http://www.joystiq.com/2007/05/12/joystiq-interviews-bungies-frank-oconnor/

 One final question: last week, Shigeru Miyamoto said in an interview with Geoff Keighley in Entertainment Weekly that he could make Halo.

Yeah, well. I just want to go on the record and say that Bungie is hard at work on a side-scrolling platform game featuring some plumbers -- I'm not going to say what their ethnicity is, it's none of anyone's business -- but we took that as a gauntlet, a sort of glove slap, and we're going to respond in 2D scrolling style. That's all I'm saying.

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 LOL. I would laugh so hard if they put something into Halo 3 that ripped on Mario. Do you guys and gals think anything will come of this or is this just a bluff?

I'd actually really like to see Bungie make a Miyamoto-styled game. Some of the best work is done when an artist in one medium attempts to work in another.

I don't doubt that they can do it. I just don't think it will be anywhere near as commerically successful as Halo 3. The xbox 360 is a FPS platform (or at least that is what it seems like to someone like me).

I think its likely a bluff. They could put something like that in H3 to get a laugh out of the hardcore, but I dont see them wasting time on it.

All in all Miyamoto made a stupid comment, then they went and matched him. GG?

Both should shut the hell up and get back to making my games so they hit their release dates k? The sh*t slinging is a little juvenile. 

I can't believe what a huge deal people are making out of this.

I'm not gonna lie, when I heard Miyamoto said he could've made Halo 3, I kind of cringed. I don't care how "generic" or "derivative" people think the Halo series is, it is a great game. Only one FPS has ever beat it in terms of sales, Goldeneye. And Goldeneye had James Bond familiarity backing it. Halo came out of nowhere and is now a known icon in video gaming. I think this guy (Frank) responded to it well. He didn't even bother saying he could make Mario.

It may have been out of place for Miyamoto to actually mention Halo...but I agree. People are blowing this way out of proportion. And he said Halo not Halo 3, but whatever, same thing. Halo didn't come out of nowhere, I've been playing games like Quake, Half Life, etc on the PC long before Halo came around...and personally I find Halo easy and a little too accessible for the mainstream. Part of the fun of a PC FPS is the learning curve required to master the game. In Halo, I have little 14 year olds shouting over the mic about how they pwned me, and I just get sick of the general Halo craze. And Miyamoto was not even saying any of that...he didn't mean to take a jab at Halo. He just meant he could make a typical Halo-style FPS, but that's not the kind of game he likes to make.

OH SNAP!@!!! this is getting wild!

Miyamoto definitely should have been more specific. ~_~

man oh man...plumber side scroller??? can nintendo sue ? lol