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[aorange999]

Why the fuck are the developers wearing suits?

If you were meeting the president of a multi-billion dollar company that you happened to be an employee of you would probably wear a suit too :lol

I love these interviews it's really interesting to see how the process goes. No matter what anyone says I LOVE Nintendo's policy of delays in order to make the best game possible. If they want to make something better they simply delay it instead of releasing marginal product.

 

[Miniboss1232]

If you were meeting the president of a multi-billion dollar company that you happened to be an employee of you would probably wear a suit too :lol

I love these interviews it's really interesting to see how the process goes. No matter what anyone says I LOVE Nintendo's policy of delays in order to make the best game possible. If they want to make something better they simply delay it instead of releasing marginal product.

Yeah, I always find it fascinating to see Nintendo's internal process. There are a lot of development processes that are just starting to pop up at a lot of studios that you come to find out Nintendo has been doing since the early days.

 

[Linkup]

Miyamoto's attachment to the classic Nintendo characters may just be a tad bit to strong.

 

[Herpes Reasons]

Miyamoto's attachment to the classic Nintendo characters may just be a tad bit to strong.

they are his babies. would you let your babies go?

 

[CrisKre]

In any other circumstances the critique of Miyamoto wanting Tokio to work on an exiting IP may be warranted. NOT when we are talking of probably the best game comming out this year. For all intends and purposes Mario Galaxy and Tokio was a perfect fit. Lets see something original for their next project.

 

[Amir0x]

well now that Galaxy is over hopefully Miyamoto won't be a fucking idiot and let them do something new

 

[Chris Remo]

they are his babies. would you let your babies go?

He did for Pikmin and that's one of Nintendo's most inventive and awesome games in the last several years. Sounds like a good plan to me.

That said Mario Galaxy is phenomenal and I can't wait for the full game.

 

[Crushed]

well now that Galaxy is over hopefully Miyamoto won't be a fucking idiot and let them do something new

What if they want to do a Paper Mario of Galaxy's standards.

 

[sprsk]

I think this is Nintendos most talented team, if they were to make a new IP, it would be big big news I think.

 

[pswii60]

What if they want to do a Paper Mario of Galaxy's standards.

No more Paper Mario please.

In fact, fuck Mario. This game will be so damned full of awesome and win, but they need to give him a real good long rest then.

Nintendo, new IPs please. As in new game IPs.

I think this is Nintendos most talented team, if they were to make a new IP, it would be big big news I think.

Holy hell yes. New IP, new characters.

 

[jj984jj]

I think this is Nintendos most talented team, if they were to make a new IP, it would be big big news I think.

Yeah, EAD Tokyo seems to be their strongest team right now.

 

[Amir0x]

What if they want to do a Paper Mario of Galaxy's standards.

yeah that'd be fine, but i really think they should do a new IP.

I want Pikmin 3, of course, but I want this team to be able to make something complete fresh for the Wii geared toward the hardcore. This would be awesome.

 

[Xisiqomelir]

I would like to see Shimizu playing the last bit of Portal's 18th level.

And I'd like to see a true sequel to Star Fox 64 out of him, but I think we should both stop fantasizing.

 

[dude]

These interviews are great, even though the translation always feels a bit funny, sort of like the Sakurai-speak from the Dojo updates.

...did Amir0x just call Miyamoto a fucking idiot?

 

[Amir0x]

Unwarranted idol worship aside, that was a really, really dumb thing for Miyamoto to do. I mean I love Mario, and I want to see these platformers come, but don't discourage such a quality team from doing something legitimately new - particularly when you're introducing this system that's supposed be a harvest for such new ideas.

I think "fucking idiotic" is a good way to describe it, but you can choose a less aggressive phrase.

 

[sprsk]

Fucking idiotic would be having these guys make the next Diddy Kong racing. They developed the biggest and most important property Nintendo has. Not so idiotic in my opinion.

 

[schuelma]

Fucking idiotic would be having these guys make the next Diddy Kong racing. They developed the biggest and most important property Nintendo has. Not so idiotic in my opinion.

Yeah, I mean its a tough choice. If this is your best team, do you let them do something new, or do you put them in charge of your biggest property. I see Amirox's point..but someone has to make Mario..shouldn't it be Nintendo's best?

 

[Amir0x]

the problem is everyone everywhere is making shit with Mario, so it's not like Nintendo is particularly picky.

They whore Mario up like he's a dime whore from Thailand or something. But i mean, yes they had to make a real platformer for Mario... a successor to Sunshine and 64... and I'm happy it's coming, and this is obviously the team to make it best. But this discouragement of doing new things, as opposed to something with "Nintendo characters", is just dumb. I can't find another way to describe it.

Maybe now that the Wii is the obvious success, they won't feel the need to lean on Mario like the crutch they currently use him as.

 

[Crushed]

Fucking idiotic would be having these guys make the next Diddy Kong racing. They developed the biggest and most important property Nintendo has. Not so idiotic in my opinion.

Diddy Kong Racing was the best kart racer ever.

Holy shit, they SHOULD make the next DKR.

 

[Grecco]

I think "fucking idiotic" is a good way to describe it, but you can choose a less aggressive phrase.

Somebody had to do the next Mario Plataformer. If not them who?

 

[dude]

Unwarranted idol worship aside, that was a really, really dumb thing for Miyamoto to do. I mean I love Mario, and I want to see these platformers come, but don't discourage such a quality team from doing something legitimately new - particularly when you're introducing this system that's supposed be a harvest for such new ideas.

I think "fucking idiotic" is a good way to describe it, but you can choose a less aggressive phrase.

I know what you mean, I was joking, I'd love a new IP from those guys. But I don't think it was "idiotic", there are advantages to established characters and names (Not just financial ones, but themes can be used to various effect, from puzzles to jokes). I think Miyamoto also looked at it logically - What better team was there to create the new Mario game?
Miyamoto is not stupid, he also looks at things from a financial stand point (I'm sure Miyamoto, with his current high position in Nintendo, worries about this) - Mario sells, and Mario is also his baby, and he wanted the new one to be the perfect game and he knew this team was the team to do it.

We're getting an awesome game either way, so complaining is kind of like saying the gold watch is not as good as the gold ring.

 

[_Alkaline_]

Holy shit they spent a long time on that one food metaphor. :lol

I don't see why some people are complaining about what Miyamoto said. He realised that Sunshine was a disappointment, and knew that the Tokyo team were the best chance of revitalising 3D Mario and making it truly special again.

Looking at Galaxy, I have no problems with his decision.

 

[ShockingAlberto]

If Miyamoto didn't put Nintendo's best team on the game, people would be bitching just as hard, if not harder.

 

[Amir0x]

We're getting an awesome game either way, so complaining is kind of like saying the gold watch is not as good as the gold ring.

I would prefer a game of Galaxy calibre that is a new IP, but yes you're right in a way. It's not that the end result though is a bad thing in this specific case, it's the sort of philosophy it implies.

 

[Oliver.S]

the problem is everyone everywhere is making shit with Mario, so it's not like Nintendo is particularly picky.

They whore Mario up like he's a dime whore from Thailand or something. But i mean, yes they had to make a real platformer for Mario... a successor to Sunshine and 64... and I'm happy it's coming, and this is obviously the team to make it best. But this discouragement of doing new things, as opposed to something with "Nintendo characters", is just dumb. I can't find another way to describe it.

Maybe now that the Wii is the obvious success, they won't feel the need to lean on Mario like the crutch they currently use him as.

A part of the old Mario team made the new mario. See nothing wrong here.

 

[Lobster]

That interview doesn't make Miyamato look so good.

"Shows that his suggestion his better"

I would've spazzed at Miyamato by day 2.

 

[TheGreatDave]

I imagine it'd be near impossible to have a disagreement with Miyamoto about game design without eventually convincing yourself you must be in the wrong.

 

[Tristam]

I would prefer a game of Galaxy calibre that is a new IP, but yes you're right in a way. It's not that the end result though is a bad thing in this specific case, it's the sort of philosophy it implies.

Well it'll be interesting to see what they work on from here. If the team is as large or larger than 50 people (the maximum number who worked on Galaxy, I believe), they could easily be split up into two teams to work on two titles (Galaxy started with only 30, after all) to work on whatever small-scale, creative games they were prepared to work on after DK:JB in the first place.

 

[dude]

I would prefer a game of Galaxy calibre that is a new IP, but yes you're right in a way. It's not that the end result though is a bad thing in this specific case, it's the sort of philosophy it implies.

It's the philosophy Nintendo always operated by, Nintendo always relied on their established IPs. Sure, we got new things like Pikmin, but overall they take risks within the boundaries of their known and loved formulas.
It's also sort of comforting to see the old "Super Mario" title, from the moment you see those words you know the game is gonna be great. New IPs are great and I welcome them, but sometimes games can be made even better with the help of 20 years of history and the character that is gaming. Nintendo does what it does best, and that just fine with me as long as we'll get the awesome.

 

[Gahiggidy]

Koizumi:Correct. I look at this as if I had borrowed a vegetable garden from Miyamoto-san. It was as if I had asked him, "Please let me borrow your ‘secret garden’. I promise I will produce great things from it", and then started sowing the seeds with my staff members. Once we’d cooked the dish with the harvested crops, we decided to have Miyamoto-san be the first one to taste it. He is the owner of the garden, after all.

Wow, that reads a little like they're part of a cult. And Mr. Miyamoto is their leader. :\

 

[Crushed]

Wow, that reads a little like they're part of a cult. And Mr. Miyamoto is their leader. :\

Miyamoto is their gardener.

He will sow his seed in them.

 

[Phife Dawg]

I love this series, always a good read.

Good. They aren't THAT out of touch as it seems.

The sad irony is that 20 years ago, Nintendo were masters of this sort of balance between challenge, accessibility, difficulty, and intensity. They REALLY lost that craft in the last decade, to a severe fault. Hope they find it again...particularly for Zelda.

Mario games were never hard to finish. The real fun was to be had in the bonus stuff which wasn't neccesary to beat. SMW handed out 1up mushrooms like mad as well, still the star world (the one you could access via the star road, dunno if it was called star world) was hard and some of the alternative exits were hard to get to as well.

I think SMG will be the same, easy to finish but with hard parts for bonus stuff/extra stars.

Somebody had to do the next Mario Plataformer. If not them who?

Obviously Paon.

 

[Polari]

That interview doesn't make Miyamato look so good.

"Shows that his suggestion his better"

I would've spazzed at Miyamato by day 2.

Hey it's not as bad as that Retro piece from a few years back which likened him to Darth Vader inspecting the Death Star, if I recall correctly.

 

[EternalDarko]

After Galaxy comes out, I don't expect to see another Mario platformer for a long time. I wonder if Nintendo can even try to top this one; they must be wondering the same thing. It'll be a near impossible task.
Hopefully this means more new IP's though.

 

[DDayton]

Unwarranted idol worship aside, that was a really, really dumb thing for Miyamoto to do. I mean I love Mario, and I want to see these platformers come, but don't discourage such a quality team from doing something legitimately new - particularly when you're introducing this system that's supposed be a harvest for such new ideas.

You know, I have a thought here... this team did DK Jungle Beat (great game, poor sales on a dying system). Miyamoto knows they're good and puts them on the second most important Wii title (after SSBB) -- Mario. I don't think this is a matter of "NO NEW STUFF" but rather "WE NEED THIS NOW, AND ONLY YOU CAN DO IT BEST"... I'd rather expect their next title to be that original game they wanted to do.

 

[Xrenity]

Awesome.
Miyamoto really is involved a lot, and it's exactly what he's good in.

It sounds like Galaxy wouldn't have been that great without him.

 

[NotWii]

I would love to see Tokyo EAD do the next StarFox game since we didn't get one for the GameCube.

 

[Peru]

You know, I have a thought here... this team did DK Jungle Beat (great game, poor sales on a dying system). Miyamoto knows they're good and puts them on the second most important Wii title (after SSBB) -- Mario. I don't think this is a matter of "NO NEW STUFF" but rather "WE NEED THIS NOW, AND ONLY YOU CAN DO IT BEST"... I'd rather expect their next title to be that original game they wanted to do.

Yeah... Resources were going to be put into a new Mario main platformer (admittedly my favorite Nintendo series), it was a question of which studio. It's not like Miyamoto 'put the hurt' on the studio and denied them making anything new, rather that they didn't imagine making the next big Mario game and Miyamoto revealed he was going to ask them. What IS bad is if they'll only be put on franchises after Galaxy, but I don't think that's realistic. They had made smaller games before, showed great talent and were assigned to the most important (and potentially greatest) game - possibly making the best platformer of all time - I think we oughta thank all heavens that the Mario platformer series has been taken in a great direction. Now that this is done EAD Tokyo should make a new IP, to that I agree wholeheartidly.

 

[BishopLamont]

I'd hate to be the ones trying to develop the next Mario. Such a daunting task.

 

[vanguardian1]

I'd hate to be the ones trying to develop the next Mario. Such a daunting task.

I got some ideas to take a shot at it.

 

[thefro]

http://us.wii.com/iwata_asks_vol2_index.jsp

Part 2 is up!

 

[Illuminati]

The womenseses like bee Mario!

 

[argon]

From our initial point of view, Mario games are about collecting lots of coins. In the early stages of development, we actually placed lots of coins all over the map. But then Miyamoto-san told us it was pointless to have all these coins just lying around... So we changed the coins to be recovery items, limited the amount that appear in-game, and made it so that the only thing you would be collecting in the game was Star Bits. When we did that, the game balance tightened up quite a bit. It was when I saw how he worked that I realized how great Miyamoto-san was.

Interesting...

 

[sprsk]

Unwarranted idol worship aside, that was a really, really dumb thing for Miyamoto to do. I mean I love Mario, and I want to see these platformers come, but don't discourage such a quality team from doing something legitimately new - particularly when you're introducing this system that's supposed be a harvest for such new ideas.

I think "fucking idiotic" is a good way to describe it, but you can choose a less aggressive phrase.

Teehee.

 

[jj984jj]

Vol. 4 went up on the JP website as well:
http://wii.com/jp/articles/mario-galaxy/crv/vol4/index.html

This time Iwata speaks to Miyamoto.

 

[BlackTyrano]

Iwata:
I think that was a good change in direction! (laughs) The Spring Mario is nice too, in a strange way.

Shimizu:
That's the curse in its living form!

All:
(laughs)

Motokura:
I was asked by Koizumi-san, the director, to make a Mario that wouldn't stop jumping.

Iwata:
So here too, it's function before form.

Motokura:
We thought about all sorts of ways he would jump until we settled on the current design.

Shimizu:
It was really fun playing a regular course as Spring Mario. I think a part of that was because Spring Mario doesn’t move around the way you want him to.

Iwata:
I understand that feeling well. It’s similar to how in Kirby you can choose to clear a level using an ability that's not suited for that area.

I like that part. It seems like Nintendo understands that fun in controls doesn't necessarily come from their intuitiveness.

 

[ant1532]

I have a feeling their next game is going to be small non games according to the first volume...

 

[DEO3]

Has he just done this and the Zelda one, or are there others I've missed?

 

[speedpop]

So weird to have these Iwata Asks conversations. 5 years ago the only thing you'd hear from a Nintendo President was "If the DS succeeds, Nintendo will rise to heaven."

Has he just done this and the Zelda one, or are there others I've missed?

http://wii.nintendo.com/iwataasks.jsp

 

[zsidane]

Has he just done this and the Zelda one, or are there others I've missed?

He did a Wii one.