INTERVIEW WITH JULIE GAGNON – NINTENDO OF CANADA SPOKESPERSON

After spending nearly an hour playing all of the demos at the Nintendo Booth, I had the opportunity to sit down with Julie Gagnon, a Nintendo of Canada Spokesperson, to get her reactions to some of Nintendo’s recent E3 announcements.

Chris: Julie, thank you so much for taking a few minutes to sit down and talk about some of the things that we’ve seen at E3 2019 from Nintendo. Jumping right in, I have to ask: The fan reaction from the recent Smash Bros. announcement; Banjo-Kazooie finally joining the roster, what’s that been like? What have you been hearing?

Julie: Only extremely, like surprise, delight, and positive reactions. I think like the fans just took over the internet when they saw that on our Nintendo Direct. And that’s Nintendo’s motto, you know like surprise, delight, and make people smile. So, of course, we were very happy that this announcement pleased the fans.

Chris: And I know someone [Riley Little] that was overjoyed after this announcement and a few people were sending him DM’s on Twitter to make sure he was alright; jokingly, we knew he was fine.

Julie: Haha. What we heard the most about, from the Nintendo Direct was this announcement, HUGE lineup, and then also the announcement of a sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

Chris: Yeah, for sure! Exciting news!

Julie: Those were the highlights from the fans.

Chris: And what a way to close the show too.

Julie: I think so too. Haha.

Chris: It was like: “sequel’s coming!” I know, I’m sure the internet just lost it in a good way.

Julie: Yeah, haha.

Chris: Um, Link’s Awakening – we just played it; very cute by the way. Why do you think fans just love replaying these classic games; I won’t say old – I’ll say classic, because that’s what they are, but why do you think they just love playing them when they get the remastered treatment?

Julie: They know that once it gets into the hands of our producers at Nintendo, it’s not going to be just a remake, it’s going to be completely reimagined. And they’re going to treat it so you get new, fresh elements but it also fits with our new hardware. So with the Nintendo Switch, it’s the perfect platform, it’s the perfect console to have a game like this – 26 years later, because you get this game where you didn’t have such a level of detail, colours, and brightness.

And what I’ve heard a lot of on the show floor is that people felt like “this is how I have been imagining it when I was playing on my Game Boy – it was looking like this in my mind, in my own imagination” and now we’ve reproduced it for the fans so people that are going to discover [for the first time] or rediscover the game will just love how, now we’ve got this great story, great elements, and adding the NEW Chambers – so you can create your own dungeons, it all started from there.

Mr. Aonuma confirmed that he wanted people to be able to take all of these squares that you have from the first versions of the game and create your own dungeons – and it all started from that for The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening.

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Chris: Can you share them with your friends too and challenge each other?

Julie: We haven’t announced how the dungeons are going to be made but what I can tell you is that those chambers, you’re going to get new ones when you finish some of the actual dungeons in the game. And, the Amiibo can unlock new dungeon chambers as well and I think there is also some of the mini-games like fishing that can actually get you more chambers for your dungeon.

Chris: Fantastic! Something to look forward to for sure! Alright, I’ve got a couple fun ones now to wind things down – I thought they’d be fun.

Pokémon Sword & Pokémon Shield – I’ve chosen Water Pokémon my entire life…

Julie: Oh yeah?

Chris: Yes! They’re my absolute favourite. Who’s your go-to starter for Pokémon Sword & Pokémon Shield?

Julie: I got totally hooked by Scorbunny first thing! So I’m pretty sure, he’s going to be my starter. I still have some time to think about it but Scorbunny is my first choice right now.

Chris: And why Scorbunny? Are you a Fire-type or is it his character?

Julie: I’ve been a Fire-type in my life, like many times – I’ve been a Grass-type too, so that’s why I’m still hesitating between the two, but it’s also because he’s just so adorable; he looks so dynamic and I would really enjoy playing with him.

Chris: And, final question. Luigi’s Mansion 3 is here – I had a chance to play it earlier; it’s a lot of fun – huge fan of the series. If you had to go into a haunted mansion, which Nintendo character would you want to go with you?

Julie: Now that Luigi has Gooigi, definitely him!

Chris: Definitely Luigi eh?

Julie: Oh yeah, because having the team together, I would feel more secure with all of the abilities that they have, that I would make it! Haha.

Chris: That sounds good to me! Julie, thank you so much!

Julie: Thank you! It was a pleasure to have you in our Booth.

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You can find Chris on Twitter at @ChrisZaiser if you want to chat about Nintendo or anything else! He’s a very approachable dude, he’ll have you know.