If you're a Wii Sports veteran, one of the first things you'll probably notice when playing Nintendo Switch Sports is the new avatars. While they seem like a natural evolution alongside Mii, during the development of Switch Sports, Nintendo experimented with all sorts of different character designs.
In the latest translation of Nintendo's 'Ask the Developer' series', the Switch Sports team showed off some other character concepts that didn't make the cut. Some proposals included student and college characters, round-shaped characters, and even robots with an avatar controlling them from the inside!
Junji Morii (Art Director): "Even before we decided to make a fresh start again, we had proposed different kinds of character illustrations. In the early stage, we proposed round-shaped characters with no arms or legs, similar to the Mii characters in Wii Sports. We also created college student characters that looked like this with a theme of intercollegiate sports."
Takayuki Shimamura (Producer): I remember we had the most outlandish characters that looked like robots. (Laughs)
Morii: Around the time when we decided to restart the project from scratch and were told that we would be starting over to create the world’s most easy-to-invite to motion-based game, I asked, "Are you sure we can't go this far?" (Laughs)
The player is inside the robot, but it is the robot that moves when you swing the Joy-Con controller. The robot is the one doing the bowling.
What? You operate the robot?
Yoshikazu Yamashita (Director): Yes, you operate this robot, and the robot throws the ball. I know it doesn't make sense. You might also wonder how big this bowling alley is. (Laughs)
Morii: At first, everyone was so excited about this robot idea that we all thought, "This could be fun!” We even made a prototype. But when we actually saw the robot on the screen and moved it around, a blanket of silence fell over everyone.
Everyone: (Laughs)
Okane: This would make the gameplay about operating a robot.
Yamashita: The player controls the character in the robot to operate the robot. Then, the robot throws the ball. There are too many steps in between.
In the end, the development team of Nintendo Switch Sports decided to play it safe and go with a design that resembled a human being - also known as "Sportsmates".
What do you think of the final character designs in Nintendo Switch Sports? How about these concept ideas? Leave a comment down below.
[source nintendo.com]
Comments 27
I still think they could’ve stuck with the Miis for essentially the same effect. The updated tools and options for Miitopia worked extremely well, I had hoped that would translate over to other Mii-centric titles…
Anyway, how about a Tomodachi Life for Switch next??
These are interesting character designs. Would be cool to see Nintendo repurpose them for an original IP in the future--maybe a budget eShop release in the same vein as Pushmo or Dillion. Nintendo really doesn't do much of that stuff anymore. I don't think these mechs would've worked at all for a Wii Sports successor, though. Between this and the Mario Odyssey art book, I'm really loving all the concepts Nintendo have been messing around with lately. The ideas they toss around seem a lot more ambitious like they were before the casual Wii days. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of it comes down to having a new generation of fresh talent. I get very strong Splatoon vibes, which was made by some of Nintendo's younger devs.
From my perception, gameplay control + amount of different sports to play are way more important than amount of different looking characters.
i think the sportsmates we got are fine, but im way more interested in the diff body types theyll offer in the future. its actually something diff from the miis, i just wish they had full customization like the humans
So they had multiple interesting and fun ideas… and then didn’t use any of them… wow.
Focus on releasing your sports games in a complete state please. Stop releasing a quarter or half a game at release and sellotaping it back together afterwards.
Probably Miyamoto made the developers take them all out
I’d like to see these as costumes down the line, even if only for select sports. Why the player can’t directly control the robot to bowl (piloted or not) i don’t know. Maybe they’ll save them for sports in space.
I’m glad they went with the current designs. Part of the appeal of the Nintendo sports series unlike any other sports series is you are the player. It deliberately crafts a world of familiar people. Which is different from career mode or whatever in other sports games.
I honestly like the new characters. Even more than Miis. I do hope we'll see them in other games as well.
@LimitedPower
That's a good point,
what a waste.
Big robot hamburger guys sure seems a lot better than avatars that kinda sorta maybe resemble their creators a little.
It’s better that we know now instead of some leak ten years from now.
The intercollegiate angle would have been cool.
Could they not make the college outfits unlockable costumes in the future?!
Kinda get why they scrapped the robots. Keep the sports to their pure, as intended form.
Again surely they could create t-shirts for our avatars with the burger, bear, skull etc on them no....?
Who else refuses to play this game with any character other than their Mii???
Mii4lyfe!!!
And yet not a single Mii was ever considered for the lead role. Just goes to show what Nintendo thinks of them as of late doesn't it....
@LimitedPower Except instead of Sportsmates, you get Roommates to replace Miis in Tomodachi Life Switch.
Yeah, I'm not sure many would take this game seriously if the characters were hamburger mechs 😂. Glad Nintendo refocued their efforts to make a pure Wii Sports successor, even if it resulted in a considerably longer development cycle due to the game getting rebooted mid-development.
Just hurry up and give us the free roam update Nintendo!
Maybe the burger mechas could be repurposed as an additional sport.
Also, while I don't like the Switch Sports avatars, I'm glad they have an official name.
Could this mean, they would've been able to crossover with the Metal Slugs? Oh, how one can dream...
Just roll me down a luge track. Snubbed again...
Those human-like character designs, I could have gotten behind; although that demon one does seem a little out of place, if you ask me (unless it's a costume).
The robot one just feels out of place, no matter what. That would probably be better suited for a robot brawler (think Project Giant Robot).
But the Sportsmates I do like, maybe even better than the Miis. I absolutely love their designs, and feel like they could be a natural evolution of the Mii, to create a new custom avatar for Switch profiles, but also other games beyond Nintendo Switch Sports.
I dig the robots, especially the hamburger one…
The actual Switch Sports characters look like xbox 360 avatars copy!
hamburger robot was definitely reference to the popular hamburger mii
@LimitedPower yes pls i need tomotachi life on switch
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