While Mitch covers the Tokyo Game Show from Japan, Destin, Naomi, and Ryan discuss the biggest Xbox-related stories from the comfort and safety of IGN HQ. Metal Gear, Ninja Gaiden, Borderlands 2, and more are all covered. Oh, and Destin apparently has an unhealthy obsession with Killer Instinct, which is also in the news this week. How weird can it get? You'll have to tune in to find out!
Download Episode 72 of Podcast Unlocked right here.
We’ve learned at Tokyo Game Show that if you buy Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate on both Wii U and 3DS, you’ll be able to use the same savegame for both versions, taking your progress with you wherever you go. But how exactly will that work?
Series producer Ryozo Tsujimoto explained to IGN today that you’ll have to download a small, separate app for 3DS in order to make the transfer. You’ll just have to launch the app and press a button – it all happens wirelessly, you don’t need an Internet connection, and it doesn’t take long. “You can think of it as just one save data that both systems are sharing,” he said.
Tsujimoto also hopes that this dual-platform strategy will help Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate reach the biggest possible number of fans. “One of the things we’re trying to emphasise is that because it’s on two platforms, we’re actually trying to appeal to two very different types of playing styles,” he says.
“There are people who want to play outside with the 3DS version, and also people who want to play at home online; hopefully we can hit both of those audiences at the same time. There will of course also be people who will want both versions.
“We’re really hoping that because of the strategy that we have with Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate we will be able to reach out to a greater range of fans.”
Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate will be out in the West on 3DS and Wii U in early 2013.
Keza MacDonald is in charge of IGN’s games coverage in the UK, and has spent hundreds of hours hunting monsters on the PS2, PSP and Wii over a good five years now. You can follow her on Twitter and IGN.
Speaking with IGN at Tokyo Game Show, Monster Hunter series creator and producer Ryozo Tsujimoto has explained why Monster Hunter 4 is not a multi-platform title.
Following the news that Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate – an improved version of 2010’s Monster Hunter Tri – would be released on both 3DS and on Wii U on HD, some fans have been wondering whether Monster Hunter 4 would make its way to other platforms. But it doesn’t seem like it will.
“Other than what we’ve already announced, we don’t have anything that we’re planning,” said Tsujimoto, asked if Monster Hunter 4 might appear on any other console besides the 3DS.
“The way that we work with Monster Hunter games is that we see them as single entities, so we don’t develop for one platform and then think about porting it to another platform. The situation with the 3DS and the Wii U is that we wanted people to play this game a lot, so that’s why we have taken this [multi-platform] approach with Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate. But it doesn’t mean we’ll do that with new entries.”
Monster Hunter has historically appeared on Sony platforms – the first game appeared first on the PlayStation 2, before an improved and updated version was released on PSP. Monster Hunter 2 was released on PS2 as well, but it wasn’t until Monster Hunter 2nd G came out for PSP that the series achieved the enormous success that made it synonymous with portable gaming in Japan. Monster Hunter Tri for the Wii was the first game to appear on a Nintendo platform.
“The series did start out on Sony platforms, but it’s just realistic to think that it can’t continue on one platform forever,” says Tsujimoto. “With Monster Hunter 4, it actually just came down to timing - we were developing a new Monster Hunter and the 3DS hardware had just come out, so we figured it was probably the best platform for us to develop it on. You have two screens, with action on top and menus on the bottom, and there’s the 3D view as well. It just made sense to put it onto 3DS.”
Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate will be released on both 3DS and Wii U in 2013 in North America and Europe; it’s already out on 3DS in Japan, and hits the Wii U there on launch date, December 8th. Monster Hunter 4 for 3DS has not been confirmed for the West yet, but it’s out in March 2013 in Japan, and after Tri’s breakthrough success worldwide, our hopes for seeing Monster Hunter 4 outside of its native country are high.
Keza MacDonald is in charge of IGN’s games coverage in the UK, and has spent hundreds of hours hunting monsters on the PS2, PSP and Wii over a good five years now. You can follow her on Twitter and IGN.
The Tokyo Game Show starts next week, and IGN editors are Japan-bound this weekend to bring you the coverage you crave. We'll be scouring the show floor for those obscure, bizarrely-fascinating Japanese games, you'll never get to play, as well as digging deeper into upcoming AAA releases we can't wait for.
So when is this thing? What's going to be there and what are we excited to tell you about? Where can you find our coverage? Does Japan really have awesome giant robot technology? Well, since you're asking...
The show runs from September 20-23 Tokyo time. For the Westerners, that means we'll kick it off Wednesday, September 19. Because time-zones. We'll be at a few pre-show events, including Namco Bandai, the PlayStation press conference, and Tecmo to tell you about Japanese publishers' latest and greatest games ahead of the show, as well.
Certain members of IGN's TGS squad are huge Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance fans (ahem). The slicing mechanic works, the action is fast and tense, and Raiden is just super cool. So now that we're in the homeland of Kojima Productions and Platinum Games, cross your fingers for more from Revengeance's story, setting, and complex combat system in a brand new demo.
We heard rumblings that Yakuza 5 is in development some time ago, so we're thrilled to finally be able to get back into the seedy underworld with Kazuma Kiryu -- and four other characters. Yakuza 5 is the first series entry since Yakuza 3 to rebuild its engine, so we're expecting gorgeous scenery to complement the massive story, now with five open-worlds in which we plan to kick dudes and woo ladies.
Nintendo shocked everyone when it revealed Bayonetta 2 as a Wii U-exclusive action game. How will it use the GamePad, who's involved in its development, and what's changed as Bayonetta makes her way to a new platform? We want to know as much as you do, so we're going to explore Bayonetta 2 as much as possible and report from the field. Expect lewd images and video to come alongside our coverage...
The Japanese series may be in American hands, but, despite the developer's past faults, we trust Spark Unlimited to pull it off with Lost Planet 3. We want to learn more about the single-player focus and its main character, and see what threats still exist on this frozen ice world. We'll report right to you when we sink more time into killing Acrid in a big, bad Vital Suit.
The Lost Planet spinoff is definitely a different kind of action game than its source material, both aesthetically and tonally -- but hey, slaughtering bugs and exploring planets is the core of what makes it interesting. We can't wait to finally jetpack around an ice planet, take Vital Suits into space, and interact with the colorful cast of new characters in this comic book-esque spin on the series. E.X. Troopers could be something special.
We're also pumped to check out more on Resident Evil 6, Assassin's Creed III: Liberation, Project X Zone, Zone of the Enders HD, Monster Hunter on Wii U, Tekken Tag Tournament 2's incredible Nintendo costumes, Remember Me, and dozens of others.
You can catch every last piece of TGS-related content on good ol' IGN.com, of course.
But if you'd rather filter out unrelated news, the IGN Tokyo Game Show hub will pump all of our TGS coverage into your veins.
We'll have articles and videos going live every day during the show, so be sure to keep it locked to IGN from September 20-23 to learn all about the best, smartest, and craziest games in the east.
Until then, IGN's Daemon Hatfield will be training his arcade skills so he can compete with this dude:
Mitch Dyer is an Associate Editor for IGN's Xbox 360 team. He’s definitely going to get lost in Japan. Read his ramblings on Twitter and follow him on IGN.
