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[Mikami on] Shinji Mikami update!
LewieP
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
IGN.com wrote:Shinji Mikami was one of the main creative forces behind some of Capcom's biggest hits of the past decade, including Resident Evil, Dino Crisis and Devil May Cry. While he's chosen to keep quiet following Resident Evil 4, Famitsu managed to track him down and squeeze out some hints on upcoming projects.
After a few comments about his absence from the media spotlight (he even joked about how he probably ought to have done some PR for God Hand), Mikami was bold enough to offer an apology for Resident Evil 4 going multi-platform! He feels especially bad because he believes some went so far as to buy a GameCube just to play the game, only to find that it would be available for the PlayStation 2 as well.
Moving on to future plans, Mikami disclosed that he formed a private development studio called Straight Story in 2006 prior to Clover Studio's fall. The studio's name is taken from the 1999 David Lynch movie of the same name.
Mikami is also a contract employee (actually an "external board member") of SEEDS, an Osaka development company recently formed by a bunch of former Capcom stars, including Atsushi Inaba and Hideki Kamiya. Mikami revealed to Famitsu that in general, his future titles will carry the SEEDS branding. They will be published by an actual publishing company, although he did not give any indication that this would necessarily be Capcom.
After much joking around, the Famitsu editors eventually got Mikami to admit that he has started actual development on possibly multiple game projects. However, don't expect anything from him for quite some time, possibly not until after 2008!
Mikami is also continuing work on a previously announced project with Grasshopper Interactive's Suda 51, known for the bizarre Killer 7 and the upcoming No More Heroes on the Wii. He expects to be able to show something this summer.
Just to clear things up, Mikami isn't one of those old-school developers who's moved on to the production side of things, separating himself from actual game creation. In his closing comments to Famitsu, Mikami said that he's done the producer thing, but now he plans on being mainly a director. Given the guy's rap sheet, we can't wait to see what he thinks up next.
Well, intresting stuff. After playing RE4 and God Hand, I have developed a 'man-crush' on Shinji Mikami, and have decided that I would indeed 'go gay' for him. The stuff about "Straight Story" was new to me, and I can't wait to see what happens when you put him and Suda 51 together, because I think their design styles would compliment each other perfectly.
Why you should care about Shinji Mikami -
Aladdin (SNES)
He was one of the designers in the superior of the two 16bit versions of the film adaptation, brilliant game, classic 16 bit platformer, sitll holds up today.
Goof Troop (SNES)
One of the best coop games on the snes, a great fun puzzler that needs a VC release
Resident Evil Series (Playstation/Saturn/N64/DC/PC/Gamecube)
Resident Evil is what brought him to fame, he created the series. I didn't really like Resident Evil, untill RE4, which I won't bother talking about, you all know allready how awesome it is.
Dino Crisis (Playstation)
Directed by Mikami, Dino Crisis took what he had created in Resident Evil and turned it into a perfect cinematic experience with tougher enemies and more logical puzzles. The game remains one of the few clones of the Resident Evil formula to touch upon the original's greatness.
Dino Crisis 2 (Playstation)
As the general manager of Production Studio 4, Mikami executive produced Dino Crisis 2. The game was a complete overhaul for the series - making the game more action packed and foreshadowing Resident Evil 4. The game also introduced a ranking system for areas that would later reappear in the Devil May Cry series and PN03 as well as a system for buying and upgrading weapons that would later become RE4's merchant.
Gyakuten Saiban/Phoenix Wright (GBA/DS)
Our man Shinji is the executive producer of the fantastic lawyer game on GBA/DS. Brilliant characterisation, plot and design. Really unique and loved by gamers and non-gamers alike. A renaisance of traditional point and click adventures.
PN03 (Gamecube)
An experimental old skool 3rd person shooter, with dodgy controls, and awesome art style. It's a really love it/hate it design, it's in bargain bins all over the world now, so I suggest you try it. Even if you don't like it, it's important because the control scheme of this game is what eventually lead to RE4 and God Hand.
Killer7 (GC/PS2)
Mikami was executive producer in Killer7, same goes for this as PN03, it's in bargain bins all over (although moreso the inferior PS2 version) a stunning example of story telling/uniqueness in video games. Hit up gamerankings, and you'll see that it really divided reviewers (a running theme in some of Mikami's games) If you're intrested, I recomend Eurogames reviews.
God Hand (PS2)
I am not going to say anything about this game, just click here
...discuss
PS, cheers to Kuraudo for Dini Crisis info, if anyone wants DMC to be added to the OP, feel free to PM me with it.
LewieP on
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My wife would be considered a nongamer in the parlance of our times, but a few years back I was helping her clean out stuff at her mom's house for a garage sale when she pulled out an old Tupperware bin with her old SNES and a handful of games, one of them being Aladdin. I plugged the system in to see if it all worked, and she asked me, "Hey, lemme try Aladdin real fast."
I handed her the controller and, having not touched the game in roughly 10 years, she managed to one-life the entire game right in front of me. I got a total geek boner.
Does she have a sister?
We need some Dino Crisis love in this thread.
never played it actually, feel free to PM me some stuff and I'll add it in after RE
And then we combine Will Wright and Miyamoto to make an even better game later on.
Sent.
If you didn't really like the old REs then you probably won't like the first Dino Crisis much either. The second one is definitely worth a look though.
Added the DC stuff, cheers.
The real problem is, I never played them much back in the day, just a little here and there, then I got RE4 at launch, and have not been able to go back to previous ones.
Had a gorgeous sense of style/design.
A creepy, sterile Event Horizon type story set in a massive ship that WAS TRANSFORMING ITSELF, UNICRON STYLE.
But the controls were wrecked by a terrible, terrible, terrible camera.
But anyway, Mikami is definitely one of the best Japanese developers around. Behind only Miyamoto and Kamiya in my mind. Can't wait to see wait he's working on next.
edit: I also want to mention how amazing the gameplay design in God Hand is. I also can't wait to see how he expands on its gameplay in future titles.
To be honest, in the back of my mind was an awesome article in The Gamers Quarter issue 8, "Shinji Mikami and the Lost Art of Game Design" although I read it ages ago. I highly recomend reading it to anyone intrested in game design, and indeed the entire publication is fantastic.
*Wikipedia Search*
Shit man, my 'man-crush' grows. I guess the OP needs an updating.
Thanks for the link. That was a very well written article and a good read.
Its just stuns me how Mikami and Kamiya are pretty much responsible for every important step in innovation in 3rd person action games.
So, he's helped create 4 of my favorite games.
Great, now I have a man crush.