Yongzheng Majiang

Yongzheng Majiang has had a history of making his games earn far more money than he's ever earned. His games never really made it into the industry, and neither game and service components of his game projects have seen their day.

As part of the Sega/Creature/Outdoor deal announced at E3, Majiang founded Area 52, an independent developer/publisher team located in Salt Lake City, California, which currently has 10 employees. Although development of the Japanese game company has slowed down since its late spring 2005 start, Majiang now plans to return to the US by the end of the year.

"The entire Mobius team has been blown away by the growth of the Mobius brand," Majiang said in a statement. "It has generated an incredible response from the gaming community."

The Mobius brand was introduced in 2000 as part of Sega's lineup of Mobius, a PC game developer with a somewhat laid back style. Over the years, the company has developed titles based on Japanese comic books such as Brave and Evil Dead: Regeneration. While Majima is most famous for his game franchise, the company also had its first entry under its own umbrella: Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.

As previously announced, the company will continue to run its Mobius brand, which it is calling its "Xbox Sports" business. As part of its rebranding process, Majima will continue to distribute the company's games across Europe, Australia, and the US. It plans to bring the total games available at launch to an approximate 10,000 games by the end of 2006. Majima was also able to identify the new direction the company's offering would be taking, stating that the company had "three different approaches" to licensing the Xbox's software.

We got the chance to speak with Majima about his brand. What's more, he showed us some of the Xbox's newly announced games. One of the games is the original Donkey Kong Country. We spoke with one of the game's creators, David Banpresto, about the first-party lineup and how the game will differ from the company's already known existing lineup.

GameSpot: It's been two years since the original Donkey Kong Country was released, so what was the reasoning behind bringing the game back?

David Banpresto: To get the first impression of the game, it's been two years. We had been in development for nearly a year, and in the time between the release of the original Donkey Kong Country and Donkey Kong Country Returns, we were able to implement a lot of features that were very innovative.

The core of Donkey Kong Country has always been being very faithful to the original game. The core of the gameplay has remained unchanged from the original Donkey Kong Country. We have been very pleased with the new elements, and the way that we designed the levels, the the different types of enemies, the new scoring system, and the way the game's environments were designed.

One of the first things that has been going really well for us is that we have managed to have a rich narrative that progresses over time. At the same time, the game has always been designed as a three-dimensional puzzle game, so it's all very unique. There is still a lot of good content in the game.

GS: How does it all fit together?

AM: Our goal is always to have a lot of story, and the big challenges in the game, aren't so much gameplay problems as we need to have a great game. I am really excited about the way that we bring out the most authentic Donkey Kong, and we are very happy that we can bring it back in a big way.

GS: Can you give us a quick overview of the game's structure?

AM: The game begins at the end of Donkey Kong Country 2, and it is Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest. The game is divided up into three different levels: Jungle, Pirate Island, and Whomping World. The first level, Island of Gold, begins at the end of the first level and ends at the beginning of the second level, which is called Sequin Land. It is the first DK action level, and it is really cool. The second level, Pirate Island, is more challenging, and I think we are going to do a good job of it. We really want to find a way to reward those that love DK for the whole thing and give it a fun, unique, and sometimes challenging experience that players of all levels will enjoy.

GS: Could you tell us more about the game's playable characters and their abilities? How many characters will players be able to play as?

AM: Players are able to play as DK, Donkey Kong Jr., Diddy Kong, and Dixie Kong.