Nintendo thought about Nintenhorses

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 8 February, 2011

"Horses would definitely sell well in Europe."

When brainstorming the follow-up to 2005 smash DS hit Nintendogs, Nintendo considered adding new animals - including horses.

Why? Because some within the big N thought horses would appeal to Europeans.

"After Nintendogs was complete, we wondered how cats would work out and experimented by converting the dog model to a cat," revealed Hideki Konno, development head of Nintendo EAD Software Development Group No. 1, in the latest in the Iwata Asks series.

"That's right. But we just stuck on cat visuals, so the cat was wagging its tail! (laughs)" said excited game developer legend Shigeru Miyamoto.

Konno: "There were even ideas for animals like horses and dolphins. Some people said that horses would definitely sell well in Europe."

Iwata, Konno and Miyamoto were chatting about Nintendo 3DS game Nintendogs and Cats – a Japanese 3DS launch title.

On the horses idea, unfortunately "fate" conspired to consign it – and others - to the scrap heap.

"Fate just wasn't with those experiments and weren't able to find that key element to validate them as a product," Iwata said.

"Yes," Konno replied. "We actually considered it for the Wii system. But it doesn't have a microphone, so you couldn't talk to your dog."

Apparently, if the Wii Remote had a mic, there might have been a Wii version of Niintendogs.

What we're left with, of course, is Nintendogs and Cats, a game Keza MacDonald had a gander at for Eurogamer last year.

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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