Interview commemorating the release of F-ZERO For Game Boy Advance

2001/3/22

[TL NOTE: This interview appears to have taken place on the same day the game was released, or shortly before.]

Start

--So to begin with we'd like to ask about when talk of F-ZERO for Game Boy Advance started.

Shimizu: Hmm, the year, I think it was 1999. Around October or November.

--This is the first game in the series on a portable platform. It premiered on the Super Famicom (SFC). Then there was a 64 version, but there was never an iteration on the original Game Boy. Is there a reason for that?

Shimizu: The original Game Boy's performance was not good enough to allow it.

--Saying that the Game Boy's performance was not good enough, you mean that the playstyle would have changed or the feeling of speed would have dropped, so it was out of the question?

Shimizu: It was absolutely out of the question.

--And those are the parts you are picky about.

Shimizu: That's right. If we had made it using the original Game Boy, it wouldn't have been F-ZERO. We didn't do it because it would have become a different racing game.

-Responsibilities

--We'd like to ask about the planning stages and allocation of roles for F-ZERO FOR GAMEBOY ADVANCE (hereafter F-ZERO). How was Nd Cube involved in this process? 

Takashi Kamiyama (Nd Cube) : To start with, we made the F-ZERO demo for promotional use with the Game Boy Advance. Around then is when Nintendo started talking about making an actual F-ZERO game for the platform, and expressed a strong desire to make it, so it was decided we would join onto the project.

Yamagami Hitoshi (Nintendo): At first Nintendo was considering if we could make the game in-house. However, no matter what the game is, there's always a lack of human resources. So we had to look for someone to collaborate with on the game. Having assessed that, we began early talks with Nd Cube who had by chance done the F-Zero demo. Then Shimizu was assigned as director over a team of Nd Cube staff, and over the period of a year the game was developed.

--And what was Kamiyama assigned to work on?

Shimizu: He was added onto the staff later, he was not part of the team at the start. Up until then we had had several people working on the machine design but we wanted someone with experience to synthesize the basic game graphics. Kamiyama provided us with the expertise in pixel art we needed, seeing as the F-ZERO version for GBA was, in the end, a 2D game. Up until the point he had also worked on various Game Boy titles as well. 

--Did you entrust the graphic design direction to him?

Shimizu: I ended up doing the graphic design direction, and because I directly gave explicit instructions on pieces of artwork on an individual basis, in the end it was inefficient. With regard to that, the relationship was basically that I would give instructions to Kamiyama and he would divide the work among the staff, and then show the finished product to me.

--With regard to that, that's the way things usually work in-house?

Shimizu: Yes, basically.

Yamagami: It was like an extension of the company. Shimizu was Nintendo staff, and so Nintendo and Nd Cube people were going back and forth with each other with work, and we didn't want there to be communication issues.

--Right.

Yamagami: And so because the companies were cooperating in this way we needed a mediator. That's where Mr. Kamiyama came in. 

---PAGE 2---

---Problems

--So the project became F-ZERO for the Game Boy Advance. You must have done a lot of tests on the system's functionality for portable games. I don't understand the technical details very well, but I think there are some difficulties in translating a home console game into a portable game aren't there.

Yamagami: Absolutely. For example when working on machine design, we found out that the number of colors we could show on the GBA's LCD was different from the number of colors we could use on the computers used to make the 3D models. The GBA also can't show 3D polygons, the outputted 3D images of the racers had to be cut down significantly. Furthermore the size and number of colors had to be accomodated. Even under these limited circumstances we felt we had to provide realistic "F-ZERO machines" to our customers. To that end although we had some pretty tough problems, they were problems worthy of our attention.

Yamagami: Also, although I don't think Shimizu thinks it's hard, making the courses is difficult.

--Haha.

Yamagami: Actually, how many courses are there?

Shimizu: 22.

Yamagami: Although he says 22, we probably made over 100. At the start we made 20 and were on the fence about 1 or 2 more. For example just as if you increase the number of cars the depth of strategy increases, if we haphazardly just added whatever courses the risk of adding boring/stale courses was there.

--Yes.

Yamagami: Things like that happened a number of times, but because Shimizu loves "F-ZERO", I don't think it troubled him very much. (laugh)

--I see. (laugh)

Yamagami: But there really were some big issues. Up until the very end we were constantly changing how the machines worked. For example how long their boost times lasted.

--Right.

Yamagami: I understood well the reasons for changing the courses. To speak of why, if there were obvious advantages or disadvantages, people would only use those, and so at a high level in order to balance things so people could use any machine in any course we added techniques to each course to allow people to compete evenly. Shimizu himself probably won't say so but I think this was quite difficult.

--I see, I see.

Shimizu: I was working so feverishly that I didn't comprehend that (laugh)

Everyone: (laugh)

---PAGE 3---

---The GBA's Surprises

--Let's talk about the other side. Were there any things during development where you were pleasantly surprised by the GBA's performance?

Shimizu: Well it certainly was full of surprises. "We can't do this with a portable machine?! And we can't do that either?!" were the sort of surprises we got. Because of that, we had to keep our desires for the actual game reasonable. That said, we had good outcomes because of contributing factors like the hardware itself being excellent, and possibly because the programmers who made the game development environment were excellent as well.

Yamagami: Because a portable gaming device provides you a personal screen, it's well suited to racing games. But, the previous model Game Boy's CPU capability was too low and could not handle rendering the track. On the contrary, because we could do that this time we were able to properly create an F-ZERO game. We were also able to do more fine calculations in the levels than in the SFC version and made a more fun game overall, and ended up with a game worthy of being a launch title for the Game Boy Advance. Although the GBA is just being introduced for the first time, I feel like we used a significant portion of its capability and made a very high-level game. Well, saying that myself is a little funny. (laugh)

--Well, to hear of such an amazing game being a launch title is great. Hearing about a launch title using so much of the system's capability is rare.

Yamagami: About that, I think it's going to make a real impression. Because with 1 cartridge, 4 people can play. 

Shimizu: We couldn't use polygons, but excepting that there were few things we were not able to achieve, and so the finished product is very high quality. I think it's going to show people that all kinds of things can be done with portable game systems.

--And you can play it anywhere, even in a park.

Shimizu: That's right. In order to do something like this on the Famicom or Super Famicom you'd have to line up monitor after monitor and it really wouldn't be practical. 

(TL note: He's referring to the ability to have your own personal screen that the GBA offers)

--Yeah.

Shimizu: If you consider that, I think it's really amazing that you can compete with 4 people with everyone having their own screen.

Yamagami: And furthermore all you need is 1 cartridge for 4 people to play. Although you are limited to 1 course and car.

--Amazing.

Yamagami: I think even playing with those limitations is every fun. Kids who don't have the cartridge they will definitely want to get one for themselves after seeing how fun it is.

Shimizu: Truthfully,  "Nobody can complain about this amazing hardware" is what I thought. "Anybody who complains while making this game is a fool." (laugh) 

--That's you defending your obsession with this game isn't it (laugh)

Shimizu: Yep. (laugh)

---PAGE 4---

---Points of Interest

--We'd like to hear formally from each of you the things about the game you hope players notice. Starting with Mr. Kamiyama.

Kamiyama: I really put my all into the graphics, even more than the SFC version, and they turned out really wonderful. I definitely hope people notice that. 

--Indeed. Then, Mr. Yamagami?

Yamagami: There's a certain other racing game people think of when they think of Nintendo.

--Ah, Mario Kart. 

Yamagami: I think F-ZERO goes to the opposite extreme that Mario Kart does. Mario Kart's appeal is using items strategically against your opponents. On the other hand, F-ZERO is a game to challenge yourself. You burn away your life 0.01 second at a time challenging your limits (laugh)

Everyone: (laughing)

Yamagami: I really hope people have fun with Time Attack mode. If you hone your skills, your time will get better in response. It's a game that keeps up with the player to the very end. If you figure out one technique, you'll soon figure out more and more techniques one after the other. I want people to say "This is really a racing game!" with certainty.

--So at the end screen people won't be saying "Yes it's over, I finally cleared it." What about you Shimizu?

Shimizu: To give some examples, there are games that let you experience the fun of a safari rally, games that let you experience driving on an actual F1 course, or driving on a course like you might see in a car commercial. There are all kind of simulation games like that. But that's not quite what genre F-ZERO is. All the people who buy F-ZERO will have a personal experience with F-ZERO. Like a kind of "bond" between them. (laugh).

--Yes, yes.

Shimizu: So what I mean is I want people who buy F-ZERO to have a personal experience with it unlike any other. There's nothing else like it. Those are my honest feelings to people who buy F-ZERO.

Yamagami: It really seems like lately all racing games have become simulation games. 

--Yes.

Yamagami: What I want to say is that this is different, those aren't racing games. What people have been making recently aren't racing games. They're simulators.

--They're after realism.

Yamagami: That's right. Rather than a simulator, it's an F-ZERO world we crafted, and in that we put all kinds of tricks, and we want users to accept the challenges the game offers. By virtue of its rules it's a game-- not a simulator. And so that's why we want to show people that it's really a game. We're not trying to imitate anything, which bars it from being a simulator. This is a game.

Shimizu: It's a game made by a game designer. 

Yamagami: A real game!

--Amazing....

Everyone: (laughing)

--Well that's about all for now, thank you everyone for your collected comments. I think the readers will definitely appreciate the hard work the developers put in. Thank you very much for coming here today.


---Afterword

After the interview a spokesman for the game hurried over to where we were preparing for a photograph shoot.

Spokesman: I did the planning for the single-word keyword for the weekly Famitsu, but...

--Ah, that is for this. The booklet. Did you have some question about the 3/30 booklet?

Spokesman: Oh not at all. In that booklet you chose symbols to represent games in there, and you chose 粋 [TL NOTE: character representing stylish, chic] to represent F-Zero. The 粋 in 小粋 [word for stylish].

--Yes yes.

Spokesman: I think they absolutely nailed the good feeling of this game being a "game made by game designers." Although it was a bit self flattering. I think it also meant it was a game "made with understanding of what people like" and in that sense the character 粋 [TL NOTE: same character, this also represents "understanding"] is perfect. I think it represents that it's made by people who understand that it's human nature to love games. (laugh).

**[TL NOTE: To explain what he means, the character 粋 typically means things that are stylish, refined, etc in the sense of the word he used before 小粋 stylish. However, it has another meaning that means compassion, understanding, empathy etc. so he is saying that the character is doubly fitting because not only is F-ZERO a stylish game, but it was made by people who truly loved the game and understood what it is people loved about it. ]

--Y-you were really taking notes, weren't you (laugh)

Spokesman: Well it may seem like a pun, but this word 粋 seems to have originated from the word 意気 (spirit, heart). That's from a Japanese dictionary. So, when Shimizu talked about the enthusiasm of the development team, I think it also carries the meaning of "spirit/disposition". I think you captured in one character what it would take 100 letters to write. So maybe in the margin or underneath the interview you could include this explanation.

**[TL NOTE: To expound on what he means here, you have to look at the pronunciation of the words in question. The character 粋 mentioned previously is pronounced いき "iki". 

The other word he mentioned 意気 is a much older word meaning "heart" or "spirit" is also pronounced the same way (いき iki) and it appears that 粋 may have been derived from it in more modern times.

So he is saying that the character 粋 in addition to its common usages meaning "stylish"  or "understanding", by virtue of it's derivation from 意気, that character 粋 also represents the "heart" or "spirit" of the development team. A very profound observation by the spokesman.]

So after the interview with the developers and the spokesman's hotblooded lecture was finished, F-ZERO for Game Boy Advance was safely released on 3/21. Just how will the passion they poured into the game be transmitted to everyone?