WiiNintendo

Wired News: I was just playing Super Mario Galaxy, and I was really interested in the two-player mode. Could I hear about why that came about?

Shigeru Miyamoto: One of the driving forces behind it was that we felt that since Mario 64, a lot of people have had a hard time playing the Mario games because of the move to 3D. So this time, we really wanted to create a Mario game that everybody can play — but we still wanted to do something in 3D. So that was really the genesis of the idea.

The other thing is, with the Mario games, if you’re playing and there are people sitting next to you, they’re always saying, “Oh, go over here, go look at that thing.” And so we thought that with the Wii remote and the pointer we would be able to make it more interactive for the people sitting on the couch next to you, who could guide you along the way pointing at different objects.

WN: It’s really interesting because at last year’s E3, New Super Mario Bros. had only just come out and we didn’t know it would be one of the best-selling games on DS. Did that success end up delaying the development of Super Mario Galaxy when you realized that a lot of people were going to be looking to this game?

SM: No, not at all. We’ve kind of had this idea for a long time, that we wanted to, from the very beginning, have it be something that everyone can play. And the core idea, actually, in terms of the gravity and running around on different spheres, were things that we were experimenting with back when we were working on Mario 128, and the 100 Marios demo, immediately after Mario 64. A lot of it was ideas that we’ve had for a long time. The main advantage of playing on globes or spheres rather than a big open 3D space is that the camera becomes less of an issue, to always see what you’re doing. It’s much easier for people who have a hard time with 3D space to navigate.

WN: What else is going on? What else is new and exciting right now in the life of Miyamoto?

SM: Other than this, I’m working very hard trying to finalize Wii Fit.

WN: And that’s actually coming out this year in Japan, right?

SM: Yes. We’ve already started manufacturing the Balance Boards.

WN: What drove you to get into this? Wii Sports is still very much a video game, but Wii Fit is taking things in a different direction.

SM: It really goes back to our core concepts for when we were first designing the Wii. Originally, the plan was that Wii would be a device that would be placed in the living room, and as such we wanted everyone in the house to be able to use it. And the concept really ties in to Wii Channels: we wanted the Wii to become an additional set of channels for everyone in the family to use, and the only difference is that these channels, which happen to be on your TV, are interactive channels. And as long as those channels are a fun entertainment experience, then everyone in your family can sit down and take advantage of those. So the idea is that the Wii would be a device that you would not necessarily have to sit and play for hours on end, but that you could play for just a little bit of time every day.

And that’s kind of in line with the ideas behind Wii Fit, and Wii Fit fits very naturally into that concept. So whether it’s kind of strange, too, because it’s something you could play for just three minutes every day or go in for a workout and do one hour every day. So in that sense it’s really more about the interesting ways in which we’re using this vieo game system to try to provide new experiences that everyone can enjoy.

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