Shigeru Miyamoto

Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 4 Comments

Shigeru Miyamoto is celebrating his birthday today. Well, that was technically yesterday at this point since it’s now November 17th in Japan. But in any case… happy birthday, Miyamoto! He’s now 63 years old.

It goes without saying that Miyamoto has had a monumental aspect on Nintendo and gaming as a whole. He’s created some of the most legendary franchises, including Mario, The Legend of Zelda, Donkey Kong, Pikmin, and plenty more. Although his role at Nintendo has slightly changed, he’s still very involved with a number of games, and we can’t wait to see what he does next at the company.

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Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 102 Comments

Nintendo will be “far more aggressive” with its various IPs, according to legendary game designer Shigeru Miyamoto.

Miyamoto shared those words during the company’s financial results briefing today. Seemingly in response to the topic of NX – Nintendo’s next system – Miyamoto said:

“We are going to be far more aggressive in using our IP, and not just stop with licensing, as in the past. The first example is Amiibo. We want our IP to better reach more children, and smart devices is just one vehicle.”

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Posted on 9 years ago by Matt(@OnePunchMaz) in Videos, Wii U | 0 comments

At Japan Expo in Paris this Summer, both Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka were present at a panel / stage show and talked a bit about their creations during their time at Nintendo. Mario was an especially big topic, given the series 30th anniversary this year. The video below is a small excerpt from the show. Among other things, Tezuka and Miyamoto talk about level design in Super Mario Maker and give tips on how to build a great level.

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Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 39 Comments

Last month’s issue of GamesTM has a lengthy interview with Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka. As you would expect, the discussion is largely focused on the Super Mario Bros. series.

A few interesting comments came about when Miyamoto and Tezuka were asked if they ever made any choices that they were concerned about being controversial. Miyamoto started things off, and spoke about how it’s difficult catering to both advanced players and beginners.

He said:

“For me one of the things was maybe the gap between the really advanced players and the first-time players. The difficulty balance is always something that I hear frustrations about from the public, whichever way we decide to go. We always have the testing team test our game, but whatever they say is really fun, the first-time players might consider to be very difficult. One of the things I do sometimes at the later phases of development is go in and hear the testing team’s requests and actually pull that away and lower the barrier or change what it is they want. Sometimes I even hear from the testing team, ‘You’re destroying the fun’, but on the other hand, the flipside is you hear the first-time players saying ‘If I can’t clear a level it’s not fun for me. If I can’t complete a game it’s not fun for me’. The more years that have passed, the gap between advanced and first-time players has become wider.”

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Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 1 Comment

This month’s issue of GamesTM has an interview with Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka. The two developers talked about all things Mario, including the evolution of the character’s design.

Tezuka shared the following when asked about Mario’s appearance and how Nintendo has resisted the urge to modernize him:

“I do think it’s changed a bit… For example, in Mario 3 we made him a little cuter. And perhaps with the Tanooki tail and the cape we definitely added items and features so that there’s more variety in Mario’s actions.”

Miyamoto shared a few words on the subject of evolving Mario as well. He also stated that Nintendo keeps Mario close to the vest, and doesn’t allow other teams to develop the core titles since the company wants to be control of the character and his abilities.

“In terms of the 3D Mario performance, it has evolved, but we have always been consistent in trying to be cautious in terms of when you do a B-dash, how far he can jump or how many blocks he can break. We have made it a little bit simpler for players as it’s evolved, because there are more complicated things that we’re asking the players to do. In the original Mario when you’re stopped he can’t do B-dash, but you can do it now with more recent games. So we have made it a little bit simpler and tweaked it throughout the years. In terms of Mario games we definitely don’t have other teams develop it, because we do want to control it and manage those features.”

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Posted on 9 years ago by Dennis Gagliardotto(@LyonHart_) in News, Wii U | 185 Comments

Nintendo just released a statement revealing that the brand new Star Fox game that’s being jointly developed with Platinum Games has been postponed until 2016.

Shigeru Miyamoto has left the following message regarding the delay below, which was posted on Facebook:

A Message from Mr. Miyamoto Regarding Star Fox Zero

I made a big decision last week.

We have been developing Star Fox Zero for Wii U with the aim of releasing it this year. Although we felt that the development had been progressing well, we now believe that we will need a little more time to work on areas such as the unprecedented discovery that we want players to experience in the game by using two screens, and further polishing the level designs and perfecting the tone of the cut scenes. While we have already reached the stage where it would be technically possible to release the title in time for the year-end holiday season, we want to polish the game a bit more so that players will be able to more smoothly grasp the new style of play that we are proposing.

To the people looking forward to the launch of the game this holiday season, I am very sorry.

Star Fox Zero is going to bring new game play and experiences that take it far beyond the framework established by Star Fox 64. All the members of the development team are doing our best so that the final product will not betray your expectations. And the game will not be delayed for a very long time – we’re aiming to launch the game in Q1 2016. Please stay tuned for further announcements.

It’s unfortunate to see this happen, as many of us have been excited to see the return of Star Fox. The game looks fantastic, but I suppose as Miyamoto himself has said in the past “A delayed game is eventually good, a rushed game is forever bad”. At least this will give us something to look forward to in the new year!

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Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 38 Comments

Nintendo’s famous plumber simply goes by the name Mario. But did you know that he has a last name as well?

During Japan’s 30th anniversary Super Mario Bros. event this past weekend, Shigeru Miyamoto apparently stated that Mario’s full name is “Mario Mario”. As for Luigi, he’s “Luigi Mario”. It’s sort of like someone named Yamada Yamada having a brother named Itou Yamada.

This news is actually somewhat surprising despite what was shown in the 1993 Super Mario Bros. movie. Here’s what Miyamoto told Game Informer about Mario and Luigi’s names back in 2012:

“This is an old story, but Hollywood did a film version of the Mario Bros. many years back. There was a scene in the script where they needed a last name for the characters. Somebody suggested that, because they were the Mario Bros., their last name should be Mario. So, they made him “Mario Mario.” I heard this and laughed rather loudly. Of course, this was ultimately included in the film. Based on the film, that’s [how] their names ended up. But, just like Mickey Mouse doesn’t really have a last name, Mario is really just Mario and Luigi is really just Luigi.”

There’s definitely been some debate as to whether or not Mario has a last name since there have been contradictory comments floating around over the years. I suppose this is what we have to go by now!

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Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Videos, Wii U | 1 Comment

Shigeru Miyamoto has given us yet another look at Super Mario Maker’s artbook (which is hardcover in Europe for those who are unaware). Check out the video below.

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Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, Videos | 5 Comments

In honor of the 30th anniversary of Super Mario Bros., Nintendo of America added a “special interview” video to its YouTube channel today. Along with some talk about making the original Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario Maker, the opening and closing portions also show a young Shigeru Miyamoto! You can watch the full video below.

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Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 21 Comments

Nintendo has previously spoken about how a part of Super Mario Maker’s origins stemmed from wanting to create a new Mario Paint. This was a desire held by longtime developer Takashi Tezuka.

During the 30th anniversary Mario concert in Japan today, Tezuka reiterated that he wanted to create a Mario Paint title for Wii U. However, Shigeru Miyamoto pushed Tezuka to make “something grander”. That ultimately led to the creation of Super Mario Maker.

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