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Iwata Asks the Mario team about the series
In honor of the 25th anniversary of Super Mario Bros., and the release of Super Mario All-Stars: Limited Edition, Satoru Iwata has gathered up more members of the Mario team for another round of questioning. The developers probed include Katsuya Eguchi, who joined the team in 1986, and Super Mario Galaxy director Yoshiaki Koizumi, who didn't join until 1991. As always, Iwata proves an expert interrogator, drawing neat information out of his employees. For example, New Super Mario Bros. on DS was originally conceived as a fifth game in the GBA's Super Mario Advance series. "After we released Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3," says Hiroyuki Kimura, "people were asking if a '5' in the series would be released. That's right when the Nintendo DS system came out, which was perfect timing, so I thought if we're gonna make it, it should be a new title." Additionally, Koizumi describes the experience of working with Miyamoto on Super Mario 64, which Miyamoto directed himself. While Koizumi expected written instructions, instead he got, well ... "it was just Miyamoto-san and me in the office, and he starts showing me how Mario is supposed to swim while saying, 'It's not really a breast stroke, and not a crawl, but something like this maybe...?' And he was completely sprawled out on the desk doing these swimming motions." This is the part where you laugh, perhaps nervously.
Super Mario Galaxy's unsung star talks player experience
When most gamers think of that sense of amazement the certain parts of Super Mario Galaxy seem to invoke, they attribute that moment to the Miyamoto touch, a direct result of the imaginative developer's attention and care. While it's a natural assumption to make, one shouldn't forget about Yoshiaki Koizumi, the director behind the critically-acclaimed platformer!In a recent interview with Next-Gen, Koizumi championed the importance of surprising players: "If you think about games only as a thing that you interact with, you're missing the possibility of immersion. The inspirations that I tend to draw on for that all come from real life itself. Hiking on a mountain and seeing a cave and thinking about what's inside -- it's that sense of wonder and excitement I want players to feel."Well, we certainly had a lot of that with just the Gusty Garden Galaxy!%Gallery-4735%
Iwata is named Person of the Year
Who doesn't love the great Satoru Iwata. He's a very kind man and a pleasure to be around (this blogger knows, he met him a couple years ago). Not only that, but he has a good mind for business, as he's managed to turn Nintendo into a crazy-rich company with the hottest console and handheld on the market. Certainly, he deserves this honor.He isn't the only person from Nintendo to be recognized, however. Next-Gen's list encompasses 25 people from the industry, and other notable Nintendo folk include George Harrison and Yoshiaki Koizumi (the director behind Super Mario Galaxy).
