Nintendo’s poster boy is 30 this year, but despite his age the main Mario entries still feel very much unique. Each game has brought a series of new items and enemies, while the core gameplay has remained almost the same. Subtle changes to how Mario controls have been implemented over the course of the years, which is most noticeable in a game like Super Mario Maker, where the New Super Mario Bros. palette controls completely different from the older games.
In a recent interview, Shigeru Miyamoto discussed some aspects of Mario’s changing design and why Nintendo keeps such a tight reign on the character.
In terms of the 3D Mario performance, it has evolved, but we have always been consistent in trying to be cautious in terms of when you do a B-dash, how far he can jump or how many blocks he can break. We have made it a little bit simpler for players as it’s evolved, because there are more complicated things that we’re asking the players to do.
In the original Mario when you’re stopped he can’t do B-dash, but you can do it now with more recent games. So we have made it a little bit simpler and tweaked it throughout the years. In terms of Mario games we definitely don’t have other teams develop it, because we do want to control it and manage those features.
With the NX on the horizon, do you think we’ll see another 3D Mario game like Super Mario Galaxy from Nintendo as a launch title?
