Miyamoto Interview Discusses, Defends GTA

Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing us to this interview with Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto conducted on Gamespy. Particularly interesting is his attitude to the Grand Theft Auto series (he says "I think we should welcome this game" when asked about it), and his contention that taking the Mario series into 3D has reduced the user base, because 3D games are so much more complicated.

ya know

[gangien]

everytime I read something by him, I realise why he has been so successful. To bad People can't get past the idea that graphics make the game enjoyable, I can't recall a game of his i haven't enjoyed.

Miyamoto's Reliability

[ehushagen]

Well, I can honestly say, that with all the dev companies out there, anything that Miyamoto-san puts his hands on are the only games that I will buy absolutely blindly. I've never been disappointed yet.

Re:Questioning Miyamoto? How dare I!

[funkhauser]

You make a good point, but consider this: We interact with a 3D world every day, and it's no problem for us. However, when you load up Mario Sunshine or whatever, the interface is totally different. For one, you're seeing everything from a 3rd person perspective. Thus, you're not seeing what your avatar would see, you're seeing what someone observing your avatar would see.

Now consider your interface to the 3D world. We move around with our legs, we interact with our environment with our hands, and we tilt our neck or shift our eyes to look around. With a video game, our interface is through a controller.

Now, even though Mario Sunshine's 3D world is more like our own world than, say, Super Mario Bros. 3, the differences in perception and interaction are vastly different. That can make it cognitively difficult to interact with these video game worlds.

I play lots of video games, so I'm used to it. It's not as natural to me as interacting with the real world via my own body, but it's not too bad. But for anyone who isn't used to that, it can be really difficult.

Re:Questioning Miyamoto? How dare I!

[easychord]

But this may be because you are bringing more experience and knowledge of games to Mario Sunshine than most people might.

In a side scrolling someone might have to learn how to move left and right and jump.

In a 3d game you have to learn how to move forwards and backwards, strafe, turn by rotation or by a combination of camera angle and stick direction. You also need some way of manipulating the camera angle, something that is completely unnatural to a non gamer.

If you don't believe that there is any truth in this, do your own market research. Find someone who doesn't really play games, try to get them to play a game on a mobile phone, a mario game on the GBA advance and Mario Sunshine. See which one they have the most fun with in a short amount of time.

2d good - 3d not so good

[Loosewire]

Ok think about this, how many of you have played through Super Mario Brothers on your NES or SNES and loved it? - most who played it i would guess. How many of you played through Super mario world and loved it, again most, same goes for the lost levels and Super mario brothers 3 (2 was a disaster but then the game was converted from japanese from another game which wasnt even anything to do with mario) I played super mario 64 and it was great, however it wasnt as good as the old 2d sidescrollers, i prefered all of them. I dont want to do different challenges over the same landscape, id rather do lots of varying stuff like in 2d. I also played the other day super mario sunshine, the graphics were stunning, but the gameplay was a little boring. Nintendo, make us all some more 2d mario games - please.

Story

[Deanasc]

I like the GTA games for their complex story and plot. Mario goes and rescues the princess isn't a story. Louie's girl sleeping with Tony is a story.

These new games are to TV what motion pictures were to literature.