What Does Daisuke Ishiwatari Think Of 3DS, NGP, And Portable Fighting Games?

Arcades and consoles are the prime place for ultra combos and roman cancels, but Arc System Works has a habit of releasing their fighting games on handhelds too. Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus and BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger were ported to PSP and in BlazBlue’s case with extra features.

Since BlazBlue: Continuum Shift II is coming to the PSP and Nintendo 3DS, I asked Daisuke Ishiwatari his thoughts on portable fighting games and the two new handhelds.

"Portable fighting games are very important to us as it opens up a new audience to our games. We’ve found that people who play our fighting games on portable machines tend to be much younger and play on their own more – this is a great way for us to introduce our games to new players," Ishiwatari replied. "On the DS and PSP this has been due to the relatively low price of the hardware – rather than by a PS3 and HDTV, which is expensive for younger players, a PSP or DS is a much easier way of playing. Now 3DS and NGP are obviously going to be more expensive – it will be interesting to see how this changes things…"

Commenting specifically for the Nintendo 3DS, Ishiwatari said, "I think the 3DS definitely has that visual impact, when you see it for the first time you think – WOW! However, for me, this is just cosmetic – I don’t think it’s going to radically change the process of games creation."

Aside from the 3D graphics, BlazBlue: Continuum Shift II is the same game on PSP and Nintendo 3DS. Aksys will release BlazBlue: Continuum Shift II in North America on May 31.