Awesome Nintendo Concept Art

[Jericho]

People should know that I love concept art. People should know that I like Nintendo. That said, what do you think my expression was when I happened upon a thread on NeoGAF where a compilation of images regarding never before seen concept art & fun things was posted? Apparently, these are all lifted from 2chan where a poster shared some of the complimentary stuff from Nintendo's Prospective Employee Handbook/Gift Basket:

I think it is from the small book for the recruitment of new employees at Nintendo for this year. Every company here in Japan makes these kinds of pamphlets to attract universities students to apply for a job at their company. I actually have the one for last year (got it at my school), but I was disappointed they didn't send us the one for this year Gotta find a way to get it !!!
The one I had was printed on very nice paper and had many pictures of how Nintendo offices look like, some prototype, artworks, etc...

[spoiler]





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That same poster mentioned before has gone on to say that he'd scan the rest of the book & upload it if he gets clearance to do so. My fingers are crossed.

Meanwhile, you are now appreciating the awesome of BOAT TRAIN. You'll know it when you see it.

[Acid]

For a second I thought they're working on a remake of Link's Awakening.

Then I realized it was Wii Sports Resort.

Then I was sad.

[Jericho]

For a second I thought they're working on a remake of Link's Awakening.

Then I realized it was Wii Sports Resort.

Then I was sad.

Seriously, wtf was up with that? Also, why was that bow design so cool for no reason?

[Kit]

HOLY [parasitic bomb]

[Dexter Dexter]

For a second I thought they're working on a remake of Link's Awakening.

Then I realized it was Wii Sports Resort.

Then I was sad.

Same here, except I thought it was for a Final Fantasy game.

[Irgendein]

Oh god.. is that a Tingle Train I see?

[Jericho]

Here's some more from an older booklet courtesy of MisterHero:

Donkey Kong Art (Miyamoto's own hand-drawn sprites? on graph paper)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v425/MisterHero/Nintendo%20Report%202005/P1000701.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v425/MisterHero/Nintendo%20Report%202005/P1000702.jpg

Animal Crossing character notes
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v425/MisterHero/Nintendo%20Report%202005/P1000685.jpg

Mario Kart DS sketch
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v425/MisterHero/Nintendo%20Report%202005/P1000699.jpg

Nintendo deliberately designing snaking into Mario Kart DS
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v425/MisterHero/Nintendo%20Report%202005/P1000698.jpg

Stock Models/Size scale chart for Mario characters (possibly from either Mario Party or New Super Mario Bros.?)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v425/MisterHero/Nintendo%20Report%202005/P1000682.jpg

[strike]Frankenstein[/strike] Brain Training research?
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v425/MisterHero/Nintendo%20Report%202005/P1000695.jpg

Wii Remote/Nunchuk case prototypes
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v425/MisterHero/Nintendo%20Report%202005/P1000686.jpg

Wii shells (I want my green Wii dammit!)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v425/MisterHero/Nintendo%20Report%202005/P1000683.jpg

Nintendo rainbow
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v425/MisterHero/Nintendo%20Report%202005/P1000676.jpg

Golden Mario seal
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v425/MisterHero/Nintendo%20Report%202005/P1000712.jpg

Other pages are messages about the company/its performance

Personally, I love the MKDS sketch.

EDIT - Even more:

OK my last crappy shots for tonight:

Wii Music storyboard


Animal Crossing's city hand drawn


Mario Kart Wii track and vehicle concepts


Employees experimenting with the DSi camera


Boring offices (must be the accounting section)


Rhythm Tengoku Gold hand drawings

[Acid]

For the love of god MORE

[Jericho]

For the love of god MORE

Best post.

Also, I'm thinking of retitling this thread so I can make it a catch all place for the behind the scenes @ Nintendo. There's a bunch of stuff that folks normally don't find out about until they browse the net (i.e. Iwata's Asks) with TONS of stuff like this.

Posted on: February 12, 2010, 22:35:20Although anyone who's read the Iwata Asks on the handheld Zeldas should have seen this already, I think this can be reposted here. It's the concept sprite designs and overworld for Zelda 1:

[spoiler]




A few others:

http://www.wiinintendo.net/2010/01/27/original-zelda-design-drafts/



[/spoiler]

[The Drunken Dishwasher]

...

*manly thumbs up*

[borockman]

Very educational, VERY!

[HyperSonicEXE]

>Mechakoopa Bike

YES!
YEEEEEEEEEEES!

[SUIKA]

Amazingly beautiful. I also love concept art. Ever since my Dad had that huge black book on all the Star Wars development stuff when I was a kid..

[Jericho]

Concept Yoshi(s).

[Fxeni]

Yeah, it's always awesome to see this kind of stuff. There's still plenty of it nowadays, but they don't really show the sketchy stuff that much. It's a shame, because I happen to like the sketchy stuff.

[Hypershell]

I remember the Yoshi sketch from the Mario Mania guide.

Cool stuff.

Stock Models/Size scale chart for Mario characters (possibly from either Mario Party or New Super Mario Bros.?)

We all WISH NSMB had that large a cast.  Safe bet it's Party, especially when you look at how short Toad is.

[HokutoNoBen]

I remember the Yoshi sketch from the Mario Mania guide.

Indeed. It was the very same source where, prophetically, Miyamoto said that in the future, "Mario might be wearing metal clothes". And this was like, many years before Mario 64 would even be shown.     

As I believe people have said on GAF and others...it really boggles the mind how Nintendo has been really slow on the notion of doing a sort of "Source Material" anthology of sorts. I'd pay good money for the opportunity to buy anything made by Nintendo, akin to the "All About Capcom" anthologies that Capcom put out a while ago. Short of some of those older Nintendo Power strategy guides and Japanese equivalents, there really isn't any thing of the sort...

[SUIKA]

Concept Yoshi(s).

That is amazing.

Is that from Super Mario World or Super Mario Bros., that concept art? Miyamato always said he wanted Mario to ride a dinosaur but technological limitations prevented him from doing so until the era of the Super Nintendo.

[Archer]

Awesome.

Not much else that needs to be said.

[Jericho]

Please note! Due to the original location/imagehost of a lot of these images, there might be some NSFW pop-ups along with the art. If you're worried about things like that, try the high resolution links (although keep in mind, they're ridiculously huge).

Nintendo Pamphlet Year 2009: originally scanned and posted by mehdi_san
high resolution: http://www.dropbox.com/gallery/4706569/1/Nintendo%20Pamphlet%202009?h=0117a6&

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[/spoiler]

Super Mario Strikers Concept Art:

     
Mario 64 unused item

Youtube Link
     
Pokemon Concept Art:

the Super Metroid developer's map, courtesy of Metroid Database.

More Mario Strikers:





Unused Item From Mario 64 - The Trampoline:



Trampoline Recreation by some modders:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_et1mjUieA&feature=player_embedded

Phantom Hourglass Concept Characters:




- I really like this design.




ZELDA BOX (Tons of unused & Concept Windwaker stuff. If you're a fan of Windwaker, this will all be amazing to you.)

Lovely generic cover art. Just in case someone wants to track the book down on Ebay or some such


Contents page. I dug the four swords backdrop when they used it in game and was happy to see it here.


Link concepts!


And a more focused shot


Some Tetra concepts


Everyone's favorite Big Bad


Link and 'Dorf


King Hyrule/Red Lion...not too exciting, but still


Tetra's pirates


And a storyboard like panel of link battle moblins



More soon!

[Acid]

AAAAAh I will save them all.

[VixyNyan]

I have that Zelda Box. An Audio CD and two figurines came with it. Should I make bigger scans?

[Irgendein]

I think I love you, Jericho

I have that Zelda Box. An Audio CD and two figurines came with it. Should I make bigger scans?

Yes please!

[Mirby]

This stuff is WIN!

[Align]

Those Link concepts are really interesting. Older WW Link? Saturday morning cartoon Link? Woah.