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Miyamoto Explains New Super Mario Bros. Wii Multiplayer Focus
by Leigh Alexander [PC, Console/PC, Exclusive]
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October 15, 2009
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In many ways, Nintendo's upcoming New Super Mario Bros. Wii is a return to the classic franchise's roots, featuring side-scrolling levels with a modern, yet familiar, look and feel.
Yet with this latest installment in the Mario legacy, creator Shigeru Miyamoto told Gamasutra and other press outlets gathered at an intimate New York roundtable that the aim was to focus more on a multiplayer experience.
Even that's not too far off from where Mario began: "The original concept was that the Mario Bros. games would be games that two people always played together," Miyamoto explained, "but of course, the Super Mario Bros. series turned into more of a single-player game."
Still, Miyamoto has never lost interest in creating meaningful multiplayer experiences, particularly now with the Wii, a console designed for the family living-room setting. That's why, he says, Nintendo focused its attention on local multiplayer with this title: it's designed for play in face-to-face groups.
By making New Super Mario Bros. Wii a multiplayer game, Miyamoto had simultaneous goals in addition to making a meaningful group experience -- he said the experience of playing the game is very different depending on whether it's being played solo or not.
He learned this through his known strategy of testing games by observing players' expressions: "People would play the game and...people playing alone had a serious look on their face. They were working very hard...and it was a big challenge for them."
"But as soon as we had multiple people playing the game their expressions changed dramatically," the designer explained, describing an environment of lighthearted excitement and rapid-fire verbal communication.
Subtly, the design of New Super Mario Bros. Wii seems to cleverly address a major criticism of Nintendo titles in the Wii era -- that in favor of wider accessibility the company has abandoned the sort of challenge that can satisfy a traditional or more experienced gamer. This is because the multiplayer is designed such that more experienced players have an additional element to work with in the ability to help novice players: They can carry, rescue, or lead younger or less skilled players, and have fun doing so.
In groups, then, the players themselves can create additional layers of complexity in the difficulty level. Playing alone is much harder, while the challenge in playing with others depends in large part on how much players help one another. "Because it is multiplayer, it has some new facets, in the sense that more advanced gamers can take care of novice players that might be playing with them, and ...carry them through the levels," said Miyamoto.
Miyamoto knew from the response to New Super Mario Bros. on DS that multiplayer was the key to building this kind of variety, he said. "One of the things we tried to achieve [on DS] was a balance of difficulty that would be easier for some of the newer gamers who first joined with the DS hardware, but would still satisfy the needs of longtime fans."
"But we found that doing that was actually pretty difficult," he added. With New Super Mario Bros Wii, Miyamoto recalled that "at E3, somebody asked, 'is New Super Mario Bros. Wii going to be as easy as New Super Mario Bros. was on DS?'"
"I think I said that it wouldn't be as easy. ...What we've created this time is in fact pretty difficult," he concluded.
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If Nintendo really is interested in fun gameplay, I'd like to see them do something innovative again like Pikmin. Something as ingenius as Pikmin that focused on cooperation would be incredible.
Hey Bo, ever play Pikmin 2? Awesome 2-player coop mode.
http://seanmalstrom.wordpress.com/2009/10/16/game-journalists-dont-editorialize-
in-your-news-reports/
Ha, I haven't actually. Though what I meant by my statement was a game AS ingenius as Pikmin, not a game like Pikmin, for which Pikmin 2 would certainly foot the bill.
""Miyamoto is human like all of us, people act like the next thing he makes is better then the last. Fanboys, moms and dads and grandmas are his new audience. Miya san has not been able to live up to ocarina of time and the biggest thing that bothers me, that instead of working on new IP(like Pikman*which I am not to fond of*) he re-hash's old IP's with a slight twist. I dont care how much he has sold. you take a look at his track record and show me how much mario is in it.""
"Miyamoto peaked with Zelda on the N64. Everything he has worked on since has not had that much pull or awe after. That new Mario Brothers game on the Wii, 2 player action with different abilities, that's been done already. You could remove the fact that it was Mario and just have a wire frame and then you could really see just how "great" it is."
"You want to see some one take the online concept by the horns? look at Segas Ex star designer, Yuji Naka. he really did what we all dreamed of as kids. make a character at home and go adventure with your friends. The quality and work that went into Phantasy Star Online was a milestone in online gaming. this was almost decade ago."
Yokai Gunpei really broke outa the box, but many don't remember him. that is Nintendo true innovative unsung Hero(god rest his soul)
You want to learn something about true innovation and thinking outside the box
Look at Naka san(miyamoto always wanted a one button game"least amount of buttons") He created "Lets tap"
hands free game. he has exploited the wiimotes latent capabilities more so then anyone at Nintendo.
look at Fumito ueda and what he has done with in three games that he has made, Shadow of the Colosus, Ico and Last gaudiness.
Those are people who really setting the new benchmark.
ima go, grab a mushroom and jump on a turtle with my freind, please!
By the way I for one care what Malstrom says. But I wouldn't exactly go posting his criticism of someone's article on that article's comment section.
I became a Malstrom reader when someone posted a satirical piece called "A Modest Proposal for Gaming" (or something like that) written by him in the comments section of this very site. I never laughed so hard. I've been reading Malstrom ever since.
@ Mike:
I think the Malstrom article bought up interesting counter points.
@ Gomez:
My apologies if you are offended.
I guess you have not been paying attention. I don't agree with everything he says, but he has a better track record than anyone else when comes figuring out Nintendo's next step. Most journalist and analyst dismissed the Wii and labeled it casual, while this guy actually listened to what Nintendo was saying and studied the business strategies they were using.
He made them look like a joke while they kept waiting for the PS3 to win, the Wii fad to end and Wii HD to launch.