Tue, Jun 24, 2008 | 20:39 BST
Nintendo has success by not looking like Sega, says Miyamoto
How do you make good games, Shigeru Miyamoto? By not making them look as though they’re made by Sega, apparently.
“I’m always instructing my game designers on the history of the characters and worlds we’ve created,” said the dev maestro, speaking to Wired. “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.’”
Zing. More through the link. Thanks, GoNintendo.
By Jerry Burns
13 
Posted in: Development, Nintendo, Sega
Tags: shigeru miyamoto, wired
13 comments
#1
ecu
24/06/08, 9:18 pm
WHAT.
#2
wz
24/06/08, 9:19 pm
And they are good at that.
#3
morriss
24/06/08, 9:27 pm
Unbelievably pathetic statement, that.
#4
wz
24/06/08, 9:32 pm
I think he’s just trying to be cutely saying “give your games a more unique look”.
Seeing the last round of FPS, I tend to agree.
#5
morriss
24/06/08, 9:44 pm
Mario? Unique look? About 25 years ago p’raps.
#6
wz
24/06/08, 9:46 pm
Ah c’mon, whether you like it or not, you cannot say MGalaxy does not have a unique feel to it. When I said “look”, I meant this.
#7
Hero of Canton
24/06/08, 10:09 pm
I’m with wz on this. In fact it wouldn’t surprise me if the question was actually different, or something got lost in translation. Besides, Nintendo has a very good relationship with Sega at the moment.
#8
ecu
24/06/08, 10:15 pm
I dunno, all of Nintendo’s games are very safe, visually. They’ve never produced anything as “out-there” as Sega did with Rez, Phantasy Star Online and Jet Set Radio.
Mario Galaxy feels just like Mario Sunshine, which felt just like Super Mario 64. Wonderful game, but it’s distinctly Mario. Which I guess is what he’s saying – he doesn’t want it to look unique, he wants it to look like Mario.
#9
Shatner
24/06/08, 10:28 pm
More specifically, Mario Galaxy looks like Mario Sunshie fed through the mini-planet levels that featured throughout the Ratchet and Clank series of games.
But, you know, if Miyamoto said “I make games by reading tea leaves passed the the digestive system of psychotic hens” you’d get just as many pundits fawning over that statement as you do anything the Nintendo Mascot says these days. He’s just a spokesman – Nintendo wheel him out whenever they want to drum up a headline. Seems like it never fails.
#10
wz
24/06/08, 10:38 pm
ecu: Ah, all hail the days of yore (read: Dreamcast), when Sega was still fun to play. (Although I must say I like Sega Rally, however, they got rid of it.)
“Mario feels like Mario” – that’s the point here, I guess.
#11
timmy
25/06/08, 5:36 am
my god, this is the greatest writer, blogger dude in the whole universe. keep up the good work and tell me more stuff.
#12
Blerk
25/06/08, 8:37 am
Sega? Someone really ought to point out to Shigsy that it’s not the 90s any more. Bless. He is getting on a bit, though.
#13
Tonka
25/06/08, 8:46 am
Got to love him. I didn’t realize he had this competitive side. Taking digs at a rotting corpse is a bit cheap.