a break. They changed the characters, the atmosphere, the gameplay, and the progression of capabilities-- basically all of the core principles of the Metroid series-- _for the worse_ and somehow it's Sakamoto's fault?
Posted: Nov 4th 2010 6:12AM robert Kenny said
@eilegz you moron Retro Studies did an outstanding job with the Metroid Prime games. The Metroid Prime games are Three of the most enjoyable, fun to play and highist rated games on the wii and gamecube. oh and by the way they discontiued the Metroid Prime Trilogy because it was a Collecters Edititon, they planned on only making a certain number of copys from the start.
Reply
Posted: Nov 4th 2010 6:10PM robert Kenny said
@eilegz your an idiot you know that, Retro Studies made Metroid one of Nintendo's most popular franchises, all three of the Metroid Prime games are done perfectly infact Metroid Prime was one of the three best games on the gamecube, and what the Hell is this shit about the Metroid Prime Trilogy being filler and uncanon, for your information Retro Studies and Nintendo both worked together on the Metroid Prime series and Nintendo said themselves it was canon.
Reply
Posted: Oct 25th 2010 10:52AM Burger Queen said
This pic is begging for a caption contest
Posted: Oct 25th 2010 1:38PM CaptainProtonX said
I see the Japanese wig market isn't doing as well as it could be.
Posted: Oct 25th 2010 1:42PM killdash9 said
"Of the fighters' ... assets. Why, we would never, sir. "
Griffin inserted an extra 't' in there. And, he seems to have italicized instead of deleted.
Griffin inserted an extra 't' in there. And, he seems to have italicized instead of deleted.
Posted: Oct 26th 2010 3:26PM nawoa said
I loved Metroid: Other M, despite the minor (IMO) problems and the overly-familiar setting after playing Metroid: Fusion so many times over the years.
Probably what helped me enjoy it so much was that I'd just finished Super Metroid and it felt like a surprisingly seamless experience in many ways. Yes, there were new things like a scripted story, dialogue, cutscenes, etc - but overall I really appreciated a lot of the things where you can tell they went out of their way to preserve the "NES/SNES" feel even where it meant ignoring the improvements the Prime series made to various parts of the game.
This decision to take the series back to its roots in this way - and you can tell it was a conscious decision - took balls. It meant throwing out things that were undeniable improvements for the sake of being more of a pure Metroid/Super Metroid experience. This made it a big positive and also a big negative, but overall I appreciated the effort.
That said, I really hope Team Ninja invests in a Retro Studios-quality music team if they were indeed at fault for M:OM's really disappointing "soundtrack". That's one flaw I just can't overlook - Metroid has always been so tremendously enhanced by the high-quality music and they pissed away a huge opportunity there.
Probably what helped me enjoy it so much was that I'd just finished Super Metroid and it felt like a surprisingly seamless experience in many ways. Yes, there were new things like a scripted story, dialogue, cutscenes, etc - but overall I really appreciated a lot of the things where you can tell they went out of their way to preserve the "NES/SNES" feel even where it meant ignoring the improvements the Prime series made to various parts of the game.
This decision to take the series back to its roots in this way - and you can tell it was a conscious decision - took balls. It meant throwing out things that were undeniable improvements for the sake of being more of a pure Metroid/Super Metroid experience. This made it a big positive and also a big negative, but overall I appreciated the effort.
That said, I really hope Team Ninja invests in a Retro Studios-quality music team if they were indeed at fault for M:OM's really disappointing "soundtrack". That's one flaw I just can't overlook - Metroid has always been so tremendously enhanced by the high-quality music and they pissed away a huge opportunity there.
Posted: Nov 4th 2010 6:13AM robert Kenny said
The Metroid Prime games are way better then Metroid Other M, not that Metroid Other M was a bad game but it was nowhere near as good as the Prime games.
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