July 30^th, 2003 (12:00am) - With the sequel coming way this fall, Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto is already thinking about the third installment for his Pikmin franchise. He dropped hints at the third Pikmin title in a lecture at Tokyo University recently and here’s what he had to say about Pikmin 3:

“Student: Do you think games are something for children to play?

SM: No; I think games are something for all ages. From five to ninety-five, is what I say. Of course, if you pass 95, then you can still play if you want, but... (laughs)

I: With that in mind, the fact that Mario can sell across all ages and all countries is fairly important, I think.

SM: I just want to make games that make high-school girls happy. And high-school boys, too.

I: Pikmin did pretty well, didn’t it?

SM: Yeah, it did, but it kind of went down like this. Pikmin 2 will come out this year, though, and I think interest will shoot back up.

I’ve already got the basic idea for Pikmin 3 in my mind.”

Pikmin-mania has begun, and it’s RUNNIN’ WILD!