Leftover Super Mario 64 ideas were used in Zelda: Ocarina of Time
This information comes from the latest Iwata Asks…
Iwata: We just talked about how Koizumi-san made lots of irrational demands all the way from Super Mario 64 to The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, but to go back to the beginning, Super Mario Bros. came out in September of 1985 and The Legend of Zelda came out immediately afterward in February 1986. I feel like Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda are often made as a pair.
The challenge with the Nintendo 64 system was to turn those two titles into 3D. Koizumi-san, I think you were the person closest to Miyamoto-san during development then. What was on your mind?
Koizumi: I do think they are often made in pairs. They both fell into the category of “3D open-world action games.” I didn’t really see the difference between them.
Iwata: If you were to state the difference, it would be how The Legend of Zelda is the one you don’t press a button to jump in.
Koizumi: Even when it comes to that, you had to press a button to jump when we first started making The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
Iwata: At first, it didn’t have autojump.
Koizumi: That’s right. There was no way we could take jumping out of a Super Mario. Bros. game, but when we actually tried making Super Mario 64, the action hurdle was a high one. For example, if you tried to beat an enemy in front of you, the axes weren’t aligned, so it was hard.
Iwata: Yes, that’s right. When I was at HAL Laboratory thinking about how we could make the Kirby series for the Nintendo 64 system, we wrestled with that.
Koizumi: Oh, uh-huh. (laughs) As we were making Super Mario 64, we were thinking about The Legend of Zelda the whole time, and started talking about decreasing the action element in The Legend of Zelda and increasing the puzzle elements.
Iwata: You were thinking about them both at the same time.
Koizumi: Yes. Even as I was making Super Mario 64, I would write down memos of what I wanted to achieve with The Legend of Zelda. Then when I started making The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, I whipped out those memos and consulted them.
Iwata: What kinds of things had you written down?
Koizumi: All kinds of things, like battles using a sword and battling lots of enemies. The Super Mario 64 project had passed by incredibly quickly, so a lot that I wanted had gone undone and I wanted to pour all those leftover ideas into The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
