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  • Q&A: Tintin for Wii and Nintendo 3DS


    17/11/2011

    Comic book hero Tintin has been around for over 50 years, but this month the red-haired reporter, originally created by Hergé, is set to make a fresh splash as he lights up the big screen in a movie from Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson and comes to both Wii and Nintendo 3DS in brand new videogames.

    For our Tintin interview, we caught up with Ubisoft’s Drew Quakenbush, Producer of The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn - The Game for Wii and Nintendo 3DS to find out about the challenges of bringing an iconic hero to life in a new way, working with two legendary film makers and how he first fell in love with the Tintin series himself.

    You’re bringing Tintin to both Wii and Nintendo 3DS. How do the games differ for each system?

    Iwata Asks

    Both platforms were managed from our Montpellier studio in France. It’s a studio that has a history of making film-based games. We did King Kong there, which was a very good and successful game. The core team includes the same people that made King Kong, so we really have a strong creative core that has experience in this type of game development.

    The gameplay certainly seems varied. What are some of the different types of experiences players can look forward to?

    In the core gameplay, Tintin needs to find creative ways to get around the obstacles that are in front of him, and we’ve tried to make things happen in a humorous way as well. So you can throw different things – like a pot on the head – and have some fun with the characters and the environment. So that’s our core game mechanic. We also have swimming, driving, flying, sword fighting. We have lots of variety and then combinations of the different kinds of gameplay too. But everything is very accessible, and there’s not a steep learning curve, making it accessible to kids and families.

    Iwata Asks

    With the King Kong game you had a lot of involvement from Peter Jackson. Were the film makers actively involved with this game too?

    Indeed, right from the beginning we had really good support from the film makers, and this one is unique in itself because we have two blockbuster directors involved, with Steven Spielberg directing the film and Peter Jackson producing it. We’ve met with them several times over the last couple of years to review creative elements, to talk about storylines, to share assets. These guys are genius film makers but they also make games too and they play games, so having that understanding on the challenges of developing games is really great. So we can show them work in progress and they understand that the gameplay is at the centre of everything and you build the story around it. So it’s been really good for us.

    NIS_Tintin_screenshot3.png

    How does co-op play work in the game? Does it offer a significantly different experience from the single player game?

    Yeah, the co-op play is quite different. We wanted to differentiate from the more linear nature of the story mode. So the co-op play takes place chronologically just after the story mode storyline itself. Captain Haddock gets hit on the head and so the co-op play happens in his dreams. This allows us to have some more fun with the characters. They have different abilities; Haddock can break through doors and although he’s reliving his recent experiences the environments are “dreamy” based. You have six playable characters that you can switch between. We have treasure that you can collect and you can spend that on different costumes – there are lots of collectibles and lots of ways to add to the experience. It’s a lot of fun. There are roughly 25-30 levels in the co-op mode, so it has depth.

    Can you tell us a bit about the game’s Challenge Mode?

    This includes elements from the game – the driving, sword fighting and plane flying, all within a challenge-based system. It’s a tournament-type structure with increasing difficulty and you have lots of unlockable new items like new swords for the sword fighting. You can play it alone or with other people in turn-based multiplayer.

    Iwata Asks

    Does the game take advantage of the capabilities of Nintendo 3DS beyond the 3D visuals?

    Absolutely. You can play co-op wirelessly with the Nintendo 3DS as well, which is fabulous. We have motion controls too, and then for the sword fighting you use the stylus, which is really cool because it acts like the tip of your sword – it’s dynamite! We’ve got lots of cool, innovative Nintendo 3DS minigames as well that are completely unique to the platform.

    Have you come across any interesting challenges trying to recreate the world of Tintin?

    Taking Tintin from an intentionally simplistic 2D line drawing to a 3D world and trying to appeal to everybody is not an easy feat, especially when you have such a huge fan base for the comics already. It was interesting, the first time we went to New Zealand to review the game with Peter Jackson, we had about a 20 minute discussion with him about the length of Captain Haddock’s moustache, asking things like, “Should his lip be showing, should it not be showing?” – and that’s really the painstaking level of detail we went into. So the film makers themselves have been very involved and the task of recreating Tintin’s world hasn’t been taken lightly at all. And I think it’s come out really well and I think it respects Hergé’s vision of the character.

    Iwata Asks

    Is there one particular aspect of the game you especially enjoy yourself?

    I’ve really enjoyed co-op, it’s been my favourite lately and I’m playing a lot of it. It has a lot of levels in it and I also really enjoy playing the different characters. So you expect to play as Tintin and Haddock, but getting to play Snowy and Castafiore is dynamite! She’s a lot of fun! Her special power is her singing, so she sings and spins and knocks guys out. Thomson and Thompson are in there too, and they can spin their canes to glide or fend off enemies. So we have a lot of unlockable costumes and stuff in co-op as well, and you can spend the treasure you collect while playing on these costumes, and you can switch them on the fly.

    Why do you think Tintin remains so popular all these years after he first came into being?

    I think this is a powerful story about a young hero and his adventures across the world with his best friend. Tintin’s a wonderful story, and I read the stories as a kid. I’m Canadian myself, but I had a British friend who had the comics and I read them and loved them. It was my motivation to come to France to do these games and I’m really excited that the film and games are going to take Tintin to millions more people who have never heard of him before. I think it’s going to create a huge new fan base, which is great and I think Tintin deserves that – to continue on and to reach new generations. In terms of the game, it’s a lot of fun no matter whether you’re playing on Wii or Nintendo 3DS, and I think you’ll want to try the game on each platform.

    The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn - The Game is in shops for Wii and Nintendo 3DS.