masaya matsuura

It’s “Getting Difficult” For Non-Game DS Games

3:51PM Brian Ashcraft | A while back, Parappa The Rapper creator Masaya Matsuura got a little heat for saying the DS bubble had burst. Now, he’s back to clarify! It is not a simple bubble. The DS successfully launched in many territories simultaneously, but maybe at the end of 2006 to 2007 many titles — sequels — lost [money]. Very few titles are getting much better. This means, especially for the Brain Training titles or non-gaming content, it is getting difficult right now. But the Wii’s doing okay, right? Not necessarily says Matsuura! That, after the jump. More »

Mizuguchi, Matsuura and Music

5:10PM Brian Ashcraft | Rez creator Tetsuya Mizuguchi and PaRappa the Rapper mastermind Masaya Matsuura are smart guys. They say smart things. This time, they’re chatting up music — so essential to their games. Dig this exchange: Mizuguchi: …What is music? Music has many elements, so how can we cut and separate and remake the parts in the process of game design? So then, game designers have to know what is fun, what is the essence of music? Matsuura: Essence of music, I don’t know. I really don’t understand the essence of music. I’ve been composing music for thirty years, and I still don’t understand what music is. But I’m still looking for the certain shape of my music. Anybody who can define the existence of music, I really respect. Mizuguchi: Yeah, I agree with you. Music is like a universe — many, many elements. Lyrics, chords, rhythm, beats, playing, listening. Emotionally, you feel something. When I was 11 years old, I listened to my first Beatles music. I couldn’t understand English, but I felt emotion or something, sort of… I want to love somebody! It’s the power of music, of chords… very physical things, very emotional things. Not logic — I don’t know, maybe logic. If I understand the lyrics, and it’s a new chemistry. Music, we have a long history with music, but new music is coming still. I don’t know why. It’s a universe. Amazing.Great stuff. The rest of the dialogue over at Game|Life is worth checking out as well. Do it, you won’t be sorry. Interview with Miz and Matsuura [Game|Life] More »

PaRappa and UmJammer: Real Guitar Heroes

5:00PM Brian Ashcraft | Developer NanaOn-Sha has churned out some pretty great music games like PaRappa The Rapper and UmJammer Lammy. Games so great they deserve to be immortalised in musical instruments. Over the holidays, reader Landon found these Parappa guitar picks in Osaka. He writes: I play drums, not guitar, but I had to PICK (get it?) them up. Yes, yes. We get it. He even found an UmJammer Lammy guitar for about a hundred bucks. That, after the jump. More »

Matsuura: DS Innovation For New Gamers, Not Old Ones

9:30PM Luke Plunkett | The DS is, arguably, the posterchild for expanding the demographics of gamers. Yet for all its success in baiting old folks and lady folks into playing games, is the system’s innovation innovating for some and not others? That’s what PaRappa creator Masaya Matsuura is thinking, telling Gamasutra: We have to keep increasing the chance to make more unique titles, but for us it’s getting much more difficult because the game market — especially in Japan — is still very conservative. Many people know that the DS has very unique titles, like Brain Training, or something like that, but it’s not for younger-aged market. It’s kind of older people, like me. Hmm. Might be onto something. Ace Attorney, Phantom Hourglass, Mario, Advance Wars…most of the DS’s best games for “regular” gamers have been additions and upgrades to existing franchises, not out and out new experiences. Flip side: having shown we’ll buy the same Nintendo games over and over for 10-15 years, why would developers bother? Matsuura Got Rhythm: The State Of NanaOn-Sha’s Founder [Gamasutra] [Image] More »