Nintendo UK recently spoke with Christian Stewart of Cardboard Robot Games to discuss the upcoming Switch release of Pocket Rumble. In this interview, he shares the inspiration behind the style of game, some of the game mechanics present and comparisons of the Joy-Con to the original Neo Geo Pocket Color.

Below, you can read a brief excerpt on the inspiration behind the game, but you find the entire interview on the Nintendo UK website.

Nintendo UK: What inspired you to make a fighting game in the style of a Neo Geo Pocket Color title?

Christian Stewart: Two buttons was a big, big thing about Neo Geo Pocket. Somehow SNK got really complex, complicated fighting games that felt close to the Neo Geo arcade games in portable format, with two buttons. There was some magic there that we wanted to replicate in which we could make a game that has only two buttons, but still have the complexity that something like Street Fighter, with six buttons, could have.

NUK: Going back to the Neo Geo inspiration, we've talked about the controls, but there's also the nostalgic graphics. What were the challenges of creating a game in that art style?

CS: The resolution of those sprites is very, very small. It is very hard to convey certain things. Subtle nuances are very difficult to convey at such a small resolution. It's absolutely worth it, because I think the Neo Geo aesthetic on top of the nostalgia just complements what the game is trying to do very well.

We're trying to get rid of a lot of executional barriers and keeping things to their bare fundamentals, but those fundamentals are still very complex because they're the inherent mechanics of 2D fighting games.

We're simplifying as much as we can. So those simple, lower resolution graphics and limited colour palettes work really well with how much we're focussing on the core combat mechanics.

NUK: Is there anything else you'd like to mention?

CS: Well, just the fact that the Joy-Con ends up feeling a lot like a Neo Geo Pocket Color, because you've got that analogue stick and the two buttons on the side. There are a few more buttons on the Joy-Con, but you can play it exactly like you did on the Neo Geo Pocket Color. The analogue stick feels somewhat similar to the digital stick on the NGPC and that's kind of cool.

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Are you excited for the Nintendo Switch release of Pocket Rumble?

[source nintendo.co.uk]