Choice Provisions remains one of the most admirably eclectic yet successful developers currently plying their trade in the download scene. After coming to prominence with the BIT.TRIP series on WiiWare and other platforms, the studio changed its name from Gaijin Games and has begun to establish itself as an effective publisher, in addition to making its own games. Wii U eShop fans have likely admired one of its most recent efforts that made it to the store, too - BIT.TRIP Presents: Runner 2 Future Legend of Rhythm Alien.
Through its increasing publishing duties and its own projects the name Choice Provision will likely become increasingly familiar in the coming years, and we caught up with associate producer Dant Rambo to talk over that name change, past, current and future games, as well as the inevitable question - would CommanderVideo kick butt in Super Smash Bros.?

Citing ethical reasons, you switched the company name from "Gaijin Games" over to "Choice Provisions" back in 2014. How has that transition been for the team a year out, and how does the change sit with you after some distance?
All things considered, the name change went really well for us. It was a challenge to get the word out at first, but it seems like everyone has figured it out by this point. That said, it turns out there's a whole lot of paperwork that comes with changing your name!
But even with what a pain it was, we definitely stand by our decision to change our name.
It's no secret that WiiWare has been a big part of the team's success. What can you share about your latest experiences with the eShop regarding both functionality and sales? How has it felt compared to the Playstation Store and Xbox Marketplace, and have you felt any of Nintendo's changes made for indie developers since WiiWare? If it were possible, would you make any additional changes?
We're personally happy with the eShop on both Wii U and 3DS. Our games have performed well on them, and Nintendo has been very good about helping us promote our game releases.
We're personally happy with the eShop on both Wii U and 3DS. Our games have performed well on them, and Nintendo has been very good about helping us promote our game releases and sales and such. No complaints there.
The biggest issue any marketplace has nowadays — at least in my opinion — is visibility. I personally feel that Nintendo has made a lot of great strides in this area, and I can't say we've ever encountered an issue where our games were buried or not easy to find in the store upon launch or anything. But your mileage could vary quite a bit in this regard, so it's certainly possible other developers have struggled more with this.
"Whoa, Dave!" has been featured in a few of Nintendo's indie sizzle reels. Talk us through the process of getting placed onto a Nintendo Direct.
Hmm. I wouldn't say there's too much of a process to it. I'm sure a lot of people have noticed that Nintendo has been trying to give more airtime to indie games in their Nintendo Directs. As an indie developer, we've really been able to reap the benefits of that. There are people within Nintendo who absolutely deserve shoutouts for helping champion indie games. Dan Adelman when he was there, and now Damon Baker (and many more). But it seems to me that Nintendo as a whole is trying to get behind indies more. It's great!
For those not familiar, can you explain what "Dragon Fantasy: The Volumes of Westeria" is, and what Nintendo fans can expect regarding a release?
Dragon Fantasy: The Volumes of Westeria is a classic RPG game inspired by the JRPGs of yore. It was actually developed by a studio called Muteki, and it's the first game we're releasing under the Choice Publishing moniker. Publishing games isn't entirely new for us, as we published a little game called lilt line on WiiWare. But it's something we've become far more serious about recently, and are actively pursuing new and interesting games to publish! In fact, you can expect us to release Shutshimi and Dragon Fantasy: The Black Tome of Ice on Nintendo platforms this year!

Can you tell us about Shutshimi, and how you came to publish this title from Neon Deity Games on Wii U?
We got really lucky with that one. We've known one of the guys from Neon Deity Games for a while now, and when we found out they were working on Shutshimi, it just so happened we were looking to get into publishing. It's a really great game. I'd go so far as to say there's no better game starring a goldfish. And if you know anything about me, you know that's about the highest compliment I could ever give something.
As a company still relatively fresh in publishing games from other studios, how have you found that process? What are the biggest challenges?
We're always looking at ways to improve, but we've also been lucky enough to have self-published some of our own games, which has given us a pretty decent crash course in how to release a game. But, again, we're paying close attention to what works and what doesn't, and changing our process accordingly. But having released lilt line in the past and more recently Dragon Fantasy: The Volumes of Westeria, we're starting to feel like a well-oiled game publishing machine.
Let's talk BIT.TRIP. Whose idea was it to get Charles Martinet, voice of the Mario Bros., onto the Runner 2 project, and how exactly did you go about making it happen?
There's a lot of stuff in Runner 2 that was birthed from us joking around the office. Good examples of this would be the fake ads in the game, as well as some of the characters (Reverse Merman!). The idea to get Charles Martinet came about in the exact same way. It began with us daydreaming about how awesome it would be to get him to do the narration, but we quickly realized that a few of the people at Choice Provisions actually knew him and it was totally possible.
He's incredibly awesome to work with, as I'm sure you can imagine.
There's a lot of stuff in Runner 2 that was birthed from us joking around the office. Good examples of this would be the fake ads in the game, as well as some of the characters (Reverse Merman!)
Do you see him reprising the role any time soon?
Anything is possible, and we would certainly love that. We actually had him narrate some promotional videos for our Good Friends Character Pack for Runner2, which was a blast.
The short answer is that we would love that. The long answer is that we would really, really love that.
After implementing Runner 2's cartoonish art style, do you see the team ever returning to the bit-trip style of retro-styled games, or is that in the studio's past?
Hm… Maybe! Never say never. We're not the type to rule things out completely, so this is certainly a possibility. If it's something people want, they should let us know!
We were shocked but not surprised to catch Commander Video while fishing in the mobile game Ridiculous Fishing. In fact, CommanderVideo is very well traveled within the game community. How does he keep finding himself in all of these games?
We were really excited about that!
It may not always seem like it, but the game industry is relatively small. On top of that, there are a lot of people at Choice Provisions who have been in the industry for a long time. A lot of friendships have formed in that time, and it isn't uncommon for indie developers to reach out to one another and request that their character have a cameo in their game or something along those lines. It's not that simple in the world of AAA games, I'm sure.
One of the most amazing cameos we've been able to wrangle thus far was CommanderVideo's inclusion in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U as a trophy. That's still something we regard as one of our biggest accomplishments.
Did you approach Nintendo? Them you?
We were the ones to approach Nintendo. We've always loved the idea of CommanderVideo showing up in a Smash Bros. game in some capacity, and thanks to our longstanding relationship with Nintendo, we were able to make it happen!
But yes, the "process" here was really just us emailing Nintendo a lot and being annoying.
A bit of nepotism here: do you have a favourite BIT.TRIP title from the series?
My personal favorite is BIT.TRIP VOID. There's something very zen about it to me.
But, as you can probably guess, I like them all quite a bit!
What's next for the company? Any big announcements?
We're currently hard at work on games called Tharsis and Laserlife. The former is a perma-death, turn-based strategy game about the first manned mission to Mars; the latter is a music game where players are tasked with restoring the memories of a dead astronaut. Both are significant departures from our previous work and we're really excited about them!
In fact, we've been talking a lot about bringing Tharsis to the Wii U! Stay tuned for more info about that.

Onto a very important question – prominent indie developers have shared their desires to see characters like Shovel Knight and Meat Boy implemented into Smash Bros. via the "Smash Ballot" voting process Nintendo recently announced. Your media channels are similarly adorned with "Vote CommanderVideo!" propaganda.
Between Shovel Knight, Meat Boy, and CommanderVideo, who wins in a fight? Give us a Smash Bros. move set!
Ha! That is a dangerous question. We love Yacht Club Games and Team Meat. I'll just say that Shovel Knight, Meat Boy, and CommanderVideo would all be able to hold their own.
We've actually talked rather extensively about what CommanderVideo's move set would be, so just in case he ends up being a playable character in the game, I'm going to refrain from revealing it here!
Please vote for him!
We'd like to thank Dant Rambo for his time.
Comments 35
Isaac first, then Commander Video. Also go back to being Gaijin!!! Such a better name/logo and everything. It wasn't derogatory towards anyone. Just AWESOME!! (Yes I know what it means and why they changed it. I still don't like it)
Hoping to buy Whoa Dave soon from these guys.
Only Shovel knight has any type of moveset though. And hopeful he digs in for battle!
They don't have the "legendary" status third party characters need to have to make it in. They're just a bunch of pretentious little hipster games that think they're all that and a bag of orange juice just because they have pseudo-retro graphics. It was novel back when Cave Story first came out, but it's become so widespread that it's really just become a cheap budget-saving excuse that's stopped impressing us years ago.
I don't hold a high opinion of them, at all, is what I'm saying, and those developers should stop pretending that we won't completely forget about them in a couple of years.
Shovel Knight? There's a reason the platformer genre as a whole died out.
CommanderVideo? Bit.Trip games are better suited for a smartphone than a console.
Meat Boy? HE'S NEVER EVEN BEEN ON A NINTENDO CONSOLE. Yes, he's had cameos in WarioWare D.I.Y. and Retro City Rampage DX, but that's hardly the same thing.
I wouldn't mind shovel knight because it started on Wii U and 3DS, but meat boy does not deserve to be in the game, he has never had a game on any Nintendo console.
Guys, let's talk about what CommanderVideo's moveset would be. Up B would be his spring jump, obviously. His downtilt has gotta be his slide. And final smash...rainbow power, right...???
None of these characters have any hopes of being smash bros, why are all these developers so delusional.
I voted for Shovel Knight.
MAYBE Meat Boy if he gets a Wii U / 3DS Exclusive
Commander Video is just too blank for me.
@Mijzelffan To be fair, CommanderVideo IS ALREADY in Smash Bros as a trophy!
@Pandaman
There's a difference between a trophy and a fighter though! I would like to see more indie/third party games get in as tophies or even assist trophies, but I think fighters is a bit too high of an aim for indies.
Dave Lonuts as an assist trophy chucking exploding skulls at combatants? That would be awesome!
@shigulicious Shantae also has an amazing moveset if you account in the pirate attacks from her third game.
The more time it passes the more my dreams of seeing Shantae in Smash fade.
This makes me mad that these idiots are the reason why the trophy section of smash bros is tainted with indie strike 1.
i cant believe these indie idiots begging nintendo to put their character in smash even got him made as a trophy. Strike 2 these Strike 3 OUT for tainting the game with their indie garbage.
if you are supporting any 3rd party indie character to be in smash in any way including as a trophy, you don't deserve to be a fan
@BaffleBlend
Wait now. When did the platformer genre die out? I completely missed that.
Shovel Knight went instant classic in my mind as soon as I played through it. Subjectively, it is an NES classic, to me and many. Not to you obviously, but there are plenty of Super Smash Bros. characters that mean nothing to me. I'd say most people feel the same way about a good portion of the characters.
"They're just a bunch of pretentious little hipster games that think they're all that and a bag of shit just because they have pseudo-retro graphics."
Wait, I'm the only one who likes Shovel Knight and the Bit Trip games for the game play?
It's one thing not to enjoy the retro nature of some games or have any attraction towards some indie games, but to suggest that these developers aren't passionate about gaming and that they aren't offering something significant that others aren't is awfully shortsighted and frankly mean-spirited.
I'd much prefer Shantae and/or Shovel Knight over Commander Video for Smash.
@Captain_Toad >> JUST saw it ON SALE on the eshop 30% OFF !!
@modshroom128
Sorry about how your narrow viewpoint has made you so cranky and hateful about something so benign and insignificant as a popular mash-up fighter video game. :/
@aaronsullivan:
Let me start off by saying, yes, I was being way too harsh. Sorry.
But, well... I still have to vent a bit. Sorry.
@ Platformer genre dying out: The New Super Mario Bros. series has been the butt of so many jokes for pretending and insisting that the general consumer base is still interested in platformers. There's really only three categories of platformers left; New SMB, indies, and straight-up remakes/rereleases.
@ A good portion of the characters being a bunch of nobodies: Yes, that's definitely true. To name a few examples, Captain Falcon was only included for pragmatic reasons, being a texture swap of the placeholder character in the game's pre-alpha build, "Dragon King: The Fighting Game". Ness's inclusion confused everyone, as EarthBound was a notorious commercial flop until his being in Smash generated demand for it. And Pikachu and Jigglypuff? Red/Blue had only come out not even a full year prior yet in the West. And that's just from the N64 roster.
If you ask me, though, indie titles go a bit beyond the scope of even Smash's very loose rules for inclusion. While a case could be argued for CommanderVideo due to his historical role in helping Nintendo catch up to the downloadable market via being the poster boy of WiiWare, Shovel Knight and Meat Boy are much more Xbox and PC characters than Nintendo characters. I haven't seen anyone who doesn't already have a Wii U get or even consider getting one for Shovel Knight; they just get it on Xbox Live Arcade or Steam.
@ The retro nature of the games: I'd probably be a bit more forgiving if they abandoned the retro aesthetic, personally (like Runner 2 did; though I still don't really enjoy the bit.trip games much at all, R2 getting its own art style instead of riding on Cave Story's coattails like the first bit.trip series did made me gain slightly more respect for it.), because like I said, nowadays, it's just an excuse. It's like how "Steampunk" turned into "Gluing random gears on stuff"; "Retro" just means "Cheap & Low-Res" now.
But what I'm mostly ticked about when it comes to these characters is the pretentiousness and audacity that the developers show by demanding that people vote for the characters that they made. Honestly, to me, it sounds no different from, "I made an OC. Look how awesome he is. Make him canon."
I'm sorry but the 3D CommanderVideo character is just a sh*t design. Some of the Bit. Trip games are really fun, Bit. Trip Beat and Bit. Trip Runner being two favs of mine, but that's just a weak character. Also; his pixel version is actually more appealing than his rendered version as far as I'm concerned because you can get away with a pixel character being simple as hell, it was par for the course back in the day so it totally fits, but you can't really get away with some stupid, bland, slightly weird shaped, rendered looking thing. That's just kinda bad design however you look at it. The design isn't worthy of being in Smash imo.
Again; not saying the games aren't good. I think a few of them are very good. Just think the character is a bit meh.
PS. I think the 3D version of the character would have been much better if they'd just taken the 2D pixels and made a 3D-pixel version of that design, out of big 3D sharp edged blocks and all. So basically, his whole body/head section would be a big elongated cube for example, rather than a smooth rounded bendy tube thing. Basically like this: http://www.commandervideo.com/images/DarkSideOfTheBit.jpg
I think there's a very good chance that an indie character will make it... it seems like a respectable thing to do. We'll see I guess...
Love the bit trip series. The WiiWare games were actually significantly better than Runner 2. Also like woah Dave! Nice to see them staying loyal to Nintendo.
@BaffleBlend
Demanding sounds so much more negative than just good-natured promotion, which is how I see it. Wouldn't you promote your character if you had made one and felt it could fit? Especially when fans are also requesting it. I never saw a petition for Shovel Knight before I wanted him to be in it.
I would only call it pretentious if they didn't have a passionate fan base but they do, or if Smash Bros. was some ultimate hall of fame and it isn't.
On the platforming genre: While the Wii U iteration of New Super Mario Bros only sold a bit over 4 million (2014) it was a small user base so about 1 in 2 Wii U owners own it, right? More sales than Super Smash Bros. Wii U at last count. New Super Mario Bros Wii sold over 28 million copies. Another 8 million from New Super Mario Bros 2. Pretty good for a dead genre.
There's more to it than you suggest: Rayman Legends, Donkey Kong Country, variations on basic platforming like Terraria, the Trine games. That goes into indie territory but very, very popular indie territory.
Besides, I'd hate to call a genre dead just because the "masses" aren't into it as much. Games are way more fun to me than following passing trends. I'd think most people commenting on gaming sites look deeper than that.
Personally I enjoy and gravitate to the less indulgent and shorter experiences of many indie games. They often make up for lack of resources for visuals with compelling game play where some larger games are guilty of the opposite and are higher risk (cost, time investment). I can understand the attraction to the big publisher games, and I quite like a big experience like that from time to time, myself. There's much more to life, though, and I like my favorite hobby to be containable. I only play a big game two or three times a year.
Oh, and Shovel Knight launched on the Wii U and is styled after NES games specifically. Some of the older folks who downloaded it on other consoles must have been attracted to the old NES style from their youth, right? That's enough to tie it in for me.
Referring to developers as "pretentious hipsters" and ranting in a comments section because they suggest voting for their character in a write-in poll is probably taking the whole write-in poll thing more seriously than the developers by a mile. Lighten up!
@BaffleBlend Look who's bitter he couldn't make a video game.
I'd be fine with CommanderVideo and/or Shovel Knight for Smash.
However, if Meat Boy is in Smash, I will rage. Meat Boy was never even on a Nintendo console. The very implication that he should be in Smash makes absolutely no sense to me, as there are many far better candidates, first party and third party, that would actually make sense. Anyway. Small rant, but whatever.
It makes me sad to see people complaining about indie characters appearing at all in Smash.. Not because I want any of THESE characters in (to be honest out of these 3 Shovel Knight is the only one with a minuscule chance, which is negligible considering the lack of a Japanese release.), it's the fact that Shantae is technically indie yet she would be a great fit for the roster. (Takamaru still got my vote instead, the poor guy's been considered for every Smash game other than the original)
There's some really childish hate for those characters. It was painful to read. Like comments about the trophy section being tainted by CommanderVideo. WTF is up with that? Bit.Trip was almost synonymous with WiiWare. All his games are available on Nintendo consoles as well.
I really like Bit.Trip and CommanderVideo, so I'd love to see him playable in Smash. Shovel Knight on the other hand, he has one game. It might be good but still, Bit.Trip is at least a more prolific series.
Anyway this was a nice interview to read. It's cool to see an indie developer try publishing other's games. Normally you see developers talk about jumping into game design, you hardly see them talk about jumping into publishing.
This was interesting to read,but still don't want him or any of these indie characters in Smash bros.Not yet after all of Nintendo character who deserve a spot get in,then i'll gladly want the indies to come.
@BaffleBlend I agree with you so much. I swear if a cruddy Indie character gets in over a proper one...
@Radbot42 Hope you're talking Golden Sun's Isaac. No way in hell TBoIsaac deserves a spot in Smash, even Com. Video deserves one over him, but if any Nindie character deserves a spot, it's Shantae.
@TwilightAngel Shantae is the only one I think deserves a spot, if you count her as an indie character. Maybe Shovel Knight second, but I agree, not before more deserving 1st party characters first.
Can't wait to get more info on their three new games Shutshimi, Tharsis and Laserlife.
Bring em all to Wii U of course! In Europe too! And what about possible release dates for them?
I got all their Wii/WiiWare/Wii U eShop games and VOID is my favourite too, next to lilt line and RUNNER2.
Will they publish lilt line too too? (This is not a grammatical error, the sequel to lilt line is called "lilt line too".)
@aaronsullivan I'm not going to say that Shovel Knight wouldn't fit in to the Smash roster, (or any other indie characters like Meat Boy, even though I've never played a Meat Boy game). In fact, I really enjoyed Shovel Knight, I can't wait for the DLC and I think he would be a great addition... but he's only existed for one year. There are other "legendary" characters who are far more deserving and I just feel like Shovel Knight needs to wait his turn. If Nintendo was going to throw in 10 more characters, sure, I'd put Shovel Knight in. But if it's only going to be 2 or 3, I want some classic characters who either are still in Nintendo games or who maybe started on Nintendo consoles and have since moved on. Simon Belmont, Ryu Hyabusa, Earthworm Jim, King K. Rool, the Battletoads, Conker, Banjo & kazooie, any Final Fantasy characters from FFI thru FFVI, etc. all should be considered for Smash before some brand new character that's only a year old.
@DoctorWily
It's a good point and probably a context I haven't really been thinking of. Simon Belmont and Ryu especially. I don't love Smash Bros. so I'm not as vested in it as others. I just had to chime in when indies were being thrown under the bus for no good reason, and even the entire platforming genre. Lol.
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