Super Mario Galaxy 2 Iwata Asks details
The following information comes from an Iwata Asks interview with Shigeru Miyamoto…
– Galaxy 2 (another 3D Mario) gave Miyamoto a similar feeling to Majora’s Mask (another 3D Zelda on the N64)
– Majora’s Mask was going use Ocarina of Time’s 3D framework
– Miyamoto said that it takes a year working on player movements for a new game
– Having spent the year on controls, Miyamoto/Iwata felt it would be wasteful to simply make a few stages and that’s all
– Iwata/Miyamoto noticed that they hadn’t fully taken advantage of the spheres, believed new tricks/gimmicks could make something more interesting, even if an original stage formation was used
– Galaxy 2 initially had same stage formations as the original
– Was called Galaxy 1.5 internally to keep the pressure lower, but the developers thought the game could become more interesting with new stages, which eventually grew to over 90% new levels
– Goal was to make the game in one year (like Majora’s Mask), but the time expanded to 2.5 years; not
having to use a year to refine player movements allowed the team to create new stages and tune
– Hint TVs allow things to be explained, but hardcore gamers can skip over them
– Miyamoto believes this game is more difficult than the first, he shots/slam his table when playing alone late at night (Iwata wants to see this)
– Iwata came up with the DVD for Japan/Europe
– Miyamoto hopes players try the Co-Star mode
– Miyamoto worked on text editing, first time since Mario 64; He enjoyed it, though he thinks it resulted in some trouble for other developers
Thanks to Thomas N and Robert for the tip!