March 27th, 2002 (12:00am) -
About Mario Sunshine:Famitsu: First we would like to ask about Mario Sunshine.
Miyamoto: Yes, but I cannot really speak about it until E3. Before the announcements at Europe, public relations gave me a list of what I cannot speak. I saw it so many times that I could memorize it. (laugh)
F: What kind of things are written are on it? (laugh)
M: Things like the number of stages and play time.
F: In other words, we know that the play time and number of stages are determined.
M: I guess you can say that. Uh?
F: (laugh) Comparing Mario 64 with Mario Sunshine, has the gameplay changed a lot?
M: To be honest, we do not know until the game is completely done. However, since the processing speed has risen, frame rate has also increased. As a result, movements are much more crisp and faster. When we made the transition from the Famicom to the Super Famicom, the side scrolling Mario became extremely smoother. If you imagine along that lines, you will probably get somewhat of the picture.
F: So you could say that the 3D Mario got a smooth upgrade.
M: That is right. Up to now, we have really worked hard to make the simple and plain background come to life. This time since we have drawn and animate lots of things, we allowed the camera to freely move so you can freely go to places you want to go.
F: I see. Can you give us some more details regarding the background of the game?
M: Basically the setting is that someone is painting graffiti in this place. So for example, you erase the graffiti on streets. However, it would be boring if it was just only about cleaning up so we devised many other things.
F: Was erasing the painting graffiti planned from the very beginning?
M: The painting graffiti system was where we started when making the game. It really began during Mario 64 where we had this white clip board and players have to paint faces on it. We experimented with that idea, and now you can freely do many things like erasing the paintings on the floors of cities. How do we exactly implement this is our job, of course.
F: It is quite a new feature while building on the foundation of the 3D Mario.
M: Yes. The action aspect of Mario is still there. On top of that we added the painting system.
F: In the past, you said that you really did not want to raise the difficulty level of action games.
M: Yes, but regarding Mario, it is a game where you have fun conquering that difficulty.
About Star Fox Adventures:
F: Regarding Star Fox Adventure, you have released screen shots that seemed to cause some of the most controversy among fans yet.
M: Well, just imagine it is not Star Fox.
F: That is easy to understand. (laugh)
M: Yes, unlike the previous shooting games, think of it as an adventure game starring Star Fox’s characters.
F: What led up to this?
M: I always wanted to create an adventure game out of Star Fox’s world. Actually, as a project that never realized, there once was Star Fox 2.
F: Eh? Really. Was that before the N64 version?
M: Yes. We used Super Famicom’s FX chip to make the game. Among the games I developed, it was one of the few projects that never materialized.
F: What was the background of the game?
M: It had both the elements of shooting and adventure. We coupled the game with some short shooting stages. Overall it was an adventure game.
F: So that is been brought back this time.
M: Not directly, but there was that thought. Putting that aside, Rare who was responsible for the development also wanted to make an adventure game using animals. And then it became the current form.
F: I see. Looking at the screen shots, we feel that it resembles N64’s Zelda.
M: Ah, the system is quite like Zelda. In addition, the game also includes things we wanted to do with The Ocarina of Time. For example, there are actions with using a stick. That is actually what we wanted to do with the Deku stick. Looking at the stills, it is really hard to tell, but it is quite interesting. (laugh)
*Update* The second part to Famitsu’s Miyamoto interview:
Miyamoto-san speaks out about Metroid Prime, Eternal Darkness, and Zelda in the latest issue of Famitsu. In case you missed it, he also spoke about Mario Sunshine, and Star Fox Adventure, which can be found here. Sit back and enjoy some more Shiggy goodness!About Metroid Prime
Famitsu: Let us talk about Metroid Prime. Honestly, we think that fans of the series are worried. In short, they are worrying that Metroid is going to become Doom.
Miyamoto: Yes. That is often said.
F: (laugh) Well it is not that we are saying Doom is a bad game, but the first person shooting games have a tendency to appear as a foreign game.
M: It is not going to become the so called “Western game.” We have no intentions for it to become that. People still think that despite the fact that we are working on the game together from Japan. People from overseas also said this kind of thing. It is probably because people seems like they tend to categorize games by genre. (laugh) Since we only released still screen shots, it gives you that kind of impression just by only looking at the screen shots.
F: I see.
M: Well, Metroid is originally an exploration game. Of course you have situations where you are attacking enemies, but at heart it was a game where you had fun exploring. And if you look across the series, in Metroid games the rooms and passage ways are not very wide. Within that narrow area, if you take and move the camera outside of the character (editor note: a 3rd person shooter), it becomes relatively difficult to control. This is very detrimental to an exploration game.
F: I see.
M: That is why we are very troubled if you tag Metroid as a jumping game. We think that Metroid is an exploration game, an adventure game. As a result, as an adventure game that takes place in narrow places, we chose the first person perspective because it was the best view. In other words, we never thought about making a “first person shooter.” So when this game releases, it should be an adventure game that sports a smooth controlling scheme.
F: We understand.
M: Of course, we will always have the option to make a side-scrolling jumping Metroid game. When we want to make that game, we will. Metroid Prime does not mean that Metroid is going to stay forever in the first person perspective.
F: So you are saying that this time you decided to go with a first person shooter emphasizing on the adventure aspect.
M: Yes. And when you look at the GameCube lineup, there are quite a lot of third person shooters. So you could say that the fact that Metroid Prime diversifies the GameCube lineup has also more or less influenced the decision.
About Zelda
Miyamoto: Although we never officially released screen shots, everyone is asking what is going to happen to Zelda GC’s artwork. As a result, I did not bring any images of Zelda GC to Europe. But I wonder why there are still so much people asking the question. Whether it is The Ocarina of Time or Majora’s Mask, since there are lots of people that like those games, it cannot be helped for people do be concerned with the art work. However, I would like those people to not just see the screen shots, but actually try the game out. This is because once they actually try the game, I think they will be satisfied. In the past, when we showed the footage, people found it hard to picture how Link would move. However, compared to all the other Zelda games up till now, Zelda GC actually does not pale in the aspect of moving freely. Moreover, the most important point is how Link moves. Of course, like Mario Sunshine since the frame rates has increased, control has become smoother. From that perspective, we can say that the game has evolved rightfully. Well, I think we should let the gameplay speak and not the artwork, so please look forward to it. Release date? Hmm… Well, it is going to be after the titles we announced this time. If I talk too much, the company is going to get angry at me again. So please forgive me.(laugh)
About Eternal Darkness
Miyamoto: The game is a psycho-adventure. It is a piece of work with very high creativity in the aspect of story and plot. It is developed by the president of a Canada game company. The game development started with writing things down. Among Nintendo’s close developers, they are quite a unique team. Regarding the type of the game, it feels like Biohazard. The focus is placed on the story. There are 12 characters, and you experience each character’s past. By the way, the subtitle (editor’s note: in Japanese version) refers to 13 people where the 13th person is the player. Development is proceeding smoothly, but it seems there’s a bit more work for the Japanese version. There’s a big amount of story, and it is taking a lot of hard work to localize the details. And a very rare thing for Nintendo games, there are a lot of movies. (laugh)
