Spaceworld 2000: Miyamoto Interview

[08.26.00] » The famed Nintendo game creator talks about GameCube, GameBoy Advance, Metroid, and more.

    During the first full day of Nintendo Spaceworld 2000, the GIA had the opportunity to attend a press roundtable with famed game creator Shigeru Miyamoto. Dressed in a simple black t-shirt and khakis, Miyamoto answered a variety of questions about both his own projects and the GameCube & GameBoy Advance in general.

    The forum started off simply enough, with questions about the GameCube's loading time and lack of digi-card slots (2 memory card slots for 4 players). Miyamoto stated that the system's large amount of RAM would would help both problems, though not eliminate them totally. He also stated that the progression of the games and gameplay would be more like the move from NES to SNES (as opposed to SNES to N64), more of a maturity of games and technology than a huge jump in the actual games themselves.

    After warming Miyamoto up with a few primer questions, the things that gamers really want to know started to come out: the future plans for Luigi, Samus from Metroid, Starfox, and even Pit from the classic Kid Icarus. Miyamoto laughed as these questions were brought up, and said that while he liked these characters and enjoyed using them, he couldn't make any guarantees about upcoming games. He also shot down the idea of another Mario All Stars-type collection of classics, saying that Nintendo would rather concentrate on making new games than reworking old ones.

    Following the queries about the classic characters being re-used, the GIA brought up yet another one: Link, and the rumored 64DD Ura Zelda. Was the title still going to be published, and would it contain network support? Miyamoto simply replied that the game had been "finished for quite some time now" (which could be taken that it has been complete, or that it has been cancelled), and that he had never officially announced any network plans for the game.

    With the rumored game out of the way, the next game mentioned was the ill-fated Mother 3, or Earthbound 64. Miyamoto stated that the game had in fact been cancelled, saying that the team was simply needed on other projects. While Nintendo would like to see the remnents of the game get put to use in one way or another, it is unlikely that they will see the light of day in the Mother series. He also said that negotiations are going on right now with the original creator of Mother to see if some sort of licensing could be worked out so that the project could be salvaged in some way.

    As the forum continued, more and more questions were asked about Miyamoto's future plans. Would he himself take advantage of the GBA to GC interface? Was he looking going to start in on network games? Could he tell us anything about his upcoming games? Would there be a Mario for the GameBoy Advance? Miyamoto's reply to all of these questions was merely "we can't really comment on that at this time". He did state that he had a lot that he was working on, and would love to reveal more, but the heads at Nintendo thought it would be wiser not to.

    From there, Miyamoto was asked questions regardning his own thoughts on games. He said that while he knew that other creators would enjoy the ability to add FMV cutscenes to their games on the GameCube, he had no desire to do so, saying that he would rather use in-game cutscenes like those used in Zelda: Ocarina of Time. He also wants to make the look of his games more mature, with the characters possessing less "childish traits," such as the look of Luigi in the demos shown at the GameCube unveiling. He also is not really threatened by the looming PlayStation 2, stating that he would continue to make quality games that concentrated on gameplay and not simply good graphics, and that he thought that the gamers would figure out for themselves what the better system would be.

    A few questions were asked about Miyamoto's actual role at Nintendo, and what his teams were up to at the moment. He replied that while he did less hands-on creating than in the past, he had more skilled creators under him, and was able to give them a lot more freedom to do what they thought was best. He still supervises many projects, but admitted that a lot of his time is spent filling out paperwork. His teams, though, are hard at work, with 30% of their current output being on the GameBoy Advance and the GameCube. He himself was just beginning to look at development for the GameBoy Advance, with his prior focus being the GameCube.

    The next area of concentration was the GameCube's odd-looking controller. Miyamoto helped design the controller himself, and said that it was over three years in the making, and on its 4th or 5th version. He wanted a very broad range of people to be able to use the controller, from grandparents who had never picked up a game before to the young hardcore gamer. When asked about its use with genres such as rhythm and fighting games, he said that while Nintendo, as well as the developers who were shown the controller ahead of time, thought that it would be very acceptable, that special controllers were more of a possibility now with the lessened cost of game media (the GameCube's discs, as opposed to the more expensive carts used in the past).

    When asked about the odd inclusion of the handle on the GameCube, Miyamoto replied that they wanted to present it as the ultimate gaming system, and not a piece of audio/visual hardware that you would sit on a shelf and not move. He stated that it was a system for the whole family, one to take over to a friend's house and play. He also re-stated that it was designed as the best system to design and create games for, and that the term "ultimate gaming system" included the designer's viewpoint as well.

    Last, but certainly not least, the GIA queried him about the N64's lack of RPGs, and whether or not Nintendo would try and get them onto the GameCube on a more regular basis. Miyamoto replied, after quite a bit of thinking, that while he didn't blame the N64's lack of popularity on the small amount of RPGs on the system, he did blame it more for certain big-name RPGs moving onto a different platform. He said that while Nintendo would not make RPGs themselves, they would continue to produce high-quality games for the GameCube, and attempt to get the wide user-base that would attract more prolific RPG developers to the platform. While this might not be the answer that RPG fans are wanting to hear, it is good to know that Nintendo realises that they do need to have quality RPGs on the system.

    In the end, while Miyamoto wanted to talk about his games more than he could, the forum revealed quite a bit of interesting information. With a mere hour to devote to roundtable, Miyamoto excused himself to attend yet another event, saying that we should all look forward to the upcoming E3 show in May 2001, when he would in fact be able to tell us more.