A Nintendo community
by the fans!
           
  Forum main
 + 
Bad News: Only Six 3D Classics Coming to 3DS
News reported by 
(Editor)
July 13, 2011, 04:32
 
Only Six 3D Classics Coming to 3DS
Nintendo might have a limited scope for one of its eShop series.


IGN said:
The release of Excitebike on the Nintendo 3DS eShop was an important milestone for the company's struggling portable. It marked the beginning of the "3D Classics" line, a series of games that would feature older classics remade with 3D effects. However, since Excitebike we haven't heard much about Nintendo's efforts -- until now. But don't get your hopes up. The way things are sounding, the 3D Classics series is being approached as a limited set of games.

In a recent Iwata Asks interview, which was hosted before the eShop was launched in early June, Nintendo had only targeted six titles for the 3D treatment, including Excitebike and Xevious. The interview didn't shed any light on the remaining four titles. Though no reason is specifically given for the small scope, the challenges of development may have curtailed Nintendo's original plans.

In a discussion with Nintendo president Satoru Iwata, 3DS software planner Takao Nakano noted that simply applying 3D effects to older games is far more challenging than even Nintendo anticipated. When Nintendo attempted to port Namco Bandai game Xevious, they discovered making the game's ship appear to float in the air had unintended consequences on gameplay.

Suddenly the timing of attacks was off, as was the game's animation. The original developers had never intended for players to detect the transition of attacks between the ship and the ground below in this top-down shooter, so adding a 3D effect changed everything. Nakano told Iwata that the result was a game that took almost 20 times the original intended development time.

Despite that, the game was completed. That doesn't mean other titles were avoided or cancelled though. Nakano mentioned that Tennis for the NES was considered, but applying the 3D effect to a game that already simulated it wasn't very impressive. If that wasn't enough, actually hitting the tennis ball with the 3D turned on proved challenging. "It took as much work as making a tennis game from scratch... we had to conclude that the resultant value would not be worth our hard work, so we scrapped it," Nakano concluded.

Source: IGN

Editor's Note: Well that sure puts a damper on my next Top Ten.

URL to share (right click and copy)
07/13/11, 04:32   Edited:  07/13/11, 04:40
 
Why not sign up for a (free) account?
 
Well, only six PLANNED. They could plan to make more... maybe...

Posted by 
 on: 07/13/11, 04:38
I hope they sell really well so that Nintendo will make more. Or maybe it is a ploy by Nintendo to get us to buy more stuff in order to "send a message" to them that we want more 3D Classics, while they weren't planning to give up at all.

Posted by 
 on: 07/13/11, 04:41
Man that would be bad if that's all we're getting.

I have to say, that's really interesting to read how simply adding 3D effects supposedly changes the game mechanics entirely, like in the Xevious example they mention.

Posted by 
 on: 07/13/11, 04:46
I dunno. I finally tried Excitebike 3D. It feels kind of... weird. Just wrong, somehow. Super-slow, with weird collisions and clipping. Is it just me?

Posted by 
 on: 07/13/11, 04:59
I didn't care for the idea very much, personally, unless it was applied to something like the SNES Starfox, or Yoshi's Island, or Stunt Racer 3D, or any other game where it makes sense.

But sucks for those who wanted something other than frickin' Urban Champion.

Posted by 
 on: 07/13/11, 05:01
Sure it all depends on how well they do.

Posted by 
 on: 07/13/11, 05:05
I think it makes sense. Making certain games work in 3D would take a loooooong time.

Posted by 
 on: 07/13/11, 05:17
@Anand Nope, it felt off for me too. But then, they did apparently build it from the ground up for some reason.

Anyhow, I'm not super interested in the 3D classics anyway. Outside of some timeless game like Super Mario Brothers 3 or something, I doubt I'd buy any.

Posted by 
 on: 07/13/11, 05:22
As long as Punch-Out!! makes it out, I'm fine.

Pretty funny that one of the six is Urban Champion. What a waste of time. If dozens of these were being made, it'd be no big deal...but with only six, Urban Champion was a baaaad choice.

Posted by 
 on: 07/13/11, 05:30
@Zero
SMB3 would work really well. It's already kind of a puppet show.

Posted by 
 on: 07/13/11, 05:53
Meh, I don't really care. If development is harder than they expected, then put that time towards new games and not trying to "enhance" games that weren't even made with 3D in mind.

Posted by 
 on: 07/13/11, 05:54
I bet you they cancelled Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island 3D.

Posted by 
 on: 07/13/11, 06:27
Not a big deal to me, really. Excitebike 3D was a fun little port but I think it also demonstrated the limit of the whole idea. At the end of the day it just isn't that impressive or fun to play 8 bit games in 3D.

It is hilarious that Urban Champion might be available in 3D before Star Fox, though.

Posted by 
 on: 07/13/11, 08:33
If you guys really want to play a modernized version of Excitebike, go buy Excitebike World Rally on WiiWare. Very fun game.

Posted by 
 on: 07/13/11, 08:36
Anand said:
I dunno. I finally tried Excitebike 3D. It feels kind of... weird. Just wrong, somehow. Super-slow, with weird collisions and clipping. Is it just me?

I will admit, I never played the original Excite Bike. With that said, I agree with you, the game feels slow(not sure if it is slower than the orig since I never played it). I have noticed the weird collisions and clipping.

After playing Excitebike 3D, I really do not care if Nintendo does lot of these 3D classics. Now, in the article, they state Xevious has all these problems....well maybe its just Xevious cause of the way it was developed. Maybe other games wouldn't be so hard to make into 3D.

In the end, I really don't care. I got OoT and getting Starfox, now just give me new games!

Posted by 
 on: 07/13/11, 08:48
@WrathOfSamus777

It's not the exact same game with a new coat of paint?

Posted by 
 on: 07/13/11, 08:49
Guillaume said:
@WrathOfSamus777

It's not the exact same game with a new coat of paint?
No it's not the exact same game. It plays a lot like the old game but they made some significant improvements to it. And you can play online which is pretty fun.

Posted by 
 on: 07/13/11, 09:45
I'm sure IGN is hunting for clicks.

EDIT- On a side note, I've played Excitebike 3D about twice. I'm not sure how much I actually care about this in the grand scheme of things.

***GOES BACK TO PLAYING RE: MERCENARIES 3D***

Posted by 
 on: 07/13/11, 14:39   Edited:  07/13/11, 16:55
Yeah, World Rally is a better bet, for sure. I usually like Arika, too. Kind of disappointing.

Posted by 
 on: 07/13/11, 16:24
@Guillaume

No, it's not. It's basically Excitebike 2.

Posted by 
 on: 07/14/11, 03:07
  Forum main
 +