Watch Iwata Play Wii Sports Club, Online Play and Namco Bandai

The latest Iwata Asks session looks into how Nintendo, with help from Namco Bandai, developed the new Wii Sports Club.

The upcoming game will be divided into separate sport downloads on the eShop, including Tennis, Golf, Bowling Baseball and Boxing.

This time round the game was supervised by Nintendo, with Namco Bandai acting as developer - a collaborative effort. The main aim this time round was to be able to produce online tennis, something that was far harder than bowling or golf given that up to four players would be playing at one time.

Thanks to suggestions from a communications programmer at Namco Bandai Studio, the group were able to include support for online tennis in the game.

Also in the online sphere, Nintendo didn't want to flood Miiverse with comments on players winning all the time as it may well put off newcomers, so opted to include regional clubs. Even those that aren't playing too well can help build stats for the club, like total pins knocked down.

Suppose, for example, you look at the club ranking and the Tokyo club is higher than yours. Then it would be great if you can get together with people in your club and compete against them, posting on Miiverse with something like "Today's rival is the Tokyo club! Let's get them!"

The game also incorporates pre-written comments from players, for example "Congrats on the strike!" that can come from other members in the club.

Finally, two videos showing members of the team and Iwata playing Wii Sports Club online, demonstrating connectivity and control in the new game.

Will you leap back into the Wii Sports experience on Wii U?