Mario is one of the most recognizable video game character to have been created. However, you may be surprised to know that the mustached man originally had a different name. According to Shigeru Miyamoto, the initial plan was to call Mario “Mr. Video,” as he explained in the latest edition of Iwata Asks.
Iwata
So the entire design was a case of form being dictated by function. You can really see that your specialist field, industrial design, is evident in the final result. Then, because he jumped up and down, he became known as “Jumpman”, right?Miyamoto
Well, I called him “Mr. Video”. My plan was to use the same character in every video game I made.Iwata
So you had that plan right from the start? Why did you intend to use him in every video game you made?Miyamoto
Well, I thought the way Hitchcock cropped up in all the films he directed was really cool! (laughs)Iwata
(laughs)Miyamoto
Or take manga artists like Osamu Tezuka and Fujio Akatsuka9 who have the same character popping up in a variety of different works. I think I was probably influenced by that at the time.Iwata
If you were considering using the character in a number of titles, you must have been satisfied with the way Mario had turned out.Miyamoto
I felt that I had come up with a pretty solid character, which is why I thought: “Right, I’ll keep using him from now on!” That’s why I decided a solid, imposing name like “Mr. Video” would work best. But thinking back, I don’t think I should have gone with that name. Someone at Nintendo of America actually came up with the name Mario. If he had been called “Mr. Video,” he might have disappeared off the face of the earth. (laughs)
“One of our lead planners for the game is a programmer, so he has a different, more scientific or mathematical approach, so to say, to creating puzzles. Development team members, including [senior Nintendo developer] Mr. [Takashi] Tezuka and myself, actually got stuck in several places. So the dungeons and puzzles pose a different type of challenge than what we have utilized in previous games, and will certainly require longtime Zelda fans to approach each challenge differently. I believe that the latter half of the Tower of Spirits dungeon in The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks — [which] players will revisit throughout the game — has puzzles which require a different type of approach from those of previous games.” – Eiji Aonuma
There’s no doubt that the puzzles in the previous DS game, Phantom Hourglass, weren’t all that challenging. The DS was used in some clever ways, such as closing the system to make a marking on your sea chart, but I never really felt like I was stumped. However, it sounds like Spirit Tracks will be an overall more challenging game and I’m all for that!
Commander: Europe at War for the Nintendo DSTM
Graffiti Entertainment Inc – a subsidiary of Signature Devices, Inc. (OTCPK: SDVI) – today announced that it has secured an exclusive distribution deal to publish ‘Commander: Europe at War’ (Nintendo DS™) in North America developed by Slitherine
Commander – Europe at War is the first high level strategy game to come to the DS, letting you control everything from diplomacy and economics down to research and military action.
– Set in Casino City
– The mask led to the development of the city
– Mask can grant wishes, but has been behind some odd occurrences
– This title will see big changes in the traditional Professor Layton gameplay
– Releasing in Fall 2010
“We had a lot of debate about that. There were points in the project where there was no delay at all, but that wound up encouraging players to concentrate on themselves instead of the team. If there’s that little stutter, that makes everyone say to each other ‘Oh, nice, you screwed up!’, and that’s what I wanted to see.” – Shigeru Miyamoto
I’ve actually read/heard that the stutter can be a big problem in some instances and that it can lead to some undesired results while playing. What do you guys think?
