Iwata Asks: Super Mario 3D World summary – including Galaxy talk

I’ve thrown together a summary of the Super Mario 3D World Iwata Asks, as the original discussion is quite long. There are definitely a number of interesting points, plus some talk about the future of the Super Mario Galaxy series. Without further ado, here’s the summary in full:

– No upending the tea table from Miyamoto this time
– Miyamoto “only needed to be involved with occasional spot-checks in areas where I wanted to take a closer look”
– Hayashida: “To be upfront about it, ever since we started developing Super Mario 3D Land, we thought about making Super Mario 3D World in continuation afterward.”
– The team originally wanted to include a multiplayer mode in Super Mario 3D Land
– Team initially started out at 40-50, was at about 100 at the end
– The team has tons of ideas for Mario’s transformations
– Cat transformation forms a pair with Statue Mario
– When you turn into Cat Mario under a certain condition, he can make bonus coins appear with Ground Pounds
– Moving multiple Marios was considered before, but wasn’t tried since the team thought it’d be too taxing from a control perspective
– Double Mario came about when a staffer made a mistake with the placement tool and put in two Mario players
– NOA staffers said Mario 3D World has a high replay value
– Free Camera Mode is in single-player mode only
– Captain Toad’s Adventure was put in so that players ” would try it out as a way to experience a game in which you control the camera yourself as you would in a 3D Super Mario game.”
– Motokura insisted on putting in the secret character
– This character loses its ability when in cat form
– This character also becomes a black cat when transformed
– The Luigi Bros. game and the secret character appear after reaching the end once
– Luigi Bros. appears on the title screen
– If you have New Super Luigi U data, you can play from the start
– Hidden Luigi pixels are included in the game
– Random button randomly assigns characters before each course
– Can do a Ground Pound to steal someone’s double power
– Random selection is also available in single-player
– Hayashida on the stamps: “We had always wanted to do something with Miiverse, and I tried posting, but the world is full of people who can draw well. I can’t draw, so I couldn’t get into it.”
– Over 80 stamps are in the game
– Some stamps you get deep in the second half
– Mii characters of other people online show up as Sprixies
– When you clear a course, the ghost of the person who cleared it will replay through that gameplay
– Time Attack Ghost will appear, which is the ghost of another player who’s clear time is just a little faster than yours
– The team had a strong desire to call it “3D World” from the beginning
– Miyamoto realized “Land” was for handhelds and “World” was for home consoles
– Miyamoto: “Some opinions against it arose along the way, and there was a time when it looked like it wouldn’t fly, but it’s a name with a lot of thought behind it that suggests anyone can feel easy playing the game and that it’s a culmination of all the fun of a 3D Super Mario game, so the name had to be Super Mario 3D World, and in the end that’s what it is.”
– Koizumi says he had some regrets about some things when making Super Mario Galaxy, which he feels he was able to address with 3D World
– Koizumi has long wanted Luigi to appear alongside Mario in a 3D game, and also felt Galaxy was more geared toward boys
– With Peach’s inclusion, he feels this has been addressed
– Miyamoto: “Just so there is no misunderstanding, I should point out that this doesn’t mean we’ll never make another Super Mario Galaxy game.”
– Koizumi: “When we first started making Super Mario 3D World, Miyamoto-san asked me if this was going to be more like Super Mario Galaxy or more like Super Mario 3D Land. When we made Super Mario 3D Land, we had our eyes on the form of this game, so we made it this way without any hesitation.”
– Miyamoto: “The same team can’t make both at the same time. And we can’t bring in a second party and slap the name Super Mario Galaxy on it. I suppose we could idealistically make both in Tokyo, but we want to do something new too, so there was that dilemma.”
– Miyamoto “Personally, I would like to take on a variety of new challenges with Super Mario Galaxy and design 2D Super Mario games in an easy-to-understand way within certain restraints.
– Iwata: “Either way, to fans of Super Mario Galaxy, Super Mario 3D World is in no way a different beast that they won’t be able to enjoy.”