miyamoto

December 22, 2016

Five Link To The Past Facts From A Newly Translated Interview

Peter Paltridge consoles, Legend of Zelda, miyamoto, nintendo, Nintendo, Shigeru Miyamoto, snes, zelda 0

Back in 1992, Shigeru Miyamoto was interviewed by Famicom Tsuushin upon the release of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. Now a full translation of that revealing interview is online thanks to the efforts of Shmuplations.com. Here are the five most interesting quotes pulled from out of time…. In Japan, the Super NES Zelda had no subtitle (yet) but they were thinking of one “We had been thinking about making a new title eventually… there were a number of alternate suggestions, like “Ganon’s Revenge.” But since this was for the SFC, of course, we decided on “Super Famicom Legend of Zelda” (laughs).” One of the biggest questions during development was if players should be able to pull on things with a button or with the crosspad “If you only had to press A, players themselves wouldn’t understand whether they were intended to pick something up or throw themselves against it. I think they’d be unsatisfied if they’d solved a puzzle by accident when they hit A, intending

October 14, 2016

Five Things You Never Knew About Donkey Kong

Peter Paltridge donkey kong, miyamoto, Nintendo, nintendo, Shigeru Miyamoto, video games 0

We know how clickbaity that title is, and how usually such headlines almost never measure up to their content. But this time, we’re pretty sure there are at least five new facts about the original Donkey Kong game you don’t know…because Miyamoto just revealed them to Wired Magazine in an article that was published today. The “stupid monkey” dictionary story is true It’s been dismissed by some as an urban legend, but Miyamoto just confirmed himself that he named the ape “Donkey” because his Japanese-to-English dictionary said it was a synonym for “stupid.” However, he WAS told the dictionary was inaccurate prior to finishing the game….but he kept the name as-is because he liked it. Miyamoto got his best ideas in the bathtub “At that time, our office was in Tobakaido, which also housed the hanafuda factory.” In 1981 Nintendo still made its original product, hanafuda cards. “There was a water boiler that was used to make the hanafuda, and the water from this boiler was also used for a

September 13, 2015

Super Mario 3 Was Just A Play, And Other Newly Revealed Facts

Peter Paltridge mario, miyamoto, Nintendo, nintendo, Shigeru Miyamoto, Super Mario Bros 3, super mario maker, Wii U, Wii U 0

In honor of the 30th anniversary of Super Mario Bros (which happens to be today), as well as the release of Super Mario Maker, the UK arm of Nintendo has released a new video starring Mario’s creator, Shigeru Miyamoto. In the short video, about a minute or so in length, Miyamoto addresses some rumors that have been floating around for some time regarding his plumber and the series he represents. Perhaps the largest revelation from this video is the confirmation that the events of Super Mario 3 were, in fact, part of a stage play. This was suggested by the title screen, which took place on a stage, as well as the 2-D shadows cast by certain props like bushes. Knowing this raises far more questions than having it vague. For example, why is this play happening in the first place? How did they get Bowser to agree to work with Mario? On those nights when Mario finds the Warp Whistle, are the paying Toads gypped out of a substantial

June 30, 2015

Miyamoto Blames Failure Of Wii U On Tablets

Peter Paltridge miyamoto, Nintendo, nintendo, Shigeru Miyamoto, Wii U 0

Few would say the Wii U itself is a bad console, but it’s the slowest-selling of any Nintendo machine in history (if we’re not counting the Virtual Boy). In a recent interview with Fortune magazine, the legendary game designer and Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto stated that he’s aware part of the failure is on the company for failing to communicate the “true value” of the Wii U to consumers. If you recall, due to the name and some too-vague advertising, a sizable chunk of the general public thought the new console was an add-on to the original Wii. “I feel like people never really understood the concept behind Wii U and what we were trying to do,” Miyamoto told Fortune. “I think the assumption is we were trying to create a game machine and a tablet and really what we were trying to do was create a game system that gave you tablet-like functionality for controlling that system and give you two screens that would allow different people in the

June 29, 2015

Nintendo Pitched The NX To Third Parties During E3

Peter Paltridge e3, miyamoto, Nintendo, nintendo, nintendo nx, nx, Shigeru Miyamoto 0

Still bummed out that Nintendo never spoke a word about their mysterious next-gen console, codenamed the NX, at E3 2015? If you are, someone really should’ve told you beforehand that they specifically said they wouldn’t be talking about it. In a way, though, they did break that promise. Somebody at E3 got to hear all about the NX, but it was head honchos from the leading third-party companies. According to Fortune magazine, in an article that was not posted online but was reported by Nintendo Life, most of the reactions to Nintendo’s NX pitch were “positive.” Fortune also interviewed Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto and Nintendo’s development manager Shinya Takahashi. Miyamoto said he would not be quite as involved in the development of this console as he normally is, deciding to focus on games: I’ve pulled myself back out of some of the hardware section and I’m really focused on some of the software that I’m involved in — for example, the new Star Fox game. Of course I am observing

March 18, 2015

TIME Interviews Shigeru Miyamoto

Peter Paltridge miyamoto, Nintendo, nintendo, Shigeru Miyamoto, Splatoon 0

TIME Magazine recently sat down with legendary game designer Shigeru Miyamoto (Mario, Zelda, every single thing anybody knows about game mechanics), and got seven new short stories out of him. In print order, here are the summaries: Splatoon might have been a Mario game Early in development, Nintendo’s upcoming ink battle game intrigued Shiggy, but its placeholder mascot did not. “The thing which concerned us most was the main character. It looked as if it could be found in any game and lacked uniqueness. So, I told the game’s producer and the director to even consider using Mario if we could not find the right character.” A few weeks later the team came up with the squid people, which Miyamoto liked and approved. He looks for inspiration in more places than just games “I like to watch theatrical performances and go to theme parks—things which are appealing to a wide range of people—and observe as a game creator. Of course, there are the dramas and movies that I am personally

February 18, 2015

Five New Facts About Majora’s Mask

Peter Paltridge aonuma, iwata, iwata asks, Majora's Mask, majora's mask 3d, miyamoto, Nintendo, nintendo 0

A brand-new Iwata Asks has been published on Nintendo’s website. For those who don’t follow them, Iwata Asks is a series of roundtable interviews discussing the development of a recently-released Nintendo title, moderated by Nintendo’s president himself, Satoru Iwata. The new Iwata Asks is all about Majora’s Mask 3D, and here are five revelations discovered in the interview that no one knew before: ORIGINALLY ONE WEEK When development on Majora’s Mask began in 1999, the original plan was for the events to take place over one week. But as they worked toward that goal, they found that keeping track of every detail and event that happened over seven days was too much, even with the Bomber’s Notebook, so it was condensed into three days. None of the planned events were lost, and this is why the game’s timeline is so packed. AONUMA’S DREAM While deep in development of the original game, an exhausted Eiji Aonuma (the director) had a dream one night where he was being attacked by hundreds of

January 7, 2015

Don’t Expect A New F-Zero Anytime Soon

Peter Paltridge f-zero, fzero, miyamoto, nintendo, Nintendo, Shigeru Miyamoto 0

After a long drought of animals in spaceships, we know we are getting more StarFox, and soon. Miyamoto confirmed in an interview the game was slated for later this year and would be playable at E3. He also said Mario wouldn’t be starring in a major game this year, which potentially opens up the release window to more second-tier characters in the Nintendo universe. How about F-Zero? How long has it been since we had a new ultra-high-speed psychedelic racer? “I certainly understand that people want a new F-Zero game,” Miyamoto said back in 2013. “I think where I struggle is that I don’t really have a good idea for what’s new that we could bring to F-Zero that would really turn it into a great game again.” His feelings today don’t appear to be any different. ‘Moto shot those hopes down in an intervew with the YouTube channel Smosh, implying he wouldn’t explore a new F-Zero at LEAST until the release of Nintendo’s next console. “If we create a

December 19, 2014

Miyamoto Clarifies A Few Things

Peter Paltridge Amiibo, amiibos, mario, mario movie, miyamoto, Nintendo, Wii U, zelda 0

The Associated Press recently conducted an interview session with Shigeru Miyamoto, a man who needs no introduction if you’re the type who looks for websites with names like “PopGeeks.” It’s one of the better interviews with Miyamoto, or any video game high-up, because it dispenses with the “how great are you” suck-ups and gets right to real consumer questions. That usually doesn’t happen. First thing: the dilemma of the disappearing Amiibos. Nintendo suggested earlier this month that three Amiibos from the original lineup might only go through one manufacturing run and then disappear. Miyamoto’s response is that some Amiibos are intended for just one game; for example the likelihood of Wii Fit Trainer having a second Amiibo use outside of Smash is slim. So in their eyes, it doesn’t make sense to make a figure for just one title for an extended period of time. But won’t people be buying Smash for years? Nintendo has a planned solution: they’ll be sending out Amiibo cards for late arrivals that perform the