• News

Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp director would like to remake more obscure Nintendo IP

WayForward game director James Montagna believes Nintendo is handling Mario and Zelda just fine. He'd rather remake Rhythm Heaven, Chibi Robo, or Kuru Kuru Kururin.

TJ Denzer

May 8, 2023 11:03 AM

Image via Nintendo

1

Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp has finally successfully launched from WayForward and Nintendo, so… what comes next? Recently, the game’s director, James Montagna, spoke to this very topic, sharing a list of IP he’d like to tackle. Contrary to the popular Nintendo franchises, Montagna would actually like to go after reboots of further, less-active Nintendo IP, such as Kuru Kuru Kururin, WarioWare, and Chibi Robo.

Montagna shared his thoughts on what he’d like to pursue following Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp in an interview with MinnMax. In said interview, when asked if there are other Nintendo franchises he’d like to give similar treatment to Advance Wars, Montagna shared that he’d like to go after franchises Nintendo is less-focused on. Zelda and Mario don’t interest Montagna because he feels Nintendo is doing well with them.

“The thing about games like Zelda and Mario [is] they do them so well, I’m happy to see them keep doing it,” Montagna said. “I’d love to work on something obscure, you know? So for me I think about games like Kuru Kuru Kururin, I think of games like Rhythm Heaven [and] WarioWare.”

In fact, Montagna went on to say that Kuru Kuru Kururin would be the number one game on his list of projects he’d like to pursue. He also wouldn’t mind giving the similarly obscure Chibi Robo a go.

“Kuru Kuru Kururin is up there. I would say it’s probably number one.” Montagna said. “There’s also things like Chibi Robo – that would be interesting to explore.”

Kuru Kuru Kururin was a 2001 action-puzzle that launched in Japan and Europe on the Game Boy Advance. Players navigate a spinning stick through the game’s myriad of mazes. Meanwhile, first Chibi Robo launched in Japan in 2005 and worldwide in 2006 on the GameCube, offering a fun and charming platforming adventure.

Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp ended up being quite a fun time, garnering a high score in our Shacknews review. With a good launch behind it, many would likely be happy to see WayForward handle more of Nintendo’s lesser-used properties. Stay tuned as we watch to see if it happens.

TJ Denzer

Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at tj.denzer@shacknews.com and also find him on Twitter @JohnnyChugs.