It has been revealed that Bandai Namco, the studio famous for series such as Tekken and Pac-Man, had a significant role in the development of Nintendo's recent mobile release, Mario Kart Tour.
Bandai Namco has revealed its involvement on its official website, noting that the studio implemented visual assets for "courses, characters, and machines", and that it produced "approximately half" of the bonus challenges. The work was completed alongside DeNA, the core developer of the title and regular partner of Nintendo on mobile projects.
Of course, Bandai Namco has been enjoying a string of collaborations with Nintendo as of late including Mario Kart 8 and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, for which it produced "approximately half" of the visual assets for courses, characters and kart parts. You might also be aware that it was heavily involved with the development of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and also helped out with games like ARMS and Mario Sports Superstars.
It was also reported that Bandai was working on Metroid Prime 4 before it was essentially scrapped and restarted, with Retro Studios taking over development duty. While this particular game won't likely end up on the company's ever-growing list of Nintendo projects, it's certainly becoming a familiar name on some of its largest releases.
[source bandainamcostudios.com, via videogameschronicle.com]
Comments 23
Fire them immediately.
Not as surprising, as BANDAI Namco are the developers of the Mario Kart Arcade GP series of games.
Had another go last night and got the hang of the controls, love the snes retro tracks.
@Savino the work they did was pretty good though. I don’t think they were responsible for the micro transaction stuff implemented in mario kart tour at all.
Can you imagine a mobile metroid though, where you can unlock weapons and extra ammo/hp by paying for it? That’ll be the end of the metroidvania genre
Mario Kart VR was also made by Bandai Namco.
And they still ask Switch owners to beg for their games?
Where is Ridge Racer and soul caliber?
@Friendly mobile freemiums tend to aim for relatively bite-sized missions, and buying items instead of unlocking them through exploration/bosses could lead to sequence breaking. Neither works well with metroidvania genre. Since the standard alternative to IAPs is casual grind, RPG elements felt right at home in this field from the start; metroidvanias have never seemed to, and I frankly can't think of a single mobile one on the spot (barring possible ports from PC/consoles).
Speaking of the devil, folks, remember Diddy Kong? The highlight of the Unholy £40 Pack a month ago? He's a mere star prize obtained along the way now. Even sooner than I predicted back then - while others were busy raising cain.
Honestly I like the new ideas Namco added to the Mario Kart games Tour and the GP Arcade games sure I don't fully agree with the pricing system MK tour has.. or how the GP arcade games make you put more £1 coins in, despite if you come 1st or not in any of the cups
but I like how they made the characters different to play, giving you different types of weapon chances, in tour's case gives you a reason to play as all of the drivers to get the best result
They made alot of new ones and brought back a ton of old power ups too, they made the coins worth getting as well the combo/score system adds a whole new goal then just coming first
and the mission mode is also a great return. again the pricing is bad then again most FTP games are but I would love to see Namco add these new features gameplay ones, not the buyable dlc to a console game or heck port one of the GP games to the Switch
@RupeeClock I came in here to say just that, but you beat me to it. Pretty entertaining racers as well. I have the first two Mario Kart Arcade GP games installed on my modded Wii, and they still look pretty good on a big TV...
@ThanosReXXX There even better with the free play mode.
Bandai Namco has had a long history of collaborating with Nintendo on the Mario Kart series.
I remember playing the arcade version in Japan back in 2009 and being surprised that I could select Pac-Man as a playable racer! It was because Bandai Namco had been involved.
Edit: Ninja'd
@ClassSonicSatAm Haha, yeah, that too. Although I do have to say that I think that it's somewhat of a shame that the photo mode doesn't carry over. Don't know how they should or could have implemented it, but it's still somewhat unfortunate that it is kind of an empty option in the menu.
In defence of MKT; I've had more fun with it for €0 than I had with MK8 for €60. Weekly rankings and challenges keep it fresh for me.
I do criticize Nintendo for (1) marketing a gacha pay-to-win game as family friendly and (2) Misleadingly giving player names to bots. They would have had my money already if they hadn't. But in the end, they made a fun game that I do enjoy. So kudos for that to everyone involved.
Why are people instantly assuming they were involved in the micro transactions of this game and trashing Bandai. It even says in the article that they developed assets and challenges. There's a lot involved in development. They were just contracted, don't start flipping out for no reason.
Awesome! Hopefully with all of these collaborations Bandai Namco is learning how to design their own games even better, not that I am saying their games are bad. It is just awesome to see developers taking inspiration/learning from each other.
Is anyone surprised? Namco was involved in the Mario Kart arcade game.
@DrDaisy They were also involved in creating Mario Kart 8's assets
@RupeeClock
Come on NintendoLife, why didn’t you mention this in the article? Bandai Namco have developed and produced 4 arcade Mario Kart games including Mario Kart VR.
@Ajnin There were four of them? I only remember one.
2005, Mario Kart Arcade GP
2007, Mario Kart Arcade GP 2
2013, Mario Kart Arcade GP DX
2017, Mario Kart Arcade GP VR
Wait, Bandai Namco's helped make this game? Does this mean we'll be seeing Pac Man characters as well in promos too? Some are hoping not
New to Mario Kart! Wanted to add some friends. Here is my ID 579285695289. Please add me or send me your ID. Happy Karting!
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