f you’ve played arcadey golf games on consoles, most likely you’ve played something that was either influenced or created by Camelot Software Planning. The original creators of the Minna No Golf series (Hot Shots), the group has gone to create both Mario Golf and Mario Tennis for numerous Nintendo platforms. Camelot has put the plumber on the back burner and is creating a new Wii golf title with Capcom. Find out about their influences, how much they enjoy golf (guess what, they love golf!) and who will do Mario Golf if it’s ever created. But Camelot is also known for their RPG prowess, and we get the news on both Shining Force series, as well as their GBA hit Golden Sun. They know the fans want them, and they’re listening.

Camelot was founded by two brothers, Hiroyuki and Shugo Takahashi, who credit much of the company’s success to the fact that the entire operation feels like family. We recently chatted with the brothers Takahashi as well as Capcom Producer Hironobu Takashita about their new golf game We Love Golf, and got an inside look at what makes Camelot tick.

Game Informer: How did the relationship between Camelot and Capcom come together for this game?

Hiroyuki Takahashi: Originally, we were big fans of Capcom and have a lot of respect for Capcom as a company. That was the original basis of this collaboration. We wanted to make a sports game this time that didn’t use Mario. If we were to work with Nintendo, we would end up having to use Mario as a character. That basically is what led with the collaboration with Capcom.

Hironobu Takashita: From the point of view of Capcom, Capcom saw Camelot as a top developer of very famous and interesting titles. They’re honored to have this opportunity to work together with Camelot. Together with Camelot, they want to make something that is new and different and more interesting than things we’ve made so far. The first stage of this is We Love Golf.

GI: My understanding was Camelot was a Nintendo second-party developer. Was that the case, and have you severed ties with Nintendo or do you still have plans to work with Nintendo in the future?

Hiroyuki Takahashi: We think we can have both relationships – making Mario games itself is interesting, and we’ve had a lot of fun doing those. However, with the Mario Golf games, there are things you can’t do within those. For example, [in We Love Golf] Mr. Remote Control speaks to you. We’re able to do things like that that we couldn’t do in previous games working with Mario. There is an advantage working outside of Nintendo. This allows the number of possibilities that we can do with this title.

Hiroyuki Takahashi and Shugo Takahashi

GI: What will separate this golf game from the other golf games you’ve worked on?

Shugo Takahashi: The biggest difference is up until now golf games have been digital, which involves you pressing buttons for each action. Golf is basically an analog – if you will – game and this game allows us to bring golf to more of an analog game as it’s meant to be. In previous golf games, people who were good at pushing buttons were good at playing the game, but with this game it now becomes much closer to golf and much closer to real sports. People who are good at using their body and swinging the controller will be better at this game. It’s a sort of new dimension with playing golf games, and it’s really different game from previous titles.

GI: Tecmo has a golf game – Super Swing Golf – and EA’s got Tiger Woods. I’ve played them both, and I’ve found that I’ve hooked and sliced by accident when doing the Wiimote swing. How are you utilizing the Wiimote swing function?

Shugo Takahashi: Do you play golf?

GI: Yes.

Shugo Takahashi: For example, in real-life golf, when you want to hook the ball you’ll open the face of the club, and when you want to slice, you close the face of the club. This time we tried to create a game which you operate the remote control the same way by opening and closing the face of the remote control. This makes this golf game the easiest to understand on the Wii to control.

Hiroyuki Takahashi: When we were developing the game, we looked at the other Wii golf games up until now, and because the controller and the controller scheme is new some golf games tried to match the controller too much. Whereas in previous games that didn’t have that sort of motion control, there were many good things that were had in those games that other golf games that didn’t pay enough attention to. One of the themes of We love golf is to put together the good elements from previous generations’ golf games and combine them with the ability to control it with the Wii remote. We think we’ve highly succeeded.