Miyamoto says Super Mario Run was partially inspired by speedrunners, considered GPS for 3DS
Super Mario Run was partially inspired by speedrunners, according to Shigeru Miyamoto. Miyamoto shared that noteworthy nugget of information with BuzzFeed.
The site reports:
“According to Miyamoto, part of the inspiration for Super Mario Run’s auto-running came from a surprising source: ‘super players.’ Watching online videos of these gamers’ astounding speed runs and other feats of gaming skill, Nintendo employees noticed that the gamers never let up on the D-Pad. Mario always kept running, and all of the skill came down to the incredible precision of the jumping. What if, the Nintendo braintrust reasoned, all players could have that experience? Ironically, the most skilled Super Mario players in the world may be partially responsible for introducing Mario to thousands and thousands of first-time players.”
BuzzFeed also reports that Nintendo “considered building GPS into its 3DS” at one point for a Pokemon GO-esque game. However, “Nintendo decided that it made more sense to put the game on millions of devices that already had satellite location tracking.”
