Major Minor’s Majestic March designer critical of Nintendo during early Wii development

You may recall a bit of a niche music game that released on Wii titled Major Minor’s Majestic March. Masaya Matsuura, who worked on games like Vib-Ribbon and PaRappa the Rapper, was one of the main designers involved with the project.

Matsuura reflected on Major Minor’s Majestic March in a recent issue of EDGE and had some criticisms for Nintendo. He said that the company didn’t do a good job at explaining the Wii Remote’s functionality and said “there was a lack of transparency that hurt developers like us.” Along with “adding new and subtle features” Nintendo was also “amending the design as time went on, which changed the scope for us.”

Matsuura’s full words:

“After various discussions, we arrived at the idea for a marching-band game for the Nintendo Wii. It was a difficult decision to make as we still didn’t really understand what kind of device the Wii Remote was, and what capacities it would have. In my opinion, the platform provider did not adequately explain to third parties the device’s functionality – there was a lack of transparency that hurt developers like us. The platform holder kept adding new and subtle features, and amending the design as time went on, which changed the scope for us.”

Unfortunately, Major Minor’s Majestic March wasn’t really well-received. Matsuura said upon reflection that he doesn’t believe “it was complete enough as a game.” While he felt the team did its best, he “fell short in various ways.”

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