Seaman Creator Working on New DS Game
Follow-up to Odama – bizarre pinball/military mash-up.
SEGA fanboys will fondly remember Yoot Saito’s barking mad Seaman on the Dreamcast. It was one of the first games to really make use of voice input technology, whereby players used a microphone to communicate with a funny looking fishy/man type thingummybob. It ruled of course, but sadly was something of a commercial flop.
We could take an in-depth look at the complex reasons for the commercial downfall of the Dreamcast here, but we won’t. We’ll leave that for the drunken, angry rambling ‘if only they had done THIS!’ sessions in the pub.
Back to the story in hand. Yoot Saito has just announced in an interview published on Nintendo of Europe’s website that he is currently working on a new game for the Nintendo DS. (note you need to sign up as a VIP member to access the full interview).
Saito said: "The Nintendo DS is a wonderful handheld. We're working on a different title right now that will use the network and microphone, but unfortunately I can't really discuss it yet."
So what’s it to be, SPOnG wonders? Seaman 2? A voice-activated handheld version of Saito’s Odama, the oddball feudal Japanese pinball title which is out for GameCube next week? Or something entirely new?
Odama, for those who haven’t heard much of this strange GameCube title coming out this Easter, blends medieval Japanese strategy with, erm, pinball. Yes, pinball! Only someone with Saito’s warped mind could really pull off a combination of pinball and military simulation.
Speaking about the genesis of this strange title, Saito had the following to say: "For pinball, you can't get anything better than an analogue version. Digital pinball just isn't as fun, you know? When talking about putting out a digital pinball game, you have to do something that the companies who make analogue pinball machines just can't do. So that's why I decided to make this strange combination. When I was playing SimTower I really enjoyed getting a lot of people on the screen and moving them around. So I wanted to have the same effect in Odama – lots of people bustling around on a pinball table.
"Even though Odama features a pinball, it's not just a pinball game. You're trying to get your pinball to the goal like a quarterback in American Football. All of these troops are gathered on the playing field and sometimes you might accidentally take out your allies with your own weapon. That possibility adds an air of tension and drama to the game."
Saito goes on to describe the game as also kind of like “...a track meet …. You can shout: 'Go! Go!' [through the GameCube microphone that comes bundled with the game] to cheer on your troops, and they'll yell back. It feels like they're responding to you. That's a kind of feeling you can't get just from pushing buttons. The problem with video games right now is that the only interface is the control pad and the A-B buttons. If you can change that, you can change the entire feel of the game. I think it's very important that the game industry realises this."
Umm, right then. So it’s like Pinball meets SimTower meets American Football meets a Military Sim. And a Track Meet. With voice control. SPOnG can’t wait to get hold of a review copy of this one! Watch this space for a full review in the next week or so.
In the meantime, SPOnG cannot wait to hear more on what Saito has in store for us next. Saito is surely - along with Keita Takahashi - one of Japan’s leading ‘thinking-way-outside-of-the-box’ game designers, so whatever he has in store we kind of know its going to be something of a brain-melt.
We could take an in-depth look at the complex reasons for the commercial downfall of the Dreamcast here, but we won’t. We’ll leave that for the drunken, angry rambling ‘if only they had done THIS!’ sessions in the pub.
Back to the story in hand. Yoot Saito has just announced in an interview published on Nintendo of Europe’s website that he is currently working on a new game for the Nintendo DS. (note you need to sign up as a VIP member to access the full interview).
Saito said: "The Nintendo DS is a wonderful handheld. We're working on a different title right now that will use the network and microphone, but unfortunately I can't really discuss it yet."
So what’s it to be, SPOnG wonders? Seaman 2? A voice-activated handheld version of Saito’s Odama, the oddball feudal Japanese pinball title which is out for GameCube next week? Or something entirely new?
Odama, for those who haven’t heard much of this strange GameCube title coming out this Easter, blends medieval Japanese strategy with, erm, pinball. Yes, pinball! Only someone with Saito’s warped mind could really pull off a combination of pinball and military simulation.
Speaking about the genesis of this strange title, Saito had the following to say: "For pinball, you can't get anything better than an analogue version. Digital pinball just isn't as fun, you know? When talking about putting out a digital pinball game, you have to do something that the companies who make analogue pinball machines just can't do. So that's why I decided to make this strange combination. When I was playing SimTower I really enjoyed getting a lot of people on the screen and moving them around. So I wanted to have the same effect in Odama – lots of people bustling around on a pinball table.
"Even though Odama features a pinball, it's not just a pinball game. You're trying to get your pinball to the goal like a quarterback in American Football. All of these troops are gathered on the playing field and sometimes you might accidentally take out your allies with your own weapon. That possibility adds an air of tension and drama to the game."
Saito goes on to describe the game as also kind of like “...a track meet …. You can shout: 'Go! Go!' [through the GameCube microphone that comes bundled with the game] to cheer on your troops, and they'll yell back. It feels like they're responding to you. That's a kind of feeling you can't get just from pushing buttons. The problem with video games right now is that the only interface is the control pad and the A-B buttons. If you can change that, you can change the entire feel of the game. I think it's very important that the game industry realises this."
Umm, right then. So it’s like Pinball meets SimTower meets American Football meets a Military Sim. And a Track Meet. With voice control. SPOnG can’t wait to get hold of a review copy of this one! Watch this space for a full review in the next week or so.
In the meantime, SPOnG cannot wait to hear more on what Saito has in store for us next. Saito is surely - along with Keita Takahashi - one of Japan’s leading ‘thinking-way-outside-of-the-box’ game designers, so whatever he has in store we kind of know its going to be something of a brain-melt.
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