Iwata on the innate appeal of Mario side-scrollers, NSMB2/U are different, DLC, more
A unique opportunity was presented with the western press a few days ago. Satoru Iwata stopped by Nintendo of America’s offices in Redwood City as New Super Mario Bros. 2 approaches its launch in the states.
Aside from Iwata giving some hope regarding the overseas status of EarthBound/Mother, he mostly talked about the Mario franchise. He discussed the innate appeal of Mario’s side-scrollers, explained how New Super Mario Bros. 2 and U will be different games, Nintendo’s stance on downloadable content, and more.
Head past the break for Iwata’s comments.
Iwata on how the side-scrolling Mario games have an innate appeal…
“Sidescrolling Mario has a special existence in that it really is part of the fundamental DNA of gamers. What we have in the sidescrolling games is a goal, and to reach that goal you’re jumping and flying and collecting items and attacking and defeating enemies—and you have this sort of almost in a managerial sense a checklist of the things you have to do to get from here to here. I think that structure is something that really goes beyond cultural and language boundaries, which means we are really presenting Mario games to consumers as a ‘Nintendo-representative’ game that you can only play on a Nintendo platform.”
Iwata on how Nintendo only makes one New Super Mario Bros. game per platform…
“We only create a New Super Mario Bros. title one per platform. I think we’ll probably go ahead and continue at that pace. That being said, that’s probably [Mario creator Shigeru] Miyamoto’s choice, so I can’t give you a 100% guarantee that that’s the pace we’ll continue at.”
Iwata on how New Super Mario Bros. 2/U are different games…
“They do share a name and there are some components that are similar. That being said, these are two very unique and separate titles…We have a Mario you can play in the palm of your hand and a Mario you can play seated in front of your TV. I believe the two titles are unique enough that I wouldn’t say that I’m super-worried that people are going to be confused.”
Iwata on another one of Mario’s original names, explaining Mario’s relevance in the sports, racing, and other games he’s been in and why it seems that any time a gamer turns around there’s another game with Mario in it…
“Before Mario became Mario, when he was a nameless character, do you know what Mr. Miyamoto called him? That’s one (Jump man). Another is Ossan, which is basically a generic name. It could be anything from an older brother to an older guy in the neighborhood. ‘That guy,’ sort of thing. And the other one was Mr. Video Game. And this is important. Mr. Miyamoto sometimes referred to him as Mr. Video, but I think really it’s important that we call him Mr. Video Game. And Mario, of course—other than the sidescrolling Mario that we’re talking about now—has appeared in lots of different games and has had lots of different roles. But I think what Mario has come to symbolize for a lot of people is sort of this quality guarantee. They think, ‘It’s got Mario. We know that it’s a good experience.’ …We want him to become ‘Mr. Video Game’, the guy. That was the basis. I believe he fulfilled that dream.”
Iwata on New Super Mario Bros. 2’s DLC and Nintendo’s policy overall…
“I think, when the player has exhausted what’s in an existing piece of software, when there are no more challenges and there is nothing more they can do, if we then introduce a new level or a new character—something new for them—we just increased their motivation to want to go back; we’ve also increased the amount of time they’re going to enjoy that software. And one thing Nintendo has determined as a company policy, what we are not going to do is create a full game and then say, ‘let’s hold this back for DLC.’ That’s not our plan. We’re definitely not doing that. It’s an extreme example, but I think there are examples of games where you get that initial purchase—the very core part of the game—and everything else around it is all DLC. However, if you do that I believe customers will have no motivation to go out and buy the retail package to begin with. So our goal is to create DLC in such a way that consumers do not feel that they have been cheated or deceived. Now I believe there are people out there, readers, who have are worried about that, and we just want to ensure them that we have that in mind and want them to know that that’s not what we are planning on doing.”
