Is EAD producer Hideki Konno planning a Revolution in food preparation games? Perhaps. Bonus comments on Mario Kart also inside...

In an interview with Chris Kohler of Game|life, accomplished EAD producer Hideki Konno had some very interesting comments to share. Among the projects that have blossomed under his watchful eye: the entire Mario Kart series and recent far-reaching phenomenon Nintendogs. The entire interview can be accessed here.

The biggest revelation Konno shared was on EAD's heavily ongoing Revolution development. First of all, the interviewer goes to great lengths to underscore that this is not a bona-fide new Revolution game announcement but rather a demo concept the team is playing with. In fact, we will repeat his clarification in the interests of foregoing any subsequent confusion: the project "is not at this point a retail product but a creative in-house experiment". That aside, check this out:

Game|Life: What sort of controller motions intrigue you more: little ones or big ones? Do you want to make an action game where you're wildly slashing a sword or a puzzle game where you're making intricate movements?

Konno: Wow, that's a good question. We're thinking of so many different things. We're still at the stage where we're trying so many different things. We're doing things with big, expansive movements and smaller, more concise movements. It's hard to narrow it down to one over the other.
Did you see the Tokyo Game Show video? We actually have things using the movements you saw. Like the cooking game. We have this game with a big wok that you use to cook Chinese food, and it's really interesting to have the meat and vegetables frying in there, and use the controller to flip the food around without it spilling out of the pan.

New gameplay dynamics indeed. Perhaps the Revolution will truely usher in the age of "cooking-sims". Also telling is Konno's comment illustrating that the interesting controller usage highlighted in the TGS Revolution controller trailer are in fact based on real working project development currently underway at EAD.

In addition to Revolution tidbits, Konno also had plenty to say on the impending juggernaut that is Mario Kart DS. One snippet explaining the game's exlcusion of online item dragging:

Game|Life: Some questions about the gameplay itself: why can't you drag an item behind your kart in the online race?

Konno: The local wireless network game and the wi-fi mode look the same. But there was a big difference in the actual development of those systems, which are unique and different. Our goal with wi-fi was to make it as close as possible to the local wireless gameplay: visual appearance, easy access, good framerate, gameplay, etc.
But while the ability to have a shell or three bananas dragging behind you looks easy, actually it's something very difficult to accomplish. We'd really pushed it. I think we probably could have done it, but it was just one of those areas where we had to say, "we're gonna stop here." We didn't go the extra step.

Also interesting was Konno's hint of a special marker seperating truly skilled players:

Konno: Something will happen after you play the game for a certain amount of time, and your player will be identified by� something. Other players will say, "wow, that guy must be really good because of that thing he has."

For more details, again the interview in its entirety can be accessed here. Look forward to more information on Konno's projects as we get them, and definitely get primed for the release of Mario Kart DS now less than 10 days away in the US and less than 20 in Europe. If you need any more convincing to buy it, just follow Konno's own assertion: "If you look at the volume of Mario Kart DS, in every aspect of the game� I think we've done it. We've surpassed Super Mario Kart."