Kit & Krysta

News that Nintendo Minute hosts Kit and Krysta were leaving Nintendo signalled the end of an era for many fans who have followed their careers with the company through years of the fun video series. However, the pair soon revealed plans for their own podcast and it seems they'll be staying together in the gaming world, only now with the freedom to address and discuss non-Nintendo video games. Yes, they apparently exist!

Kit and Krysta's new podcast — appropriately titled The Kit & Krysta Podcast — is already live, with episode one available and episode two arriving imminently at the time of writing. We thoroughly recommend checking it out via your pod catcher of choice (Apple, Spotify, and the like), or via the archived Youtube video (see the bottom of this page).

We recently had the chance to ask Kit and Krysta some questions via email about what they've been up to and they've got planned. The first episode of their 'cast deals with exactly why they left Nintendo, so we won't go over that again here, but read on to find out how they feel about being free to talk non-Nintendo games, their future plans, and which Nintendo exec they'd most like to be stuck in an elevator with...

Note: Responses come mainly from Kit unless indicated otherwise.

Nintendo Life: First up, your new Kit & Krysta podcast is live! It’s the first of various projects you’ve got in the works, we believe. Can you tell us a little about what you’ve been up to since your final day at Nintendo and why you went with a podcast as your first venture?

It’s been an exciting but also crazy time for us! We haven’t had much time to take a breather since we both left Nintendo in January and turned our attention to launching the Kit & Krysta Podcast in the following weeks. We’re both big podcast fans and feel the format offers a lot of flexibility in terms of having long-form conversations, connecting with the community and being viable in both video and audio.

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Will you be sticking to games talk, or are there plans to branch into other topics?

Video games will be our focus, but that doesn’t mean we won’t touch upon other topics from time to time. Just like a chat with a friend, we ourselves don’t always know where the conversation will be headed once it gets going.

How does it feel to be able to freely discuss other platforms now you’re not Nintendo employees?

It feels great, and is one of the things we are most excited about with this podcast. We both enjoy games on all platforms like so many other gamers, and the next few months are really packed with big games across PlayStation, Xbox and Switch that we can’t wait to play and discuss.

You’ve both been working together for a long time now and are obviously great friends, but was there any hesitation to ‘stay together’ in this post-Nintendo phase of your careers?

Once we got over the hump of deciding to focus on content creation full-time, there was no hesitation in continuing to do it together. There is a recognition that we share a wonderful creative spark and bring out the best (or sometimes the worst…) in each other. Nintendo Minute was the most fun we had working at Nintendo, so we’re really happy we’re able to continue on together with this new project.

Working with someone for so many years, you’ve surely had an argument or two, which must be tough when you’ve got to appear on camera moments later. Did you ever have a fall-out or disagreement right before shooting a show?

Kit: We bicker a lot (often while we’re recording a show!), but somehow haven’t ever really had one of those big blow-out arguments. There was a funny moment when we were filming a shopping spree episode of Nintendo Minute and we realized that some of the rules could have been interpreted differently. Krysta was sure she had won but the competition ended in a tie, and she let me (Kit) have it with a Christian Bale-esque rant that just went on and on and on. All I could do was laugh!

Krysta: This is Krysta, let me just say that the rant was very much needed after a long shoot day and a lot of rule bending on Kit’s part. At the end of the day, everything we bought in that video went to charity and that’s what was important.

A lot of your followers may not realize that Nintendo Minute was only one portion of your job at Nintendo. Can you explain what a typical day at the office looked like for you two?

It’s true that Nintendo Minute was actually a small part of our jobs at Nintendo, and perhaps even not a part of our “formal” jobs. We both worked in the Communications department, starting in public relations but later focusing on social media, content creator relations and original content creation. Every day at Nintendo was different and that kept things fresh for us. There were always meetings, working on products that were launching soon and planning for titles that were just on the horizon.

Beyond Nintendo Minute, what Nintendo-based work or projects come to mind that you're most proud of?

I happened to work on the very early installments of Nintendo Direct... It’s crazy to see how big and important it’s become now, but it was fun to work on it when we were really trying to innovate and establish the basic format — Kit

Kit: I happened to work on the very early installments of Nintendo Direct when not a lot of people knew what it was or why we were doing it - and that included people both inside and outside the company! It’s crazy to see how big and important it’s become now, but it was fun to work on it when we were really trying to innovate and establish the basic format.

Krysta: My last few years at Nintendo were mostly focused on the company’s work with content creators. I helped to shape the program that is in use now, and it was some of my favorite work I had done over my 14 years. The content creators we work with are so passionate about Nintendo and so talented - they are really a joy to be around and many of them are good friends of ours.

You’ve been with Nintendo through both great times and not-so-great times (hey, we adore the Wii U, but we were in a relative minority!) – what was the overall company morale like during those days before Switch arrived?

We really have seen it all - from the heights of the Wii and DS to the challenges of the Wii U and 3DS, and then the Switch phenomenon. Through the years the company has always kept an amazingly steady viewpoint on it all. Nobody’s head got too big when things were going well, and nobody got too down when we were struggling. I guess it helps when your company is 125+ years old, but the perspective is undoubtedly unique.

We’ve heard Nintendo likes to have employees jump in to voice small roles or record extra lines in their games. Have either of you ever done any voice work in any Nintendo games?

No, we haven’t done any voice work in games - that would be handled by the incredible Nintendo localization team. They are really an amazing team who play a big role in making Nintendo games so fun and charming.

My last few years at Nintendo were mostly focused on work with content creators. I helped to shape the program that is in use now, and it was some of my favorite work I had done over my 14 years — Krysta

Do you see yourself returning to work for a large company in the future, gaming or otherwise?

Nobody can tell the future but I think we just enjoy being around games and fans of games. It’s a very different experience for us to be working for ourselves after being with big companies our entire career, and so far it’s been a lot of fun to have all that freedom.

We're asking for a friend here, but how many times have you met Shigeru Miyamoto? More times than you can count on your hands?

We really should have kept track of the exact number, but let’s say it’s in the “several to many times” range. We’d always interact with him at E3 and he also made a number of promotional trips to the US which we often helped with. He’s a truly incredible person.

Can you give any hints about other projects you have in mind over the next year?

We have a few goals for ourselves once we get past the craziness of this launch. First, we really want to expand the experience and offerings for our Patreon members. We’re starting small with a single early access membership tier, but there’s a lot more we’d like to roll out soon.

Second, we know people associate us with video, and we do want to get back to making videos regularly where we play games or discuss silly topics. We did a video last week where we showed off some of the cool stuff we collected over our years at Nintendo and the reaction has been wonderful.

Finally, we really want to be able to interact more directly with fans. Obviously the pandemic has impacted what we have been able to do, but we miss going to shows like PAX and doing events there or just hanging around and talking games with people.

And finally, given the choice, which Nintendo executive – past or present – would you rather to be stuck in an elevator with for 3 hours?

We were really lucky to work closely with Reggie, and we both consider ourselves to be disciples of Reggie. The answer would have to be Mr. Iwata though. We had a number of interactions with him over the years and he was not only one of the smartest people we’ve ever met, but also one of the most kind and genuine. We both miss him a lot and we’d really make those three hours together count.

Many thanks to Kit and Krysta for taking the time to answer our questions. You can follow them on Twitter (@KitandKrysta) and they have a Patreon set up if you'd like to support the pair directly with their future endeavours. Be sure to check it out!