We always assumed that Pilotwings Resort for the Nintendo 3DS is an entirely internally-developed Nintendo game; however, that isn’t quite the case.
At a Game Developers Conference panel today, Nintendo’s SPD3 department producer Kensuke Tanabe and Retro Studios described the development process for Donkey Kong Country Returns, where they detailed how the collaborative process between Retro and Nintendo in Japan evolved over the years from the Metroid Prime games to Donkey Kong.
Kensuke Tanabe, in case you didn’t know, is also responsible for overseeing a lot of Nintendo’s third-party developer collaborations, such as Punch-Out!! and Excitebots, developed by Next Level Games and Monster Games, respectively.
At the GDC panel, Tanabe revealed that Excite Truck and Excitebots developer, Monster Games, worked on Pilotwings Resort, too, citing both them and Next Level Games as good examples of developers that clicked with Nintendo’s design philosophy.
The U.S. gets Pilotwings Resort as a launch game when the Nintendo 3DS releases on March 27th. However, Japan saw their Nintendo 3DS launch last weekend, but Pilotwings wasn’t part of it. Japan will get the 3D flight game on April 14th, almost three weeks after the U.S. for 4,800 yen, which is what the average Nintendo 3DS game costs in the territory.
Pilotwings Resort takes place on Wuhu Island, which is the same locale that Wii Sports Resort was situated in. You can read hands-on impressions of the game here.
