1UP: Tell us a little bit about Animal Crossing: City Folk. You've got the three-dimensional WiiSpeak microphone, which picks up sound from anyone in the room. How does this affect the actual game?

Katsuya Eguchi: The Animal Crossing series has always had a big emphasis on the communication theme -- you know, communication between players. In the GameCube version, of course, we had keyboard functionality to support that sort of communication, but now with WiiSpeak, we really get that strong communication element between players using voice -- the most natural form of communication.

1UP: Nintendo's never been shy about introducing new peripherals when you feel it's necessary or when it adds new elements and gameplay dynamics. Do you have an eye on how you'll use it in future games and applications, beyond how you're using it with Animal Crossing?

KE: Well, we've developed WiiSpeak with Animal Crossing in mind, and that'll be a large element of the game -- but we're also planning other software to support the WiiSpeak peripheral.
1UP: Since the Nintendo DS has a built-in microphone, is there a possibility of Wii-to-DS communication with WiiSpeak?

Shigeru Miyamoto: The DS microphone can obviously be used for communication among DS users, but the functionality and technology in WiiSpeak and the DS microphone are very different. Of course, we're looking into that, but it's a unique situation.

1UP: So, can you talk a bit about Wii Music? A couple of years ago at E3, you did a demonstration as a conductor and showed off the potential of something like Wii Music -- and of music-rhythm games in general. But in your demonstration of Wii Music, it looked more like something of a pure jam, with little to no timed button presses with onscreen prompts. So, how is Wii Music an actual game?

SM: This description could potentially get really long, but in most of the music games we've seen up until now, there are fixed notes, and you have to hit those notes with fixed timing. But the approach that we've taken with Wii Music is something closer to playing real instruments. But enjoying the act of performing music by yourself isn't enough; you can get bored of just pretending to play an instrument. But when you start adding other elements, such as being able to change an arrangement, being able to change an instrument, being able to ad lib -- all the combinations of those elements make for a limitless number of possibilities in musical creativity. So we think Wii Music is, in essence, a very "different" type of product that will feature an incredible amount of replayability.

1UP: So, instead of a scripted, specific type of experience -- like with Rock Band, in which you complete a very specific series of button presses to "pass" a stage -- with Wii Music, you freestyle and jam and feel more like a real musician?
SM: Well, since Wii Music always allows the user to play the correct notes, that frees up the developers to make a game that focuses on a "freestyle" sort of play; if you're an amateur musician, the fear of playing incorrectly is gone. Among the 50 songs in Wii Music ?- which are established classics -- the variety of arrangements that you can create is limitless, and that's very exciting. So, two people could play the very same song, but the results could be completely different. Personally, I think that's a really interesting part of Wii Music.

(Read more on source)