In a recent edition of Iwata Asks, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata sat down with Kouhei Ikeda (producer of Tekken 3D Prime Edition) and Katsuhiro Harada (producer of the Tekken series) to discuss the entry that marks the series' return to a Nintendo platform.

Iwata began by asking the two to describe the series in their own words. Harada explained that the term he prefers is "exhilaration," or even a "rush," and noted that he sees Tekken overall as a very aggressive fighting game, with the loser often taking a "severe thrashing" during the process. Ikeda was in agreement, and commented that he got hooked on the series through the fluidity of the motions and the powerful attacks.

Iwata responded by wondering if the pursuit of the exhilaration of the attack created a fight against "a lot of contradictions." Harada noted that the place with the greatest contradictions occur is the rules, adding that they strive for a balance between the fun of delivering a devastating attack and the consequences of it being so powerful, and equated the fun of doing an Aerial Combo attack to the frustration the other player feels during without control. He explained that customer feedback has noted this frustration, but posits that if the attack were to be lessened in power or become less common, players would take it as a compromise of a core quality of the series. Ikeda followed up this sentiment by noting the constant attention paid to balance, and to "figuring out how much frustration we can permit the loser and still preserve exhilaration."

Iwata inquired as to how the two, as individuals experienced in the fighting game field, confronted the issue of accessibility for the latest Tekken title. Harada admitted that they're still very much figuring it out. He made note of the game's available handicap option, but added that, in reality, few people employ it. He also touched on the possibility of an auto-guard system or a simplification of the tactics, but noted that these don't work well in reality. He ended by noting that the most important thing is to make players want to practice.

Iwata summarized the line of thinking, saying that if players "arrive to a deeper place before they realize it and if they can find the fun there, they'll go in even deeper on their own."

Harada tied this sentiment into the inclusion of the game's customizable touch screen commands. He expressed it as an aid to players who might be looking to employ moves in a deeper fighting strategy, but unable to execute the complex combos to get there, and went on to equate it to providing the ingredients for players to cook with.

Harada also noted that, in making this game for the 3DS, they had a different type of customer in mind. He specifically mentioned wanting to grab the interest of players of the Super Smash Bros. series. He noted that, by including so many characters as well as the 3D Tekken movie, they're attempting to open as many doors as possible for people to find the series.

Harada then mentioned that, in approaching development on the 3DS technology, they were very particular about maintaining 60 frames per second. A footnote under the comment notes that although the game retains this frame rate during wireless play, stereoscopic 3D is not supported.

Ikeda finished by noting that a core concept was making "the most accessible Tekken," and offering a range of high-quality content, as signified by the Prime title.

Tekken 3D Prime Edition releases February 14.