Konno on the possibility of Wart return, Ice Hockey sequel, more
Yet another Nintendo-related interview has emerged. Believe it or not, it wasn’t conducted with Satoru Iwata or Reggie Fils-Aime, and the Wii U wasn’t brought up once!
Nintendo’s Hideki Konno has fielded all sorts of questions about Nintendo in general, including the possibility of seeing Super Mario Bros. 2’s Wart return and the chances of an Ice Hockey sequel with Mario characters.
You know what to do. Head past the break for Konno’s comments.
Konno on how being Nintendo since the days of NES has impacted his life…
“Yes, it’s been 26 years that I’ve worked for Nintendo with Mr. Miyamoto, and all this time, if I am asked how I’ve grown, I guess a lot of it has come from ways I’ve been influenced by all of the ideas around me. All of the know-how of working on different types of games influenced me dramatically.
“This is something a lot of people say, I think, that you have to approach game design from the perspective of the player. You have to constantly put yourself in their position and think about how they will react to what they’re seeing. Even though we all said this to each other quite often, I don’t know that the full realization of what that meant had necessarily hit me if we’re talking 26 years ago, but over time I’ve gained a deeper and deeper appreciation of what is required to take yourself out of your role as a designer and start to think as a player for a more objective viewpoint.”
“I think that’s something common to all creators. Any time you’re making something, it’s very easy to get that tunnel vision where you’re focusing on one particular aspect and trying to follow it through all the way to completion without considering other things going on around you, but of course, that’s a bad way to be. I think the full realization of what it takes to pull yourself out of that mindset took me a full 26 years to gain a deep realization of.”
Konno on why Mario Kart remains one of the most popular racing games…
“That’s an interesting question that sometimes I wonder if I know the answer to, but I think we may have set something of a standard in terms of the very core concept of what makes for a fun, competitive experience. Sometimes we think of Mario Kart on the development side as a communication tool, because if you think about the way people play it, with their friends and siblings sitting down together and talking while they play, creating those opportunities for communication is really close to the core concept of what makes for fun competition. Perhaps hitting upon that concept is one of the secrets of its success.”
Konno on whether or not he finds it odd that Nintendo replaced characters in Doki Doki Panic for Super Mario Bros 2. and why we haven’t seen more of Wart…
“[Laughs] You know quite a bit. On Doki Doki Panic, I worked with Mr. Tanabe, who you may know from some recent installments of the Metroid series as well. On that project, it was his first time as a director, I believe, and I was the assistant director. As you said, there were no Mario characters in the original game, but through conversations with Mr. Miyamoto, we decided to use Mario characters for the release of this game in the United States. I wouldn’t say I was surprised by that development, but rather, I was involved with the process throughout.
“As for why we haven’t seen a lot of Wart lately, I wonder why that is? Do you think maybe he doesn’t have as strong an association with the Mario universe as other characters?”
“(Responding to Wart ideas) That’s all good stuff. I’m going to have to take notes on this. But if we’re going back to Doki Doki Panic, I would have to say that the character that jumped out of that game was Shy Guy, because he’s been used in so many games since then.”
Konno on what led to Nintendo’s decision to make New Super Mario Bros. 2 downloadable as an option…
“We’re putting more focus on digital distribution these days, as that has become a strong area of interest for us. Also, it does represent some convenience for users, who, if they’re able to download a bunch of games, don’t have to swap out game cards, which is kind of nice.”
Konno on the possibility of creating a sequel to Ice Hockey on NES with Mario characters…
“Yes, that’s something that absolutely could happen, but I would have to be closely involved with such a project. You may remember that in that game, there are three distinct body types: the big one, the normal one and the skinny one. A lot of the gameplay ideas came out of the different body type characters that you were playing. We would have to take a look and think about how to apply that to a different set of characters, and see what gameplay ideas would come from those differences.”
Konno on which game is his favorite in terms of the ones he’s worked on…
“It’s really hard to pick one. I’ve worked on a lot of games and I’ve really enjoyed the experience, so it would be too cheap an answer to say that I like absolutely all of them, so maybe it’s best to say that some of the more recent projects are so fresh in my mind that I have really good memories of them, so in that case, I would have to say Mario Kart 7. What stood out was the feeling of gliding through the sky or cruising underwater. It felt like a totally new expression in the game, and was something I felt paired so well with the 3D visuals.”
Konno on how it was decided to put gliders on the karts in Mario Kart 7…
“I think we had the image in mind fairly early on, but it did take a lot of programming work to figure out how to make diving and flying feel so good in that game.”
