Isidro Gilabert Interview
I had an opportunity to buy Smurfs on NES a
year ago and I had done so, because it was a European exclusive
release. Living in America, it made that sort of game interesting. I
wasn't even a fan of the Smurfs franchise. Anyway, when I played the game,
it enthralled me and quickly became one of my top ten favorite games of all
time. So yes, I think you (and the rest of the team) did a great job!
TWZ: As I had mentioned in my previous paragraph, I live in America. I own
copies of both Smurfs and Asterix. I had modded my U.S. Nintendo system so
that it runs Smurfs fine, though Asterix is terribly glitchy. It seems
like it would be a really fun game too, from the pictures I saw. Anyway,
do you know why Infogrames never marketed either of these games
stateside? Also, as the programmer, did you do something really special
with the timing and stuff on Asterix which would throw it off on a NTSC
console?
IG: As I told you, they have the decision to sell the game in the USA. I
think they did not have an office in USA when the game was released. And
probably, because the characters are not very popular in your country, they
thought that they would not sell many copies.
I did not do anything to prevent the game running smoothly on an american
console. In fact, I did not see an american NES before the game was
finished! I guess the problem is the amount of work done during the V-Blank.
European consoles have a bigger V-Blank time.
TWZ: Whom had originally thought up the idea of producing a Smurfs
game? Did the final product turn out as well as you had hoped? I heard
both of the games had sold very well...
IG: The idea was coming from Infogrames. The Smurfs license is very strong in
Europe, and the reviews of Ast�rix for GB and NES were very good. They had
the right license, they had the right team, so they had the right game! I do
not know how many copies they sold... They do not provide us with this
information.
TWZ: Do you remember any ideas that never made it into the released Smurfs
or Asterix games?
IG: We put on the game everything we planned, even more features that were
not designed at the beginning. The only constraint was the time to deliver
the game. We did our best during the development time.
TWZ: What was your favorite aspects from Asterix and Smurfs?
IG: We really loved the gameplay. The game was easy to start to play, and
hard to complete. Our goal was that the player enjoys all the time, even if
the game was difficult. It was specially funny to throw cakes to Azrael the
cat near the end of the Smurfs game! And the final jump on all the Ast�rix
levels was funny, specially when you crash in the wall.
TWZ: The other day I saw a Smurfs game on Playstation in my local game
store...did you a hand in this game? Is it worth buying?
IG: I did not see the game. We did not do it...
TWZ: Anything else you would like to mention? I would be glad to hear it.
IG: Sure! Smurfs GBA has been released this week in Europe, and we have
developed it! And Ast�rix GBA is on the shops in Europe since January 2002.
Not NES stuff, but Ast�rix and Smurfs stuff.
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