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Nintendo Cube Co., Ltd. (formerly NDcube Co., Ltd.)(JP)(CN) is a Nintendo subsidiary in Tokyo, Japan that was founded on March 1, 2000 by Nintendo and Dentsu. It is now owned solely by Nintendo after the company purchased all of Dentsu's shares.
History
When it was founded on March 1, 2000, Nintendo 78% stock in the company while Dentsu (an advertising firm that Nintendo uses) had 13%. Its initial heads were two producers of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System video game F-Zero, Takehiro Izushi and Hitoshi Yamagami. Thus it comes to no surprise that their first game was F-Zero: Maximum Velocity on the Game Boy Advance. Very few of their games have reached America or Europe.
Years before their restructuring, Nd Cube developed a game for the company NEC Interchannel called Tube Slider that was described by numerous critics as an F-Zero clone, despite the founders of Nd Cube being the creators of the F-Zero franchise. In their review of the game, IGN mentioned how, despite the fact that Nd Cube developed F-Zero: Maximum Velocity on the Game Boy Advance, their new game was not on the same level as their previous outings. IGN even suggested that at one time, Tube Slider may have even been F-Zero, though no proof of this was given.
A couple of years after its conception, Nd Cube suddenly and unexpectedly quit developing video games, with many of the employees leaving the company for Sony. Nintendo decided against shutting the company down, and instead purchased the rest of the shares from Dentsu, making Nd Cube a Nintendo first party developer, even going as far as considering them a new R&D studio. After hiring several employees from Monegi, the joint venture between Nintendo and Hudson Soft that developed the Mario Party games, Nintendo announced that they were developing a title for the Wii which was later announced as Wii Party. During this time period Nintendo also expanded Nd Cube, creating new divisions throughout Japan in Tokyo and Sapporo. With their experience creating Wii Party, Nintendo later put the company to work on the Mario Party series, starting with Mario Party 9. While still developing the Mario Party series, they have expanded their role with codevelopment on Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp and working on a new iteration of Clubhouse Games. In 2024, they dropped the D from their name and became fully Nintendo Cube,
Partner Studios
After the adoption of the former Hudson Soft staff, Nintendo Cube has regularly collaborated with certain studios to develop their titles. The big one with history from early Hudson Soft is CAProduction. Certain titles like Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics were led by this studio instead of NDcube.
Will Co., Ltd. is another partner studio, first partnering with Mario Party 7. They predominantly worked on the main titles.
SmileBoom is the third regular partner studio, that started working with NDcube with their HD titles, starting with Wii Party U.
T's Music is the regular sound studio that they work with. CHAMY.Ishi is the series music director since Mario Party 9.
Games developed
| Game title | Platform | Year of release |
|---|---|---|
| F-Zero: Maximum Velocity |  |
2001 |
| EZ-Talk Shokyuuhen 1-6 Kan Set | |
2001 |
| EZ-Talk Shokyuuhen 1 | |
2001 |
| EZ-Talk Shokyuuhen 2 | |
2001 |
| EZ-Talk Shokyuuhen 3 | |
2001 |
| EZ-Talk Shokyuuhen 4 | |
2001 |
| EZ-Talk Shokyuuhen 5 | |
2001 |
| EZ-Talk Shokyuuhen 6 | |
2001 |
| Card Party |  |
2002 |
| Pool Edge | |
2002 |
| Tube Slider | |
2003 |
| Wii Party |  |
2010 |
| Wii Play Motion | |
2011 |
| Mario Party 9 | |
2012 |
| Wii Party U |  |
2013 |
| Mario Party: Island Tour |  |
2013 |
| Mario Party 10 | |
2015 |
| Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival (with Nintendo EPD 5) | |
2015 |
| Mario Party: Star Rush | |
2016 |
| Mario Party: The Top 100 | |
2017 |
| Super Mario Party |  |
2018 |
| Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics | |
2020 |
| Mario Party Superstars | |
2021 |
| Everybody 1-2-Switch! (with Nintendo EPD 4) | |
2023 |
| Super Mario Party Jamboree | |
2024 |
External links
- NDcube at Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- N.O.M. Recruiting Interview (2000)