I loved this line:
I thought it was most likely that it was the programmer who was drawing these figures. But I thought: "I know how to draw!" I mean, I'm not saying I can draw as well as an artist, but I was confident that I was better at drawing than a programmer. That's why I started by saying: "Right, let's draw something that actually looks like a person's face!" So I drew the eyes, the nose, the mouth and…
Wasn't he an artist himself?
I did. I went as far as thinking that jumping is an original idea and that it should be patented!
I see Yamauchi wasted no time in rubbing off on him...
Yes, I believe that it did. But no matter how far people may drift away from games, their memories of playing Mario are still with them… At that time, Mario had advanced to 3D and we would discuss the fact that there were now two different strands to the Mario series: there was the Mario that had developed in step with consoles as they had become more advanced, and there was also the basic Mario that anyone could play. When I talked about this with Tezuka-san, he said: "Right, if we make another one, it should be a side-scrolling Mario."
I like how Miyamoto explicitly admits here that 2D and 3D Mario are two different beasts...and that the former is preferable to the masses.
That's why I wanted something to appear for players who didn't allow the hint block to pop up...For those players, there are medals awarded for not bringing up a hint block that are displayed on the title screen...With that feature, it now means that if you bring up a hint block even once, you'll want to wipe all your save data and start again from scratch.
o_O
Curse you elusive Star Coins!!!!!!!!!!!
Ever since Mario Bros., you've had your heart set on making a multiplayer Mario game. You've tried each time, but it's never quite come together… Even with Mario 6423, it started with Mario and Luigi running around together, didn't it?
Huh, never knew.
But once someone makes the assumption that always playing in a high state of nervous excitement is more fun, and they then come to discussing how the gameplay should be balanced, they'll always be trying to ramp up that excitement. But the ideal is actually to make the player feel this kind of nervous excitement in moderation while being able to enjoy playing. However, it is not very easy for us to be able to realize that all the time. So, I think replaying the levels is the correct way to enjoy an action game. That's something that I'm quite particular about.
Awesome interview. Thanks for posting it!