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Super Mario 3D Land's design process, back to basics approach, hub level talk, playable characters, 3DS features included
A portion of an ONM interview with Nintendo's Yoshiaki Koizumi...
ONM: Has 3D changed the design process?
YK: It certainly is an exciting new hardware platform! This being the first Mario 3D world designed exclusively for the system means that we haven't been able to draw as much from experience on previous portable Mario games.
I guess you'll remember Super Mario 64 on the DS. Mario's movements were controlled by the D-Pad in a 3D world so we couldn't take any direct comparisons there in terms of how it controlled, but I think the Circle Pad movement in Super Mario 3D Land feels much better and we are very proud of it.
As for my thoughts on design that has changed because of the hardware update - I would say that Mario at its core has a very simple, very pop aesthetic and a very functional notion informing it and we may have started to drift from that in some of the Mario console games which are very large and occasionally very complex.
The portable Mario gives us the chance to get back to the very simple basics of the Mario universe.
ONM: So would you say this new 3DS title takes a 'back to basics' approach?
YK: Well I guess we didn't set out to create less storyline, less power-ups and fewer stages but some of those may well be the end result of this idea of going back to basics.
The story of Mario games is, of course, very simple. At its core, the princess has been kidnapped and you have to rescue her. What we strive to do is to find a good balance of presenting a certain amount of narrative in the game without hindering the gameplay experiences.
As for the number of levels and things like that, our main goal is to create levels that you can enjoy playing many times, and that may have an influence on the perception of how many levels there actually are in the game.
ONM: Seeing as it is going back to basics, will it have a hub level or not?
YK: We always try to use what is appropriate for the tempo of the game, so while a hub was appropriate for Mario Galaxy, it might not be appropriate for a game like Super Mario 3D.
YK: In Super Mario 3D Land we feel that the game does a very good job of presenting all that you really need to know about the world so there is not quite as much of a deep story as you'd find in other games like Super Mario Galaxy where we needed to justify the reason for Mario being in space.
We had to introduce new characters just to explain that sort of thing. So this time around we believe it is much simpler. The world is telling the story rather than a narrative that we have layered on top.
ONM: Will any other Mushroom Kingdom characters be playable?
YK: I hope that's one thing you will look forward to finding out in the future!
ONM: How about the gyro sensor, StreetPass or SpotPass? Do you have any plans to use these 3DS features
YK: Mr Miyamoto said that we were still looking into some of the different possibilities for StreetPass and the Gyro sensor. I guess I should say that they are not necessarily completely out of the picture, we just have to find out if our current applications are appropriate or not, and if we decide they are not appropriate for the game then they will be cut and will not be included. But if we do find something that's appropriate, then we will certainly keep it in.
Full interview here
ONM: Has 3D changed the design process?
YK: It certainly is an exciting new hardware platform! This being the first Mario 3D world designed exclusively for the system means that we haven't been able to draw as much from experience on previous portable Mario games.
I guess you'll remember Super Mario 64 on the DS. Mario's movements were controlled by the D-Pad in a 3D world so we couldn't take any direct comparisons there in terms of how it controlled, but I think the Circle Pad movement in Super Mario 3D Land feels much better and we are very proud of it.
As for my thoughts on design that has changed because of the hardware update - I would say that Mario at its core has a very simple, very pop aesthetic and a very functional notion informing it and we may have started to drift from that in some of the Mario console games which are very large and occasionally very complex.
The portable Mario gives us the chance to get back to the very simple basics of the Mario universe.
ONM: So would you say this new 3DS title takes a 'back to basics' approach?
YK: Well I guess we didn't set out to create less storyline, less power-ups and fewer stages but some of those may well be the end result of this idea of going back to basics.
The story of Mario games is, of course, very simple. At its core, the princess has been kidnapped and you have to rescue her. What we strive to do is to find a good balance of presenting a certain amount of narrative in the game without hindering the gameplay experiences.
As for the number of levels and things like that, our main goal is to create levels that you can enjoy playing many times, and that may have an influence on the perception of how many levels there actually are in the game.
ONM: Seeing as it is going back to basics, will it have a hub level or not?
YK: We always try to use what is appropriate for the tempo of the game, so while a hub was appropriate for Mario Galaxy, it might not be appropriate for a game like Super Mario 3D.
YK: In Super Mario 3D Land we feel that the game does a very good job of presenting all that you really need to know about the world so there is not quite as much of a deep story as you'd find in other games like Super Mario Galaxy where we needed to justify the reason for Mario being in space.
We had to introduce new characters just to explain that sort of thing. So this time around we believe it is much simpler. The world is telling the story rather than a narrative that we have layered on top.
ONM: Will any other Mushroom Kingdom characters be playable?
YK: I hope that's one thing you will look forward to finding out in the future!
ONM: How about the gyro sensor, StreetPass or SpotPass? Do you have any plans to use these 3DS features
YK: Mr Miyamoto said that we were still looking into some of the different possibilities for StreetPass and the Gyro sensor. I guess I should say that they are not necessarily completely out of the picture, we just have to find out if our current applications are appropriate or not, and if we decide they are not appropriate for the game then they will be cut and will not be included. But if we do find something that's appropriate, then we will certainly keep it in.