Super Mario 3D Land details from the latest Iwata Asks
Posted on November 5, 2011 by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News
The second portion of the Super Mario 3D Land Iwata Asks discussion has been translated on Nintendo of America’s website. If you’d like to catch up on the details without reading the full interview, head past the break. Koichi Hayashida, Yoshiaki Koizumi, Takashi Tezuka, Shigeru Miyamoto, and Satoru Iwata participated in the discussion.
– Following Galaxy 2, Hayashida wanted to make a game that would be an “introduction” to the 3D Mario games
– Basic direction was worked out from summer to fall the year that Galaxy 2 was finished
– Prototype was up showing the relation between the player-character and the landforms; included Coins and Blocks
– “Mario” was actually a block in this prototype
– Mario was a mushroom in the prototype for Mario Galaxy
– Important theme early on was making a 3D Mario game that would be close to 2D so everyone could play
– Adjustments made to the parallel-track camera used in Galaxy 2
– Dev. team thought they could make something fun by mixing all that had built up in the 3D Marios with 2D Mario rules
– Hayashida has a collection of Miyamoto’s sayings
– Hayashida: I was an instructor at the Nintendo Game Seminar last year. I passed on Miyamoto-san’s wisdom to the students and analyzed it for them. I did a point-by-point analysis of the Super Mario Bros. games on the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) and tried to apply those points to this game. That really motivated me.
– Hayashida began making Mario 3D Land in the mindset of an archeologist
– The staff said it was like making the Super Mario Bros. game for the NES
– Fun elements on Super Mario on the NES were imbued for this title
– Team looked back at the processes they went through in the NES days for making corrections
– Tezuka felt like it was a 2D Mario game since the team was trying to reconstruct the game with the original Super Mario elements
– With Mario Galaxy, the Coins originally would fly to the player, but was changed so that the players pick them up because it would have felt impersonal otherwise
– You go towards the goal in Mario 3D Land, so collecting them would be a nuisance if they were scattered in the opposite direction
– Hayashida lengthened the timer because he felt it was too short
– The team decided to make the game as if it were a short-distance rather, not a long-distance race
– Started to think about how to make the game in a short time; thought about cutting out cinematics/boss battles but decided that wasn’t a good idea
– Took a different approach: “Let’s make the best game in a short time!”, “What can we do to in the short timeframe to make the best game possible?”
– Re-thought about how a cinematic should be to get the point across instead of cutting them completely
– Changed the combination of landforms or move to make a completely different kind of fun gameplay when fighting enemies
– Team made full use of the game pieces
– They didn’t stray too far during the initial approach to the project
– Koizumi told Hayashida to put in interesting elements from Galaxy 2 and to do so quickly; also said that Hayashida didn’t have to put in many new elements
– Plan was to include only one new power-up for Mario originally
– Time was set aside to review how good the software could become; staff came up with Boomerang Mario
– Dev. period didn’t drag out even though new material was added
– Combining Fire Mario’s movement with the enemy’s Boomerang gave birth to Boomerang Mario
– Staff would fix all sorts of elements in one day, which helped development
– Tezuka loved the idea of the Invincibility Leaf
– Comment from a tester led to the Invincibility Leaf
– He said he couldn’t get past an area, but didn’t want to fly over it with the P-Wing; thought the tester could go up that spot by continuously being Tanooki Mario and if invincible, he could move on
– The leaf comes out if you lose Mario five times (originally eight)
– Tezuka suggested five since eight times felt like a lot; he used his instincts as a player
– P-Wing was originally available after 16 deaths
– Invincibility Leaf lets you destroy anything
– Miyamoto found stomping satisfying because they redefined what stomping is
– Wanted to make an action game in which you could enjoy stomping things
– Mario can change direction while he’s in the air
– Miyamoto used to be against putting in unusual movements, but realized hanging direction in the air would be a big plus and gradually came to allow it
– Miyamoto so happy about the new things we came up with that eh can barely stand it
– Staff made a room that looks like you’re peeking into it from above
– This was never done in a 3D Mario
– Tezuka had a very positive reaction to this level, decided it had to be an homage to Zelda
– Koizumi believes Mario 3D Land will be key in leading to the next Super Mario game (a new point of origin, or a crossroads)
– Super Mario 64 DS sold almost four times as much in America as in Japan
– Miyamoto feels that a lot of players in America are used to playing 3D Super Mario
– Miyamoto believes not everyone is used to 3D Mario yet
– Iwata hopes Mario 3D Land removes the borders in our brains between 2D and 3D Super Mario
