Miyamoto a Ghostbusters fan, 3D vs. HD, secret Facebook page, theme-park “not an impossibility”, more
ABC has published a series of interviews with Shigeru Miyamoto, but this may be one of the most interesting discussions we’ve seen over the past few weeks. Miyamoto talked about Ghostbusters (he’s a fan, but it didn’t lead to Luigi’s Mansion), how Nintendo decides between putting a game on the 3DS (3D) or Wii U (HD), his secret Facebook page, and the possibility of a theme-park (it could happen one day, maybe).
As always, you can find all of Miyamoto’s responses below.
Miyamoto on whether he’s a fan of Ghostbusters…
I am a fan of “Ghostbusters.” That wasn’t the inspiration for the original “Luigi’s Mansion.” In fact, when we were developing the original “Luigi’s Mansion,” we were taking care as a team, even though that wasn’t our original inspiration, to make sure that people didn’t just assume that that was what we were trying to do.
Miyamoto on how the decision is made between going 3D or HD with Nintendo franchises…
Ultimately, it comes down to the decisions of the directors of the next games that are being made. Interestingly, when we were originally developing the original “Luigi’s Mansion” on GameCube, we worked with Sharp on a 3-D monitor and we ported the game into a sort of 3-D mode that we experimented with. So when we worked on Nintendo 3DS that was a natural fit to then take that game that we had originally wanted to do that with and bring that into 3-D.
Similarly with “Pikmin,” that was a game also when we created on the GameCube, we actually wished that we had had HD visuals at that time. Primarily because you’ve got so many small little Pikmin running around, we wanted the level of detail to really be able to express the characteristics of those Pikmin in a detailed way. That’s why we wanted to do “Pikmin 3” on Wii U and in HD.
Sort of similar to that with the decision on “Wind Waker” in particular, the animation style of the original “Wind Waker,” we felt that HD could really sort of breathe new life into that animation style and so that was the reason we went into that direction. Ultimately, there isn’t a common reason across all the games they’re basing the decision on. It really is which games are best suited to which styles or which systems or which features.
Miyamoto on why Daisy and Wario don’t participate in the main Mario storylines…
Both Daisy and Wario were originally drawn as part of the “Mario Land” games and had the same illustrator. The art style of those games was different from the “Mario World” series with Mario, Luigi and Princess Peach, and for a long time that was the reason that we didn’t have those characters enter into each other’s stories.
Through the sports games, then you started to see the overall character lineup grow a little more. What’s interesting is, because we’ve moved into an era where the characters have moved from some of the hand-drawn or the 2-D illustration style into the full 3-D model style, the differences between the art styles are no longer there. So, although originally we never had them entering each other’s stories because of the different art styles of the different games, perhaps now we don’t have to follow that condition anymore.
On “Super Mario 64” for the DS, that game did, in fact, have a multiplayer mode that Wario appeared in.
Miyamoto on his siblings…
I have an older brother, and I have a younger sister, as well.
Miyamoto on whether he’s on Facebook…
It’s a secret. (Laughs)
I’m not very big on broadcasting my opinions, so I haven’t used Twitter all that much. But I do use Facebook quite a bit to communicate with friends.
Miyamoto on his reaction when Miiverse first went live and players began to post so many intricate drawings…
Whether it was MiiVerse or “Flipnote Studio,” when we first are working on projects like that and we, as the developers, are creating things with those sketches, our immediate first impression is that these are fun things to play with but certainly unless you’re really a professional, it’s going to be very difficult to draw great pictures.
And, yet, what we find in both of those cases, the average consumer is able to far exceed our expectations of what they can do. What’s interesting is that certainly within the structure of those systems, whether its MiiVerse or Flipnote, you do have a certain amount of limitations in terms of what you can use and how you can draw. And so what we’re finding is really sort of a competition between people to show the level of their skill within their constraints. So that certainly has been very interesting.
Obviously, with video games, certainly it’s important to have games that create these massive and expansive and very detailed gaming worlds. But at the same time for players, there’s a tremendous amount of fun to be had from playing a game, or in this case drawing something, within a set of constraints, and then trying to improve and do your best within those constraints to see how good you can do.
Miyamoto on whether he has a vision of the story and world of Mario that could be laid out in a book or map…
I don’t have a map in my head. Trying to create something like that, that was so hard that’s actually why we decided to fly off in a different direction with “Super Mario Galaxy.” That’s a facet that’s very important for the “Zelda” games. We spend a great deal of consideration when creating a new game in terms of how it fits in with the other stories.
Miyamoto on the possibility of a Mario theme-park…
Certainly, with Nintendo being in the entertainment industry, there may come some point in the future where that might become a possibility. But right now we’ve got our hands full creating our digital products. Certainly, it’s not an impossibility.
Miyamoto on the most fun he’s ever had working on a game…
Actually, I have a lot of fun making all the games, even surprisingly the ones that have a lot of challenges to solve or they take a lot of time to finally bring together into final form … even those ones I have a lot of fun, and the ones where we have a lot of freedom to make the games, those are fun to make.
But, I guess, thinking back, probably “Super Mario 64” and the original “Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.” That era was the first time we were taking games and bringing in this new 3-D technology, building the rules and the framework through which games would be depicted in 3-D, I think, probably made those the most fun games to work on.
In working with some of the younger staff members, and when they have a question on a project and say, “I don’t know who to go to to find the answer to this question,” I’m always the type that says, “Well, if you don’t know who has the answer, then simply make the answer yourself.” I have a lot more fun when we’re making up the rules as we go along.
The higher the hurdle, the more fun it is.
