Mario Odyssey director on having Mario travel the world, says he’s human, considering “many characters”, more

Vice recently spoke with Super Mario Odyssey director Kenta Motokura. Motokura talked about why Mario is traveling the world in this game, noted that Nintendo is considering “many characters” for the game including potentially Luigi, and more. The developer also confirmed that Mario is human even though he may look out of place in New Donk City.

We’ve picked out the notable highlights from Vice’s interview below. For the full discussion, head on over here.

On any pressure developing the game…

Kenta Motokura: Honestly the pressure from my boss is harder to take (laughs). When we make a game, we just think of one thing after another that is fun that we can put in there, so I don’t really feel pressure.

On whether Nintendo wanted to come back to the core of Mario, like Mario 64…

Starting off, we were not intending to go back to Super Mario 64. When we were making prototypes [for Super Mario Odyssey], we added in Super Mario 64-type elements to the stages, which we thought fit the style of the game best.

On why it was important to make Mario travel across the world…

This is a journey following Mario to save Princess Peach, one of his most [beloved], so we wanted to make this an epic journey. As players, we haven’t even gone to all the places that we want to visit, and we haven’t discovered all the places that we can. Through this game, we thought we could do that and bring a different experience to everyone.

On Mario and Bowser becoming fashionistas…

Well yeah, maybe Mario is becoming a fashionable guy. When we designed the costumes, we had in mind that when people travel they want to try on the clothes of the people that live there. So, we thought that we would incorporate that concept.

On whether Mario is human…

Mario is human.

On why Mario is so different…

In the world, there are many different types of people, you know.

On references to older Mario games and nostalgia for older players…

Yes, we definitely thought about nostalgia for players who have previously played other Mario games. This world consists of 3D and 2D and we wanted to mix things up. Therefore, we implemented the 2D aspect as well.

On whether Luigi will appear…

We are considering putting in many characters, and Luigi may appear, I don’t know.

On whether Mario is still a plumber…

In the January promotion that we saw Mario jumps out of a manhole so I think he is still doing his job.