More M&S 2012 Previews and Interviews

Dream Events, 3DS Controls and More

We have a couple more previews to tell you about stemming from the recent Mario and Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games presser in Europe.

Gamespot has put up a pair of previews, one for the Wii and another for the 3DS.  The website admits right now, what’s being offered isn’t much different from previous Olympic incarnations, but in the Wii preview, hope continues to spring eternal for the Dream events:

The real-world sports were all well and good, but the most fun we had was in the Dream Games. The first we played was called long jump, which despite the name bore little resemblance to the actual sport. Up to four players attempt to travel as far as possible while bouncing around on clouds. By shaking the Wii Remote, you can make your bounces go a little higher, and you can also stomp on the heads your competitors to slow them down. Long jump looks and plays a lot like New Super Mario Bros. on the Wii, except this time, you win by knocking your opponents out rather than incessantly irritating them. The second Dream Game we saw was discus. You throw your discus out in front of you using the Wii Remote, after which you character jumps onto it and you ride it around like a glider. The aim is to collect as many rings as possible, tilting the remote to steer while using your glider to nudge opponents. Toward the end of the course, you try to land on a giant target, with points awarded the closer you are to the bull’s-eye.

In addition to those reads, there is a second interview with the core M&S team of directors and producers held with website Total Video Games.  In addition to the news that a portion of the games’ profits will go toward financing the actual 2012 games in London, the game’s 3DS director explained how this new version will be tailored to the new handheld:

For the 3DS version, obviously we were creating the game for a new console, so that is going to be one of the biggest differences in this game. Not to mention the new, novel features like the gyro sensor and motion sensor that comes with the console… So in this game we’re taking a quite different approach in game design; what we’re trying to do is, when we look at each event, we would try to pick up one element, or two elements, that make that sport fun or unique, and we try and build up game mechanics based on that point. For example, in the Breaststroke event that we showed yesterday, the whole game is based on the breath; the idea is that you have to blow into the mic with the right timing when your head is above the water. So what we did in that event was try to come up with the point, or essence of the sport, and we kind of agreed that it’s probably the timing of the breath. So we picked up that point as the core of the game that we’re creating, and we tried to build up to get the whole game based on that single idea.

There is surely more to come as E3 is now just a couple of weeks away.