While Resident Evil 6 seems to the be gaming buzz these days for the home consoles, Capcom is also releasing a completely separate game in the franchise for Nintendo's 3DS handheld – Resident Evil Revelations.  Take a quick look at the recently released updated trailer.

So you're probably wondering two things: (1) Who in the blue hell is Iwata?; and (2) what is 'Iwata Asks'?

Off the top of my Nintendo 'fanboy' head, Iwata is the CEO of Nintendo Corporations Limited (NCL).  He's a former game developer with HAL Laboratories (mainly Kirby games) turned corporate guru.  He's known for taking Nintendo from its third place ranking in the last generation of home consoles to enjoying its first dominant console since the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES).  He's recently given himself a pay cut as an accountability measure for the slow launch of the Nintendo 3DS system, which is now performing well.  He's very open about criticizing a Nintendo E3 Press Conference after NCL has delivered it.  Finally, he's known for interviewing developers from within Nintendo to third party developers developing on Nintendo systems.  Let me just end this little Iwata spiel by pointing out that what I've written is subject to fact checking and that Iwata is an awesome CEO.

Here's the official answer from the Iwata Asks Website:

Iwata Asks is a series of interviews conducted by Nintendo Global President Satoru Iwata with key creators behind the making of Nintendo games and hardware. Legendary figures such as Marioâ„¢ creator Shigeru Miyamoto are often involved in these in-depth discussions.

Now that we've gotten that little introduction out of the way, the latest 'Iwata Asks' is with the developers from Capcom responsible for Resident Evil: Revelations.  Here are some highlights from the six different topics:

Return to Survival Horror – As is the norm with the opening segment of Iwata Asks, there's a lot of joking, which loosens up the interviewees, since you are sitting in front of the CEO of the top video game company in the world.  What you'll find is that Iwata is laid back.  However, due to his game developer roots, Iwata is able to connect easily with developers.  Here we find that Revelations was inspired by the pre-Resident Evil 4 days of less action and strictly claustrophobic survival horror.  The emphasis is on horror.  They even mention the remake of the original on GCN, which is still the scariest of them all in my opinion.  That sentiment is probably due to the poor control that plagued the RE series prior to Resident Evil 4.  This segment also brilliantly shows developers tackling new hardware.  In this case, the trials were getting the stereoscopic 3D to work for Resident Evil.

The Second Lap of Development – The shocking tidbit is that Capcom ran "Resident Evil 5" on the 3DS, which was only available for Xbox 360 and PS3.  Can we get some footage?  Outside of that tidbit, the Revelations team talked about learning from their simultaneous development of Resident Evil: Mercenaries.  It's still mind-boggling to me that RE5 was running on the 3DS system.  I can't seem to shake that thought while reading.

Nakanishi: 'What kicked off Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D was we needed to actually run a game on a Nintendo 3DS system, so we took Resident Evil 5 and ran it on a Nintendo 3DS, and the impact it made was more than we had imagined.'

Like a TV Series – The team and Iwata discuss their take on non-Japanese horror and music.

"Bioreal" – This is a term used to guide the RE series of events and creatures.  A virus causes the zombie outbreak and not a supernatural element.  No ghosts. According to the team of Capcom developers, the approach is simple – if it doesn't have "bioreal" elements, ideas are rejected.

Fear and Immersion – This is a cool segment that all fanboys who make demands should read.  Iwata and the Capcom team discuss the dangers of listening to fans during development.

Energetic Fellows and Twice the Work – In this section, the Capcom team is hopeful for support of the game by the 3DS userbase.  In addition, we get a few tidbits on the origins of 'Raid Mode' in the game.

Here's hoping that RE: Revelations brings back the awesomeness of the original, while maintaining the gameplay established with RE4.

Source: Iwata Asks Capcom

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