Miyamoto on Metroid, could return to Mario Galaxy, single-player Mario possible, mobile games, more
In a new interview with Game Informer, Shigeru Miyamoto discussed Metroid, the possibility of returning to the Super Mario Galaxy series and making a single-player-only Mario title, mobile games, and more. You can find some excerpts after the break. You can find the full interview over at Game Informer.
On the adjustment period with the Wii U and getting more out of the system…
Of course, any time that we shift from one generation to another there are things for people to learn in terms of development and when it comes to developing the software itself. But when it comes to the hardware at Nintendo, we’re a little bit unique because we’re developing a new hardware system, we’re doing that in conjunction with the software teams and there’s communication going on about what types of games the software development teams want to create. So the hardware development and software development early on go pretty hand in hand. But certainly, as you spend more time with the hardware itself, and you get better at leveraging the hardware, you learn ways to draw out more of its power. So certainly I think that there’s still more possibilities in terms of what we’ll be able to do with the Wii U.
On whether the Wii U is easier or more challenging to develop for than Nintendo’s other consoles…
I don’t think it’s a difficult system to develop for. Certainly, because it’s Nintendo’s first HD system and we’re using a lot of shaders and things like that there’s certainly things to learn from that perspective. Overall, in comparison to previous hardware I think it’s actually pretty easy to develop for.
On how a lot of Wii U games aren’t using the Wii U GamePad touch screen in important ways…
Well certainly I think that when it comes to touchscreens- and obviously not just gaming but a lot of other devices, are taking advantage of touch screen technology- and from an intuitive use standpoint, I think it’s very integral to video gaming just because of the ease with which you’re able to design the games in a way that anybody can play with just the touch of a finger in terms of menu selections and things like that. But, really for Wii U where we look at the benefit of the gamepad screen, is we really look at it as sort of a requirement in terms of how we’re handling menus and sub-screens within the games. Just to make the games more convenient and easier to play.
On gameplay improvements for Wind Waker HD (improved time for the crane treasure mini-game)…
Well we’ve actually made a number of different improvements. I think the previous game, the length and the player pacing of it was something we thought we could improve on. For example, this time we’ve added an additional sail, that allows the boat to travel faster this time than it did in the original GameCube game. And when you’re dropping your crane down in the ocean to hunt for sunken treasure, the length of the chain on the crane is shorter so you spend less time on that. So it basically helps to speed up the gameplay a little bit. So the pacing has really been improved upon.
Miyamoto on Metroid…
We don’t have anything that we’re working on that we can discuss probably. But we’ve always- just as we do with all of our franchises- have people who are looking at what they can do next, even with the Metroid franchise as well. So hopefully, at some point, we’ll be able to announce it.
On what about Super Mario 3D Land make that gameplay a good model for Wii U…
I think there may an impression that Mario 3D Land did well, so that’s why we decided to bring that to Wii U. But, in fact, what we really try to do is look at, “What is the easiest way for people to play the Mario games?” And certainly we have the new Super Mario Bros. series, which is the new sidescrolling games, and those are particularly easy to play for people who are more novice gamers. You’ve got four-player multiplayer. And then we have games like the Galaxy series.
What we tried to do with Super Mario 3D Land, was try to create a Mario game that was set in a 3D world that fell somewhere between the openness of the Galaxy games and the sidescrolling of the new Super Mario Bros. games to create a 3D Mario game that a wider array of people could play. And we felt that, with Super Mario 3D Land, we managed to achieve that. So, what we wanted to do was extend that broader appealing 3D Mario game to Wii U in a way that allow more people to experience it. That’s what we chose for Super Mario 3D World this time. But we still have, obviously, the Galaxy series, and there’s a possibility that in the future we may look to explore what else we can do with the Galaxy series. For us, it was really about trying to find the right 3D Mario space in which we’re going to allow the widest audience to play.
On whether he would consider doing a Mario game that was single-player only…
Before there was the Super Mario Bros. series, there was just the Mario Bros. game, and that was a 2-player multiplayer game. So, even from those very early days, we always wanted to include some type of multiplayer. When the new Super Mario Bros. team on Wii was able to do that and include the four-player multiplayer in the side-scrolling fashion, we very quickly found that our team really liked that, and they immediately said, “Well, we want to do the same thing in a 3D Mario space.” They’ve had a lot of fun exploring that. But definitely with the single-player Mario experience, there’s still a lot of possibilities that we can explore, so I think we’ll probably go back to that again at some point.
Miyamoto on mobile/tablet games…
Every once in awhile I’ll try out an Android game, but not just because I want to go check it out, just to relax. What I think is an honor for me, is the fact that you’ve noticed that touchscreen gaming has become so widely accepted, and also simultaneously noticed that Nintendo was one of the earliest ones to introduce, so I’m very happy that you noticed that.
The one thing that we don’t do is take a posture of requiring people to develop their games in particular ways. For example, with regard to touchscreen gaming, we think it’s great if people want to design their games for our systems in ways that take advantage of the touch screen, but we’re not going to require it. We don’t think necessarily that developers should be required to have something unique that leverages the 3D visuals in their gameplay.
And also, even with regard to something like the GamePad, we really look at it more in terms of providing a consistent environment for the game developers so that it’s easy for them to take advantage of the creation tools that are available to them, knowing that whoever buys the software is going to have access to all these different features. So rather than taking a posture of, we definitely want to push one particular direction, instead what we say is, “These are the tools that are available for you to choose from, and we hope that you’ll design your games in a way that is as broadly appealing as possible.
Miyamoto on new franchises and characters…
Certainly within Nintendo, we have people internally who are saying, “Well, we have our old characters from our old games, and that’s old IP, and we should think about creating new IP.” But the question that we always ask is: “Does a new character really make it a new game?” And to me, the answer to that is, “No.” What makes it a new game is new gameplay and new interactions. So when we’re creating a game, we’re always looking at it from, “What is the gameplay, and how are making that gameplay new?” And then, “Who is the character that is best suited to that gameplay?”
By taking this approach, for us, we feel like even when we’re creating new installments in existing series, we’re creating new experiences, because the gameplay that’s in there is something that’s entirely new. And in some cases, we may even end up creating new characters. Pikmin was an example of how we ended up creating new IP, because we created this new style of gameplay, and it really needed a new character in order to have that gameplay work, and that was the approach we took. We created the gameplay mechanic first, and then created the characters afterwards.
What we always stress, when we’re working with our development teams is, “Focus first on creating fun and new gameplay, and then we’ll figure out what the character is or what the IP is that’s going to go with it.” In the future, we may see that that will bring us some new characters and new IP, but what’s important to me is that, even with the existing IP that we’re releasing games for, they’re all new gameplay experiences.
