Interview: Atsushi Inaba

• Driftwood
• Saturday, September 20, 2008 | 8:09 PM
• 3 comments

Interview Wii

Almost a month ago, we had the chance to meet with Mister Inaba and interview him about the upcoming Madworld. Come inside for more.

We’re obviously running a little late with this interview but we’ve unfornutately had some major problems with the video. We really hoped we would be able to eventually fix everything but it turns out it was too ruined to get anything out of it. As a result, we decided to offer you the written transcription of the interview. Our apologies to you all and Mister Inaba for keeping you waiting for so long. We hope you’ll enjoy it anyway as it’s really worth reading.

Mister Inaba: There’s some type of battle competition called Death Watch, which is basically a tournament where each participant has to fight for his life and the winner is eventually the last man standing. Jack takes part in this competition but he has a hidden agenda that actually explains the reason of his presence but that’s something we will reveal in the future. So you will have to be a little patient to learn more about the story.

During the presentation, we saw a sequence with a motorbike so we’re wondering if Madworld is going to offer an open environment, much like in a sandbox game for example or if it’s simply a way to add variety to the gameplay?

Well, Madworld is obviously mostly about the fights but, like the motorbike sequence you saw today, we actually have several sequences that will indeed make the game more varied.

When we see Madworld and its excellent artistic direction we can’t help but think of Frank Miller’s work on Sin City. Was it your main source of inspiration for the game and how did you come up with the idea to include such a graphical effect in a game?

It is true that all the development team and I just love Frank Miller’s Sin City so yes, it looks a bit similar but Madworld has got a completely different concept. The main thing is we really wanted to create something really new on the Wii platform which is why we came up with the idea of creating a black and white game.

There are two common points between Madworld and God Hand. The first one is that they’re obviously two brawlers and the second is the violence. However, I think God Hand was more of a hardcore gamer title, it was very demanding and difficult to play whereas Madworld is a lot easier to pick up, which basically is what the Wii platform is all about anyway.

But then do you think the game can appeal to hardcore gamers and not only to casual gamers? Is the game deep enough to interest a larger audience?

We believe the game will also be very appealing for hardcore gamers as its graphical style is both stylish and attractive for such an audience. Moreover, the game may be easy to pick up and play but there’s a good learning curve with all the combos and special moves you can use in the game. It definitely adds some difficulty to it which I’m sure will please hardcore gamers. Also, the storyline will be a major motivation for them, which you will see for yourself when we reveal more details about it in the future.

You mentioned the violence in the game and it’s a Nintendo game so how did they react to that?

We’re not a first platform holder as Nintendo so we can’t really make any comments on how they feel about the level of violence.

The game is indeed very violent but as you said, it is over the top violence. We think it helps highlight the humor of the game and that’s this combination of violence and humor that we wanted to achieve in Madworld.

Since we’re talking about the violence, during the presentation you insisted on the fact that the chainsaw would not be the only important weapon in the game. Can we know more about the arsenal the game will provide us with?

There are a few weapons that Jack can use to survive. Like you said, the chainsaw is one of them but you also saw the dagger in the demo today. There’s also a bat that has got nails on it for example but Jack can also use the things he finds in the environment like flat tyres, signs or you can even toss an enemy into a deadly spiked rosebush.

We were also shown some mini games during the presentation. How important are they in the game and how do they affect the gameplay or the storyline?

Like I said, Death Watch is a battle competition so if you choose to play the mini games you will be able to get stronger and then kill even more enemies which will make your life a lot easier. However you don’t have to play the mini games as it won’t affect the main game. Those of you who want to get higher and higher scores can decide to play them but it’s really up to you.

We like Nintendo but the fact that we worked on Nintendo hardware before was certainly not because we weren’t open to other platforms. We have created many games that were suitable for a Nintendo platform and that’s just what happened with Madworld.

One more question: did you get a chance to try out the Wii Motion Plus device back at E3? It’s probably too late to add the feature in Madworld as it will be released after the game but do you think it could be something you might want to use in a sequel maybe?

Actually, when I first saw it at E3, I was pretty impressed but as for Madworld, I really want to keep the game as easy to play as possible. Now if the players feedback we get from Madworld is that people want the game to be more difficult and more demanding we may consider adding some Wii Motion Plus control in a sequel.

Thank you very much for your time.