June 26, 2024|

Filed under: Announcement, Featured, Industry People, Shigeru Miyamoto, Translation

“Shigeru Miyamoto’s Mario-like Spirit” – 1993 Long Interview Translation

This is a translation of an interview from the 1993 Super Mario All-Star Guide Book by Ape Inc (スーパーマリオコレクション―任天堂公式ガイドブック). The interview takes place after the release of Super Mario Bros. 3, but before the release of Super Mario World and the SNES. As such, when asked about the future of Mario, Miyamoto’s answers are often abstract and vague. It’s clear that there are many things he can’t say for sure just yet. Enjoy it!

Note: Do not repost the full translation. Please use the first two paragraphs, link to this translation, and credit Source Gaming and translator Brando. This translation is for fan use only, and may not accurately reflect the opinions of Shigeru Miyamoto.

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The Theme of “Discovery”

——To start off, I’d like to ask a basic question. What would you say a video game is? How would you define it?

Miyamoto: If you just say “video game”, right now I’d have to say the Nintendo Entertainment System. The NES sits between a person and the TV, and its internal processor does a bunch of stuff, and the player gets enjoyment from that. Simply put, if someone can have fun with it on the NES, that’s a game.

——Among those games, Mario is particularly fun.

Miyamoto: When creating Mario games, one of the goals we keep in mind is the process of strategizing. At the arcade, when you want to put another coin in and [adjust your plan and] try one more time, that’s the feeling we’re going for. In essence, you could say we’re creating opportunities for that strategic process.

——There are other types of fun hidden in Mario as well, right?

Miyamoto: Well yes, that’s true (Laughs). We’ve been creating Mario games using “strategy” as the basic foundation, but along the way we’ve realized that “discovery” is even more fun. It’s more interesting to think about what the player will discover. So the goal isn’t just challenging the player to come up with a plan of attack, now we also want to create something that’s fun just to pick up and play with.

——The joy of discovery is hidden in there too.

Miyamoto: Yes, we try to pack in as many chances for player discovery as possible. That doesn’t apply just to Mario, it’s a theme for all of our games. Mario Paint goes extremely far with this. My team didn’t create it, but that game is nothing but discoveries. We want to keep pushing this idea further, and develop titles that are brimming with things to discover.

——Haven’t the Mario games always had things to find and uncover?

Miyamoto: Looking back, Super Mario Bros. 3 is packed with the most. That shows just how much development time the game had, and how many people came together to share ideas. Having enough staff and resources is pretty important, since we can create something that would be impossible for a single person to make.

Could Mario Surpass Mickey!?

——I wonder if there’s a formula for “Mario-ness”, or a way to “Mario-ize” a game.

Miyamoto: People have told me things like “Mario has caught up with Mickey Mouse”, or “Mario is the Mickey Mouse of the digital era” (Laughs), but that might be an irresponsible way of putting it. Mickey Mouse has been around for 50 years, and Mario only 10. Mario will never close that 40-year gap. But what I do think about is whether Mario will still be around 50 years from now… That’s the challenge, for me. And even if Mario the character disappears from the screen, will there still be something “Mario-like” that exists?

——Even if that charming mustached man doesn’t take to the screen anymore, will we still be able to feel the essence of Mario, you mean?

Miyamoto: If somebody just wants to buy a Mario game, and then they start playing and the character Mario doesn’t appear, they’d probably say, “Hey, this isn’t Mario!” But maybe, possibly, even if Mario isn’t pictured once during the course of some adventure game, if the player feels like they’re Mario I think that’d be incredible. It’s like how you can draw 3 circles in a way that people will “see” Mickey Mouse, that level [of association] is really amazing.

——So characters are like that of course, but you’re saying that the way a game plays, its ideas and the way the space feels, if all of that is “Mario-ish” then people might think of it as Mario?

Miyamoto: If you put it that way, the upcoming Zelda title for Game Boy will be “Mario-ish” too**.

**Translator’s Note: Referring to The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening (1993).

Bringing Sound Into Gameplay?

——Where is Mario headed next from here?

Miyamoto: That depends on whether the next game is fun or not (Laughs). We’re working on a new title for the Super Nintendo which should come out next year, but as for the needed development time… I guess the staff will all just have to do our best (Laughs).

——Mario games always include new ideas, like growing a tail, or donning a cape.

Miyamoto: I think those kinds of developments are necessary to keep the fun going when playing with the NES. Though, we’re also trying to dig deeper and really consider what kinds of things are fun, and expand the boundaries of that enjoyment a little bit more.

——The joy of discovery and the joy of improving your own techniques go hand in hand, which leads to the satisfaction of playing all the way through and beating the game. That’s what everyone is probably expecting from the next Mario, but I imagine there must be other new elements waiting in store.

Miyamoto: For one thing, it will be using new technology. If we make technological progress but don’t have any new plans to use it, then it’s hard for us to really move forward. I guess we have something of a craftsman’s mindset, in that way.

——So there’s going to be some technological innovations?

Miyamoto: At this stage, it’s tough for me to say much (Laughs), since even if development finishes, if it doesn’t turn out well we’ll delay the launch.

Anyway, please look forward to it (Laughs).

——Is there anything special you’re thinking of, aside from stuff like controls? For example, what about the music?

Miyamoto: Well we have been saying it’d be good to have melodies that will stick in your head. We’d like to make it so that just by hearing the sounds, you’ll see the game screen in your mind.

——What sort of musical performance do you have in mind for the next generation Mario?

Miyamoto: I don’t really dictate how the melody should go. I don’t give detailed directions. But I do think about making sound an “element” of the game, like if we can make some funny or interesting moment happen through sound. Like the old example of speeding up the music when time is running out, I want new ideas like that, things which we can do because it’s a new game. Though, I just spit out abstract thoughts like that — I don’t actually provide the ideas, so I have it easy (Laughs).

——You mean like moving the game screen to match with the music?

Miyamoto: Right, that sort of thing should be possible. For example, we could make the music cheerful when Mario is facing right, but gloomy when he’s facing left. Lots of ideas like that all packed in together, that’s what makes it Mario.

——You could use major chords when the player is in an advantageous position and use minor chords or slow the tempo down when they’re at a disadvantage, things like that?

Miyamoto: Stereo audio has also become common these days, so I think these new kinds of sonic ideas are possible.

——If you prioritize those ideas, you can’t just rely on some famous composer to do everything, can you?

Miyamoto: Certainly we’d like to have help from some famous composer, but a different skillset is required when it comes to making music for games.

Though, the thing that makes us happy is — there are people around the world right now working very hard on various creations, most of which won’t get any attention despite being well made. But if that creation is a game, definitely someone somewhere will take a look. If we make it, it will definitely be noticed. I think we’re really blessed to be in this environment.

——I’m sure there are many hardships involved in the process of creating anything, not just music. But on the other hand, aren’t you happy to be able to freely make whatever you want?

Miyamoto: Yes, making things is just so much fun. I want to pass that enjoyment on to the players too. Even if we are using the latest technology, I want to be nonchalant about it, since it’d be boring if the game just becomes a technical showcase.

A Fairy-tale Character

——Can you tell us about where things are heading from here?

Miyamoto: Currently, Nintendo is developing software to make use of polygon graphics (the FX chip), but [in development] there’s conventional ways to do things, and then there’s more strange paths (Laughs). I think that surprisingly, the final answer will be in the strange paths**.

**TN: He’s speaking in very abstract terms here, hard to tell if he’s talking about the future of development at Nintendo, or video games as a whole, or what.

——Strange paths?

Miyamoto: Yep, that’s the only way I can say it (Laughs). I’ve been quietly thinking to myself that will be the way things go in the end…

But to me, Mario feels more like a comic strip, or a stage play. With polygons, the way the camera moves and stuff like that, I feel like some of those aspects don’t fit well with Mario.

——But this is Nintendo, so they’re probably putting a lot of thought and effort into what to develop next using these polygon chips, no?

Miyamoto: True. Though I think Mario’s path is different from that of polygon graphics. That’s why I keep saying we should use polygons to make something totally new possible, something different from Mario or Zelda. In the end Mario is Mario, and polygons are going in a different direction. Even if used for a Mario game, I’d want to put in a more beautiful, fairy tale-like character**, and cram in as many ideas as possible.

**TN: The original Japanese is メルヘンチック, and also refers to a fashion aesthetic (do an image search for メルヘン), so maybe this actually sort of eventually happened with Princess Peach’s polygon model in Super Mario 64? I could be totally wrong though.

——Sounds like things are going to keep getting interesting.

Miyamoto: We’ll keep putting in fun ideas, so we’ll probably keep discovering new possibilities. Thanks for today, I think I said too much (Laughs).

——I can really feel your high hopes for the future of Mario. Thank you very much for your time.