Nintendo’s president Satoru Iwata interviewed Miyamoto asking questions regarding the development of the recently released Super Mario Galaxy 2 where Miyamoto revealed what he learned talking to the producer of the game, Koizuma.
While talking about working with Koizumi-san, producer of Super Mario Galaxy 2, Miyamoto said,
When making the first Super Mario Galaxy, I had said Mario games didn’t need a story or movies, but before I knew it, there were quite a few movies and a substantial amount of story. When it comes to movies, you can pretty much stick them in at the end of development.
So during the development of Super Mario Galaxy 2, Miyamoto tried to get these story elements cut back, but they kept creeping back in. He also showed the game to Tezuka-san and Nakago-san(worked on both Mario and Zelda games in the past) partway through development and they both said something was wrong.
Finally Miyamoto had a discussion with Koizuma and while recalling the conversation Miyamoto said,
I hadn’t really talked to him that way for a long time. We were like a married couple that had grown used to each other and not talked heart-to-heart in the many years since their wedding suddenly having a long chat after the children have left the house.
But talking over fundamental issues like Koizumi-san’s views on the importance of story, the function of stories in games and what kind of a game Mario is, I learned something important.
I realized that whether it’s story or movies, it’s not about whether we need them or don’t need them. What’s most important is that the game resonates.
