Next Level Games is now exclusive to Nintendo.

Bryon15

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http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...2-dev-will-now-work-exclusively-with-nintendo

Luigi's Mansion 2 and Mario Strikers developer Next Level Games will work exclusively with Nintendo on future projects, the studio has announced.

There's no suggestion, however, that the Canadian team has been acquired by Nintendo (unlike entirely-owned developers such as Retro Studios or Monolith Soft).

Still, Next Level Games co-founder Jason Carr seemed satisfied with the set-up when discussing the studio's future with Gamasutra.

"We are doing only Nintendo products now," he explained. "We're super happy with our relationship with Nintendo. There's no reason to look anywhere else. They keep giving us better and better IP to work with, and as long as we do our job and make good games for them there's no reason for us to venture out."

Next Level's sequel to Luigi's Mansion was warmly received upon its release last year, with critics agreeing that it was a worthy follow-up to Nintendo's own GameCube cult classic.

The studio's relationship with Nintendo stretches much further back, however. Next Level first worked with the platform holder on 2005 footy spin-off Super Mario Strikers and teamed up with Nintendo again on Wii sequel Strikers Charged. The studio also developed the Wii version of NES classic Punch-Out!!

In between these releases the studio ventured elsewhere with lesser success - it developed Transformers: Cybertron Adventures for Wii and worked with Sega on Captain America: Super Soldier.

"We got up to four teams," Carr recalled. "We were about 115, 120 people. We spread ourselves way too thin. We just ended up making sh***y games, really."

The advantages of a more focused, Nintendo-only future make a lot of sense, he concluded, refusing to comment on what the studio was building next.

"There are a lot of benefits to working with a first party. Nintendo's great. They give you the time to make games good. They've done really well - the Wii's done really well, the DS has done really well, the Wii U is not the strongest start but we trust that they'll come up with something to get it going, and the 3DS was a blast to work on."

Yay! Nintendo needed more studios. Now if they can just secure platinum...
 

trumpet-205

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Next Level Games has pretty much being Nintendo exclusive from the get go, so this news really doesn't come at a surprise or anything.
 

Hells Malice

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As long as they stay away from Paper Mario from now on i'll be happy.
I do like Sticker Star, it's quite charming...but the gameplay was totally gutted and collecting stickers is extremely annoying.
 
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Taleweaver

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The gamasutra interview is pretty fun to read. Those guys really like what games they're making. :)

There is one thing I can deduce that I'm not so sure about, though:

Nintendo's great. They give you the time to make the games good. They've done really well -- the Wii's done really well, the DS has done really well, the Wii U is not the strongest start but we trust that they'll come up with something to get it going, and the 3DS was a blast to work on.

The fact that Jason Carr is speaking about nintendo headquarters kind of tells that they aren't working on a wiiu game right now. :unsure:
 

shakirmoledina

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This will now exclusively lead the Wii U to the next level... too easy.

I think Nintendo have to go more social and rely on existing Popular technologies. It may seem like a policy change to adopt other things such as Android Content or Unfamiliar activities (like a tablet) but I think they need to improve their backing and Company outlook and NintendoWorld-View
 

Hadrian

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Nintendo needs to also snap other other studios outside of the ones they work with, there's only so much many games they can do themselves and they're having to spread them all out among the Wii U & 3DS. They're missing someone like Rare, though I never thought they were as good as people made them out to be and while Nintendo probably got the better end of the stick when they shifted to Microsoft they do need someone to pick up the slack while Nintendo polishes up it's AAA titles, a developer who have a few teams underneath them to do a couple of games a year, as much as I love the work of Retro Studios, their size is only enough for one game every few years.
 
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grossaffe

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I'm intrigued by the part where they said Nintendo is handing them greater and greater IP. Wonder what they're up to now.
 

calmwaters

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As long as they stay away from Paper Mario from now on i'll be happy.
I do like Sticker Star, it's quite charming...but the gameplay was totally gutted and collecting stickers is extremely annoying.

Was the hatred for Paper Mario initiated by Sticker Star, or was it just the series in general? Sticker Star is an insult to that series, just like Chrono Cross is an insult to Chrono Trigger. But the fact that Chrono Cross sucked doesn't take away from the grandeur that was Chrono Trigger.
 

chavosaur

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Was the hatred for Paper Mario initiated by Sticker Star, or was it just the series in general? Sticker Star is an insult to that series, just like Chrono Cross is an insult to Chrono Trigger. But the fact that Chrono Cross sucked doesn't take away from the grandeur that was Chrono Trigger.
A lot of people Consider Chrono Cross to be The epitome of the series actually, myself Included.
 
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Arras

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This is such a pathetic attempt at trolling; I don't know what to do at all.



"oh dear someone doesn't like the same things as me, must be trolling"
Ontopic though, I rather enjoyed the original Mario Strikers for the cube and Luigi's Mansion 2 was good as well. Looking forward to see what else they can do.
 
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A lot of people Consider Chrono Cross to be The epitome of the series actually, myself Included.
Has anyone who regards Chrono Chross the "epitome" of the series, actually won it? It made Chrono Trigger not exist, and the story was bad compaired to Trigger. The only thing it has going for it is that the gameplay is slightly better. If the game was standalone, not related to Trigger, it'd be decent.

On-topic:
If Nintendo did "under the table" pay off Next-Level, that was a good move, I'm hopeful of Next-Level.
 
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Gahars

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Neat?

It's like Nintendo listened to all the people advising them to acquire outside talent but didn't want to step out too far from their comfort zone, so they just snatched the most "inside" outside team they could find.

Well, at least you're trying, Nintendo.
 

EZ-Megaman

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Has anyone who regards Chrono Chross the "epitome" of the series, actually won it? It made Chrono Trigger not exist, and the story was bad compaired to Trigger. The only thing it has going for it is that the gameplay is slightly better. If the game was standalone, not related to Trigger, it'd be decent.


The writer originally wanted to expand on Radical Dreamer's connection to Chrono Trigger (like an amnesiac character from CC actually being Magus from CT), but they decided to scrap that idea after trying to imitate Suikoden with a huge amount of characters. It's probably wasted potential.

On the topic of Next Level Games, though, I think Luigi's Mansion 2 is pretty fun. I'm kind of curious about what else they'll make under Nintendo, though. Most of their portfolio seems to be licensed games, which aren't really known for their quality.
 

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