Nintendo has revealed that time and cost issues were the reason that online multiplayer was absent from Star Fox 64 3D.
The N64 remake arrived on the Nintendo 3DS earlier this month to a positive although many reviews (including our own PlayZine review) made note of the lack of online functionality in leaderboards and multiplayer features.
In an interview with Official Nintendo Magazine, Nintendo’s Yusuke Amano revealed that despite playing online FPS titles himself, the cost required to put such a feature in Star Fox 64 3D “would be vast”
“Personally, I play a lot of online FPS games,” explained Amano. “This leads me to think that just making multiplayer parts of existing games playable online isn’t enough to create a satisfying experience for users. The popular online games work in lots of things, so they play well online – and if we wanted to satisfy everyone who bought the game, the costs required for including online support would be vast.”
Furthermore, Amano added both Nintendo and developer Q-Games had to prioritise graphics meaning that online support would have led to less visual polish.
“For this project what we needed to do was use Star Fox to provide users with a game that shows the appeal of Nintendo 3DS as quickly as possible. We put a lot of effort into the graphics, and if we had included online support then we couldn’t have reached this level in the time allowed.”
Amano concluded his thoughts by suggesting that online multiplayer would definitely be considered if he was able to work on another Star Fox title.
Star Fox 64 3D is available now for Nintendo 3DS.
Tags: Star Fox 64 3D
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