Nintendo Software Technology

Nintendo Software Technology
Subsidiary
Industry Video games
Founded 1998 (1998)
Redmond, Washington, U.S.
Founder Minoru Arakawa
Claude Comair
Headquarters Redmond, Washington, United States
Number of locations
 1 (Redmond, Washington)
Key people
 Shigeki Yamashiro (President)
Products List of software developed
Owner Nintendo
Number of employees
 50 (2016)
Parent Nintendo of America

Nintendo Software Technology (or NST) is an American video game developer located inside of Nintendo of America main headquarters, based in Redmond, Washington. NST was created by Nintendo as a first-party developer to create games for the North American market, though their games have also been released in other territories such as Europe and Japan, exclusively for Nintendo consoles. Although the development team is based in North America, there is a traditional Nintendo and Japanese-centric design applied to the development of the software. Co-founders Claude Comair (founder of DigiPen) and Scott Tsumura retired in 2006 and 2002, respectively. NST is currently headed by Shigeki Yamashiro.

Nintendo made the decision of transplanting several members of their development team in Japan over to America. The list of staff included Shigeki Yamashiro, Masamichi Abe, Katsuhiko Kanno, and Colin Reed. Nintendo Software Technology Corporation also recruited several veterans from companies like Rockstar, Electronic Arts, and Microsoft to further complete their development talent.

History

The establishment took place in 1998 through a collaboration with the private university DigiPen Institute of Technology, also located in Redmond. The offices opened with several doctorate level instructors and some recent graduates of the university working with several Nintendo of America designers and producers. Their first game, Bionic Commando: Elite Forces, was released for the Game Boy Color in 1999 and was a sequel of Capcom's Bionic Commando.

Over the years, NST has developed many games for Nintendo consoles such as the Mario vs. Donkey Kong series, Wave Race: Blue Storm, and Metroid Prime Hunters.

NST started developing Project H.A.M.M.E.R. For the Nintendo Wii but several problems landed the project in 'development hell'. A large amount of funding was spent on cut-scenes early in development and so when the project started to fall behind managers didn't want to end it because of the capital already spent. The American developers suggested that the problem was the gameplay however the Japanese managers believed the problems were the environments. This dispute, among others, made the project drag on for a number of years before it was totally abandoned and a large number of staff were made redundant.[1]

DigiPen's Main Campus was based in the same building as theirs until 2010.

List of software developed

Title Year Platform(s) Director Producer
Bionic Commando: Elite Forces 1999 Game Boy Color Josh Atkins Andrew Hieke
Minoru Arakawa
Ridge Racer 64 2000 Nintendo 64 Akila Redmer Andrew Hieke
Minoru Arakawa
Crystalis 2000 Game Boy Color Josh Atkins Andrew Hieke
Pokémon Puzzle League 2000 Nintendo 64 Yukimi Shimura Takehiro Izushi
Genyo Takeda
Wave Race: Blue Storm 2001 GameCube Shigeki Yamashiro Shigeru Miyamoto
Minoru Arakawa
Nintendo Puzzle Collection (Panel de Pon) 2003 GameCube Hitoshi Yamagami
Yukimi Shimura		 Andrew Hieke
Takehiro Izushi
The Legend of Zelda: Collector's Edition 2003 GameCube Shigeru Miyamoto
1080° Avalanche 2003 GameCube Vivek Melwani Shigeki Yamashiro
Shigeru Miyamoto
Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2004 Game Boy Advance Yukimi Shimura Shigeki Yamashiro
Shigeru Miyamoto
Ridge Racer DS 2004 Nintendo DS Vivek Melwani Shigeki Yamashiro
Metroid Prime Hunters 2006 Nintendo DS Masamichi Abe Shigeki Yamashiro
Kensuke Tanabe
Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis 2006 Nintendo DS Yukimi Shimura Shigeki Yamashiro
Kensuke Tanabe
Sin and Punishment (English translation) 2007 Virtual Console Hideyuki Suganami Masato Maegawa
Takehiro Izushi
Super Smash Bros Brawl (Masterpiece Mode) 2008 Wii Masahiro Sakurai Kensuke Tanabe
Crosswords DS (Co-developed w/ Nuevo Retro Games) 2008 Nintendo DS Yukimi Shimura Shigeki Yamashiro
Masao Yamamoto
Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Minis March Again 2009 DSiWare Yukimi Shimura Shigeki Yamashiro
Kensuke Tanabe
Aura-Aura Climber 2010 DSiWare Masamichi Abe Yukimi Shimura
Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem! 2010 Nintendo DS Yukimi Shimura Shigeki Yamashiro
Kensuke Tanabe
Crosswords Plus 2012 Nintendo 3DS Stephen Mortimer Yukimi Shimura
Mario and Donkey Kong: Minis on the Move 2013 Nintendo 3DS Stephen Mortimer Yukimi Shimura
Kensuke Tanabe
Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Tipping Stars 2015 Wii U / Nintendo 3DS Stephen Mortimer Akiya Sakamoto
Mini Mario & Friends: Amiibo Challenge[2] 2016 Wii U / Nintendo 3DS[2] Stephen Mortimer Akiya Sakamoto
Kensuke Tanabe
Super Mario Maker for Nintendo 3DS 2016 Nintendo 3DS Yosuke Oshino Takashi Tezuka
Shigeki Yamashiro
Hiroyuki Kimura

List of applications developed

Title Year Platform(s) Director Producer
Nintendo 64 Emulator 2006 Virtual Console on Wii
BBC iPlayer Channel 2009 Wii
Mario Calculator and Clock 2009 DSiWare Shigeki Yamashiro
Animal Crossing Calculator and Clock 2009 DSiWare Shigeki Yamashiro
Kirby TV Channel 2011 Wii
Wii U Chat (Co-developed w/ NERD and Vidyo)[3] 2012 Wii U Fumihiko Tamiya
Wii Street U[4] 2013 Wii U Toshiaki Suzuki Keiichi Kawai

Cancelled games

Title Platform(s) Director Producer
Project H.A.M.M.E.R. Wii

References

  1. ↑ "Project H.A.M.M.E.R. [Wii – Cancelled] – Unseen64". unseen64.net. 4 April 2008.
  2. 1 2 Allen, Eric Van (13 January 2016). "Mini Mario & Friends: Amiibo Challenge Announced as Pack-In with New Amiibo in Japan". ign.com.
  3. ↑ "Iwata Asks". nintendo.com.
  4. ↑ "Iwata Asks". nintendo.com.

External links

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