Donkey Kong Barrel Blast: Difference between revisions

Following the completion of ''[[Donkey Kong: King of Swing]]'', producer Toshiharu Izuno and the Paon development team wanted to follow it up with a home console game that could be enjoyed by the whole family together in front of the TV Screen. Initially, ''Barrel Blast'' was developed as a more traditional racing game<ref name="N.O.M">[https://www.nintendo.co.jp/nom/0707/p2/index.html ドンキーコングを使ったレースのゲームを作ろうとしたキッカケを教えてください。]. ''Nintendo Online Magazine''. Retrieved August 26, 2022</ref> as the developers had difficulty letting go of certain genre conventions, but when the prototype of this version of the game was demoed inside Nintendo, there were multiple feedbacks expressing that the game needed a bigger sense of fun and be more intuitive to make sense as a Wii title. The developers experimented with having all controls done through the Wiimote<ref name="N.O.M"></ref>. Tuning the game's controls was a difficult balancing act: assistant producer Ryunosuke Suzuki described an instance where, after playtest feedbacks complained the timing for making jumps was too strict, the revised version had the opposite issue of having jump be too easy to trigger by accident<ref name="N.O.M"></ref>.

Speaking of the game's use of the ''Donkey Kong'' franchise, Izuno explained that Nintendo did not want Paon to feel constrained in making the game, asking them to first design an interesting racetrack before considering how well it fits the ''Donkey Kong World''<ref name="N.O.M 2>[https://www.nintendo.co.jp/nom/0707/p2/page2.html ドンキーコングの世界観はどのように生かしているんですか？]. ''Nintendo Online Magazine''. Retrieved August 26, 2022</ref>. Paon suggested the idea of new [[Kremling]]s characters, prompting Nintendo's internal character design team to design the new character<ref name="N.O.M 2></ref>. The development team approached ''Barrel Blast'' as a "racing action game", wanting to emphazize features such as avoiding obstacles, triggering course features and jumping over or destroying objects <ref name="N.O.M 2></ref>. As Paon knew the game would be one of the first 4-player racing title on the console, it was deliberately designed to be simple and accessible<ref name="N.O.M 2></ref>.