Published in Gamest issue 140 (April 15, 1994). Brief interview with an anonymous developer on Namco’s Mach Breakers, as well as a collection of illustrations for the game.
This time, we bring you character illustrations, along with an interview with the developers who brought them to life!
The impassioned stories behind Mach Breakers! Developer Interview
Let’s start with everyone’s introduction.
YOTORY
Previous Work:
Ordyne
Planning
Supervises work on the game, creates a unified spec, adjusts balance, and other miscellaneous affairs…
M.F.
Previous Work:
Outfoxies
Programming
Systems and graphics data management.
H.H.
Previous Work:
Bakuretsu Quiz Ma-Q Daibouken
Programming
Balance adjustment and rank judgment system development.
TSUKA
Previous Work:
Galaxian3, Tetris (at another company)
Programming
Helped finish development for a brief period (but didn’t get to do much…).
Y.K.
Previous Work:
The Game of Life (real life)
Lead Visuals (Characters)
All things visual, HR and deadlines.
H.K.
Previous Work:
Phozon
Lead Visuals (Backgrounds)
Facility construction, as well as painting (they’re big facilities after all).
Enoken
Previous Work:
Outfoxies
Character Designer
Because there was a large staff this time, I think everyone was concerned with trying to ensure all the art was unified.
Sano Denji, saman
Sound Effects as well as 3 BGM tracks (Sano Denji), Most BGM (saman)
I’m not good at the game myself, so it was tough playing the game for debugging.
– What made you decide to make Mach Breakers?
Namco: We looked at the previous game, Numan Athletics, and thought to ourselves “we could probably make something with an even greater number of characters, with more personality, and even more fun and unusual events”.
– Where does the name “Mach Breakers” come from?
Namco: We wanted something that captured the concept of “those who go beyond” from the previous game, so we gave it the name “Mach Breakers”, meaning “those who can break even the sound barrier”.
– Why don’t characters from the previous game return?
Namco: That’s a trade secret. Sorry.
– How did you create each of the new characters for this game?
Namco: First we’d start by writing an overview of the character, and then presenting a more concrete proposal. Then for the rough designs, we would submit requests to the designer specifying general character, body type, hairstyle, and any particular features.
– How did you come up with such creative ideas for events?
Namco: It ended up being like a potluck of both proposals worked on as a collaborative efforts, and those people had submitted by themselves. We made our decision for which of those proposals to go with while considering the overall balance of the game.
– Was the game’s music created with any particular image or theme in mind?
Namco; For the character select, we were just in this mood where we decided… let’s have the voice actors, as well as the production staff, all sing for it. Other than that I’d say the general theme was “near future”, and we requested songs that were very melody-forward and memorable.
I believe that out of all the games Namco has developed, this one has the all-time highest number of music tracks and sound effects. Though because we have so many events, and each of them only lasts a short amount of time, making songs for them was a bit tricky. By the way, our resident maestros MEGATEN and AYA both have one song each as guest composers.
– So this time, each character has their own stats, like power, speed, etc.
Namco: The events themselves consist of power types and speed types, so each character has their own performance differences with those. Some characters are easier to set records on certain events with than others.
– In the previous game, World Records would be retained even when the machine powers off. Is that still the case here?
Namco: Don’t fret. Even when the machine is powered off, the records are saved in memory.
– Is there anything in the game where you want to tell players “make sure you look at this!”?
Namco: That would probably be messing up your jump and falling on the Hyper Glider event. Right where you fall, there’s the stubborn old man Man-san and his ramen cart Achouken… The trinity of visual artists, programmers, and sound staff poured way more effort then we had originally specified into this part, and so you can see 8 different scenes with every character there.
And there’s something unexpected in the background of Deep Diver…
– Tell us what you can about the mysterious individual who appears in the extra event.
Namco: After 10 years (though in real life it’s only been one year), that certain individual has returned. To put it plainly, they’re strong. But they can definitely be beaten. And if someone says something like “aren’t they a bit tall?” just don’t listen to them, don’t listen to them…
– We’ve reached the end, so please give a message to all the Gamest readers.
Namco: Everyone’s support and encouragement has singlehandedly fueled the game’s development. Please keep building excitement around the game with your opinions, hopes, and drawings. We’d be really happy if you sent your impressions of the game and whatnot in letters to Namco.
– Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to speak with us today. We hope to continue to bring readers the fun of Mach Breakers through strategies and other features in Gamest.
