Nintendo Software Technology

Nintendo Software Technology

The exterior of Nintendo Software Technology's headquarters in Redmond, Washington
Company type	Division of Nintendo
Industry	Video games
Founded	1998 (1998)
Founder	Minoru Arakawa Claude Comair
Headquarters	Redmond, Washington , United States
Key people	Shigeki Yamashiro (President)
Products	List of software developed
Owner	Nintendo
Number of employees	50 (2016)
Parent	Nintendo of America

Nintendo Software Technology (or NST) is an American video game developer. NST was created by Nintendo as a first-party developer to create games for the North American market, though their games have also been released in other territories such as Europe and Japan. Although the development team is based in North America, there is a traditional Nintendo and Japanese-centric design applied to the development of the software. Co-founders Scott Tsumura and Claude Comair retired in 2002 and 2006, respectively. NST is currently headed by Shigeki Yamashiro, and is located inside of Nintendo of America's headquarters in Redmond, Washington.

Nintendo made the decision of transplanting several members of their development team in Japan over to America. NST also recruited several veterans from companies such as Rockstar Games, Electronic Arts, and Microsoft to further complete their development talent.

History

The establishment took place in 1998 through a collaboration with the private university DigiPen Institute of Technology, also located in Redmond. The offices opened with several doctorate level instructors and some recent graduates of the university working with several Nintendo of America designers and producers. Their first game, Bionic Commando: Elite Forces, was released for the Game Boy Color in 1999 and was a sequel of Capcom's Bionic Commando.

Over the years, NST has developed many games for Nintendo consoles such as the Mario vs. Donkey Kong series, Wave Race: Blue Storm, and Metroid Prime Hunters.

NST started developing Project H.A.M.M.E.R. For the Nintendo Wii but several problems landed the project in 'development hell'. A large amount of funding was spent on cut-scenes early in development and so when the project started to fall behind managers didn't want to end it because of the capital already spent. The American developers suggested that the problem was the gameplay however the Japanese managers believed the problems were the environments. This dispute, among others, made the project drag on for a number of years before it was totally abandoned and a large number of staff were made redundant.

DigiPen's Main Campus was based in the same building as theirs until 2010.

List of software developed

Year	Title	Platform(s)	Director	Producer
1999	Bionic Commando: Elite Forces	Game Boy Color	Josh Atkins	Andrew Hieke Minoru Arakawa
2000	Ridge Racer 64	Nintendo 64	Akila Redmer	Andrew Hieke Minoru Arakawa
	Crystalis	Game Boy Color	Josh Atkins	Andrew Hieke
	Pokémon Puzzle League	Nintendo 64	Yukimi Shimura	Takehiro Izushi Genyo Takeda
2001	Wave Race: Blue Storm	GameCube	Shigeki Yamashiro	Shigeru Miyamoto Minoru Arakawa
2003	Nintendo Puzzle Collection (Panel de Pon)	GameCube	Hitoshi Yamagami Yukimi Shimura	Andrew Hieke Takehiro Izushi
	The Legend of Zelda: Collector's Edition	GameCube		Shigeru Miyamoto
	1080° Avalanche	GameCube	Vivek Melwani	Shigeki Yamashiro Shigeru Miyamoto
2004	Mario vs. Donkey Kong	Game Boy Advance	Yukimi Shimura
	Ridge Racer DS	Nintendo DS	Vivek Melwani	Shigeki Yamashiro
2006	Metroid Prime Hunters	Nintendo DS	Masamichi Abe	Shigeki Yamashiro Kensuke Tanabe
	Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis	Nintendo DS	Yukimi Shimura
2007	Sin and Punishment (English translation)	Nintendo DS	Hideyuki Suganami	Masato Maegawa Takehiro Izushi
2008	Super Smash Bros Brawl (Masterpiece Mode)	Wii	Masahiro Sakurai	Kensuke Tanabe
	Crosswords DS (Co-developed w/ Nuevo Retro Games)	Nintendo DS	Yukimi Shimura	Shigeki Yamashiro Masao Yamamoto
2009	Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Minis March Again	DSiWare	Yukimi Shimura	Shigeki Yamashiro Kensuke Tanabe
2010	Aura-Aura Climber	DSiWare	Masamichi Abe	Yukimi Shimura
	Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem!	Nintendo DS	Yukimi Shimura	Shigeki Yamashiro Kensuke Tanabe
2012	Crosswords Plus	Nintendo 3DS	Stephen Mortimer	Yukimi Shimura
2013	Mario and Donkey Kong: Minis on the Move	Nintendo 3DS		Yukimi Shimura Kensuke Tanabe
2015	Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Tipping Stars	Wii U / Nintendo 3DS		Akiya Sakamoto
2016	Mini Mario & Friends: Amiibo Challenge	Wii U / Nintendo 3DS		Akiya Sakamoto Kensuke Tanabe
	Super Mario Maker for Nintendo 3DS	Nintendo 3DS	Yosuke Oshino	Takashi Tezuka Shigeki Yamashiro Hiroyuki Kimura
2018	Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker	Nintendo 3DS / Nintendo Switch	Kenta Motokura Shinya Hiratake	Koichi Hayashida

List of applications developed

Year	Title	Platform(s)	Director	Producer
2006	Nintendo 64 Emulator	Wii
2009	BBC iPlayer Channel	Wii
	Mario Calculator and Clock	DSiWare		Shigeki Yamashiro
	Animal Crossing Calculator and Clock	DSiWare		Shigeki Yamashiro
2011	Kirby TV Channel	Wii
2012	Wii U Chat (Co-developed w/ NERD and Vidyo)	Wii U	Fumihiko Tamiya
2013	Wii Street U	Wii U	Toshiaki Suzuki	Keiichi Kawai

Cancelled games

Title	Platform(s)
Project H.A.M.M.E.R.	Wii

References

• Nintendo World Report company profile. Retrieved Oct. 30, 2008.
• PALGN company information. Retrieved Feb. 9, 2005.
• N-Sider personnel view. Retrieved Feb. 9, 2005.
• N-Sider. Retrieved May 9, 2005.

External links

• A group interview with NST about 1080º Avalanche
• Two-part interview with Shigeki Yamashiro, producer of 1080º Avalanche, and Vivek Melwani, lead game designer and director
• IGN profile