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Tezuka on New Super Mario Bros. U's visuals, what a touch screen-only Mario would be like
A portion of a GameSpot interview with Nintendo's Takashi Tezuka...
GS: Traditionally, Mario sequels have been very different from one another, but the New Super Mario Bros. series games tend to be very similar mechanically and visually. Is that a design decision?
TT: It's intentional. That similarity in the visual style and the control style is all intentional. The things we feel like we've already promised the gamer is that Peach will be kidnapped by Bowser, and Mario will move from left to right. We know that's what people are expecting! [Laughs] We know that there are all types of Mario games, as you said. So for us, with the New Super Mario Bros. series, we don't really need to mess with it. This is what people want.
One of the things we always focus on in development is that we want a wide audience to play these games and enjoy them. So we're looking at games that are accessible and intuitive. So, for example, we have a recurring enemy type from one game to the next. If in the first game the enemy acts a certain way and has a certain functionality, our audience says, "OK, I know what to expect." If they see that character in [the new] game and it's completely different, I don't think that's a good thing. For characters like the Goombas and the Koopas, those are the building blocks, the fundamental things that we're not going to change.
GS: There has been a lot of push from certain analysts about iPhone games from Nintendo. How do you feel about the idea of Mario being on iPhone? Pushing past that, is it possible to make a Mario game that would be touch screen only? There was Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis on the DS, which was a puzzle game that was primarily, if not exclusively, touch screen. Do you think it would be possible in any other genre?
TT: We can definitely make a Mario game that's touch screen only. It wouldn't be a 2D side-scrolling Mario platformer, but I think we can definitely make games maybe in the vein of Mario vs. Donkey Kong or something like that. I think that's definitely possible. Would we make that for another platform? No. Of course not. It would be on a Nintendo platform. But it's definitely something we could do. It just wouldn't be a 2D side-scrolling platformer.
Full interview here
GS: Traditionally, Mario sequels have been very different from one another, but the New Super Mario Bros. series games tend to be very similar mechanically and visually. Is that a design decision?
TT: It's intentional. That similarity in the visual style and the control style is all intentional. The things we feel like we've already promised the gamer is that Peach will be kidnapped by Bowser, and Mario will move from left to right. We know that's what people are expecting! [Laughs] We know that there are all types of Mario games, as you said. So for us, with the New Super Mario Bros. series, we don't really need to mess with it. This is what people want.
One of the things we always focus on in development is that we want a wide audience to play these games and enjoy them. So we're looking at games that are accessible and intuitive. So, for example, we have a recurring enemy type from one game to the next. If in the first game the enemy acts a certain way and has a certain functionality, our audience says, "OK, I know what to expect." If they see that character in [the new] game and it's completely different, I don't think that's a good thing. For characters like the Goombas and the Koopas, those are the building blocks, the fundamental things that we're not going to change.
GS: There has been a lot of push from certain analysts about iPhone games from Nintendo. How do you feel about the idea of Mario being on iPhone? Pushing past that, is it possible to make a Mario game that would be touch screen only? There was Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis on the DS, which was a puzzle game that was primarily, if not exclusively, touch screen. Do you think it would be possible in any other genre?
TT: We can definitely make a Mario game that's touch screen only. It wouldn't be a 2D side-scrolling Mario platformer, but I think we can definitely make games maybe in the vein of Mario vs. Donkey Kong or something like that. I think that's definitely possible. Would we make that for another platform? No. Of course not. It would be on a Nintendo platform. But it's definitely something we could do. It just wouldn't be a 2D side-scrolling platformer.