Shigeru Miyamoto has become one the the elder statesmen for both Nintendo and the gaming industry as a whole, having produced countless classic titles over the years. Still, the creator of Mario is 57 years old which raises the question of retirement… but Miyamoto isn’t even considering that right now.
“Well, I am one of the company workers and the company has to retire me some time. So from that perspective, yes I may have to retire from Nintendo some day,” said Miyamoto. “But when I look around and see how aged cartoonists continue to work on their manga and how movie directors create new movies all the time, I understand that they would never retire. And by the same token, I guess I will still be making games somehow. The only question is whether the younger people will be willing to work with me at that far point in the future.”
Super Mario Galaxy is the first numerical sequel to a Mario game since Super Mario Bros. 3, and Miyamoto acknowledged the significance of the move. “In the past we had Super Mario Bros. 1, 2 and 3 and then Super Mario World. And the reason Super Mario World was not Super Mario Bros. 4 was that we wanted to make it clear to the audience that this new game would give you some new experiences that you could not expect from Super Mario Bros,” explained Miyamoto. “And although we originally thought that Super Mario Galaxy 2 would simply be made from additional challenges for those who had completed the first game, as we progressed with the creation of Super Mario Galaxy 1.5 we noticed that there were too many new experiences for it to be merely an incremental update, and that it felt more like a completely new game. But since it still uses many of the core Galaxy ideas, we ve named it Super Mario Galaxy 2.”
“When asked about the large number of violent games made by other publishers,” Miyamoto responded, “Well, as a rule I am trying not to comment on the works of other people. But one thing I can tell you is that I really appreciate the variety of different videogames that are being made by so many different types of people. However, many people are working solely in a single genre that is concentrated on excessive violence, and the only competition there is who can come up with the most violent depictions. That s not something that I really appreciate. And I think that when there are many people working in such a genre, the job of me and Nintendo is to try to establish to the world that there are a great many other ways to take advantage of the interactive format of videogames; to provide fun and surprise to the people around the world.”
Miyamoto was also probed about the enigmatic nature of the Vitality Sensor, which was contrasted with how HD was easier for consumers to get their heads around. “Well, you know, whenever we are working on something new and unexpected, that s something very interesting and fun for us to do internally, so Nintendo will always continue to pursue such challenges,” said Miyamoto. “One thing I would like to tell you, and to tell your readers, is that whenever Nintendo makes some public announcement about some new project, Nintendo has done so only after being able to confirm internally that it is something that the general public will be able to appreciate.”
When asked about who inspires him as a designer, Miyamoto at first deferred, but then said, “Now that I think about it, though, Mr. Will Wright is a very unique person and someone very special because he has a unique way of thinking about everything that he does. So that reminds me how important the individual s thinking style is when coming up with new and unique game experiences.”
Source: GamesTM {link no longer active}
