Though we usually award it to a particularly irascible commenter, the latest Justin T. McElroy Memorial Burn of the Day Award simply cannot be pried from the clutches of one Shigeru Miyamoto, creator of Donkey Kong, Mario, Zelda and just about half of your best childhood memories.
Tucked inside Wired's 15th Anniversary retrospective, a quick interview with the renowned developer reveals his secret to maintaining "quality control" in a company as large as Nintendo. "I'm always instructing my game designers on the history of the characters and worlds we've created," says Miyamoto. "Often we're in development and I'll say, 'Oh, this looks like a Sega game. We need to make it look more like Mario.'"
Oh my. Not to worry, Sega, at least Mr. Miyamoto knows about your games. He's never even heard of Ratchet & Whatshisface.
Reader Comments (114)
Posted: Jun 24th 2008 9:06PM (Unverified) said
Do yourself a favor - buy a wrist strap and play Super Mario 64 on the DS. It's a much better game than the original.
Reply
Posted: Jun 24th 2008 9:11PM (Unverified) said
I agree with fatass. It was the first of few DS games I had and it was definitely better than the original. I have a hard time playing the old one now.
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Posted: Jun 24th 2008 9:05PM Jacksons said
Let's hope all this Nintendo internal quality control pays off at E3, because there's currently nothing on Wii's horizon that interests me. Give me something!
Posted: Jun 24th 2008 9:19PM BPMOmega XBL PSN Steam said
That's a pretty harsh burn there. Gonna need some ointment for that.
Plus, according to Yuji Naka (current director of Sonic, and programmer of the original), the people at Sega (at least, on the development side of things; the advertisers tell a different tale) always respected Nintendo, seeing their games as a benchmark of how to measure quality.
http://xbox.gamespy.com/articles/654/654750p4.html
GameSpy: You participated in Mario's 20th birthday celebration. Sega and Nintendo haven't always been so friendly, in fact, many people once perceived Sonic and Mario as enemies. How did you and the staff at Sega perceive the Mario games when Nintendo was a direct competitor: as something to admire, as something to beat, as inspiration, or something else entirely?
Naka: I will go on the record here and state that we at Sega have always had nothing but the utmost respect for Nintendo and the Mario games. Even when they were our direct competitor in the hardware arena, we have viewed the games as a watermark of quality for us to strive towards. It is a pleasure and an honor for us to work with Nintendo as a third party today.
Plus, according to Yuji Naka (current director of Sonic, and programmer of the original), the people at Sega (at least, on the development side of things; the advertisers tell a different tale) always respected Nintendo, seeing their games as a benchmark of how to measure quality.
http://xbox.gamespy.com/articles/654/654750p4.html
GameSpy: You participated in Mario's 20th birthday celebration. Sega and Nintendo haven't always been so friendly, in fact, many people once perceived Sonic and Mario as enemies. How did you and the staff at Sega perceive the Mario games when Nintendo was a direct competitor: as something to admire, as something to beat, as inspiration, or something else entirely?
Naka: I will go on the record here and state that we at Sega have always had nothing but the utmost respect for Nintendo and the Mario games. Even when they were our direct competitor in the hardware arena, we have viewed the games as a watermark of quality for us to strive towards. It is a pleasure and an honor for us to work with Nintendo as a third party today.
Posted: Jun 24th 2008 10:14PM (Unverified) said
Sonic Adventure >>> anything nintendo has ever done.
Posted: Jun 25th 2008 7:52AM (Unverified) said
I'm a sonic fan.. but the first sonic adventure was horrible in my opinion.. It seems to me that sonic adventure was trying to mimic Mario 64. Sonic Adventure did have better graphics, but the game play was buggy and wasn't well developed (why did you have to carry crystal from point A to point B?).
Sonic did try to go along with a story... but the story wasn't really developed. teh people at Nintendo tried to make a good and simple game... Sega just tried to copy and out match the competition..
I know there's a way to save sonic.. but i don't think Sega is willing to do the extra work in making a game that drives away from the 'make him run fast' idea they have abotu sonic.
Reply
Sonic did try to go along with a story... but the story wasn't really developed. teh people at Nintendo tried to make a good and simple game... Sega just tried to copy and out match the competition..
I know there's a way to save sonic.. but i don't think Sega is willing to do the extra work in making a game that drives away from the 'make him run fast' idea they have abotu sonic.
Posted: Jun 25th 2008 4:22AM (Unverified) said
miyamoto low blow...
ouch!
ouch!
Posted: Jun 25th 2008 4:45AM BurntMeatloaf said
That's right, everything needs to look like Mario.
New IPs, anyone? How about we put some smiley faces on circles and call them Miis? Even the interns can't screw that up!
New IPs, anyone? How about we put some smiley faces on circles and call them Miis? Even the interns can't screw that up!
Posted: Jun 25th 2008 12:27PM MNeko said
Oh, Miyamoto, you wacky Austin Powers stunt double! Listening to you extol the virtues of quality control is like getting a lecture on sexual responsibility from Larry Flynt.
Posted: Jun 28th 2008 11:44AM (Unverified) said
"I'm just REALLY not a fan of Daytona is all."
Lemme guess. You don't know proper drifting technique, go at full speed ahead at the last turn on Three Seven Speedway, crash, and say "screw this!"
Sega racers > You. ^_^
Lemme guess. You don't know proper drifting technique, go at full speed ahead at the last turn on Three Seven Speedway, crash, and say "screw this!"
Sega racers > You. ^_^
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