Hideki Kamiya on Star Fox, Wonderful 101

Wonderful 101 director, Hideki Kamiya, recently revealed that the upcoming game The Wonderful 101 for the Wii U, was originally a game that would bring together a group of Nintendo All-Stars to work together. As Kiyama put it, “It started out with an order from [Platinum Games CEO Tetsuya] Minami, saying ‘Think up a plan to bring together world famous characters with Nintendo characters at its center, appearing all in one game,” with inspiration coming from Konami’s Wai Wai World and Bandai’s Famicom Jump. “There are a lot of all-star games featuring characters from various mediums, and I think it’s really moving and inspiring to be able to transcend the original games by having those characters interact,” said Kamiya.

However, when the idea was presented to Nintendo, producer Hitoshi Yamagami balked at the idea, deeming it “impossible” and it was subsequently scrapped. As fate would have it, the idea was eventually revived, with the exception that Nintendo characters do not appear in the game. After a couple of changes, most notably a switch from darker to lighter characters, The Wonderful 101 was born.

However, that doesn’t mean that Kamiya still doesn’t reminisce on the concept of Nintendo All-Stars battling together. As he put it in an interview with Polygon, “Considering the wide range of backgrounds of different Nintendo characters, I imagine [if we’d continued] down that route it could have had some of the edge taken off of it. Not to say that it wouldn’t have come together in the form it is now … being this sort of bright pop design, but it’s actually quite serious, in terms of being an action game. If we had pursued Nintendo characters, I imagine it would have skewed more casually.”

Kamiya, a huge Nintendo fan, also had another motive. “I had these dreams of becoming very well-known amongst the most famous designers as well, such as Mr. Miyamoto.”

Kamiya is also known as the man who showed interest in making a new Star Fox game. However, that interest seems to be waning. “I’ve been known for saying I want to work on Star Fox,” he said, “but the tendency for this to spread and people constantly pestering me with questions, like ‘How would you do this? How would you do that?’ … Quite frankly, I’ve decided I don’t want to work on Star Fox anymore.”

Kamiya was finally asked if he ever asked Masahiro Sakurai to allow Bayonetta to appear on the upcoming Super Smash Bros. game for the 3DS and Wii U. As he explained, “Even if there’s been discussion between me and Mr. Sakurai, obviously it’s something I wouldn’t be able to talk about. But I’m a Nintendo fan at heart. Even creating games with the Nintendo logo on them is really impactful for me. So if there was ever the opportunity to feature one of my characters in a Nintendo game, obviously I would be extremely honored.”