Fascinating Mario facts from Mario Creator

Written by pikaby

A portion of a news interview with Shigeru Miyamoto. Source: GoNintendo

So, Mario. How does he manage to stay fresh and relevant even though he's already 25 years old?
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Q: What is it about Mario that resonates so well with players?
SM: When we create games, the gamer really is the main character. In that regard it may not really matter who the main character is onscreen. But you know, Mario is someone who has become very familiar and I think it is that people are comfortable with becoming Mario. … Mario really has grown and changed and evolved with the evolution of digital technology. The new technology is fresh and exciting and the next thing you know it becomes familiar and Mario follows that. He's a familiar character, but he is also fresh because he is always doing new things based on what the technology allows him to do.
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He's the digital Mickey Mouse- he can do almost anything and still manage to somehow fit in seamlessly. You know, even though a lot of gamers in my country are damn brainless (and have never played a Mario game before in their lives), anyone and EVERYONE still knows the name Mario, the game character, the one who jumps on top of turtles, when I mention it to them. That's how influential he is, I guess. Now I'd wish more people here actually play his 'fresh and exciting' new games. I want someone to discuss Mario Galaxy 2 with.

The interviewer also asked Miyamoto abou this favorite Mario game. You'd think someone would have already asked that question a long time ago.
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Q: What is your most favorite Mario game and why?
SM: Super Mario World (1993) is something that included of course all the action you saw in Super Mario Bros. but it also had the map features, so it also had that element of players having to think about where they were going and what they were going to do next. I also think that it is a game that developed a large number of staff people who became producers and directors.
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High five, Shigsy! You and I have some great things in common. Super Mario World wasn't the first game with map features though, so I don't know what he was going about there.

New Mario games for Wii and 3DS? The latter's pretty inevitable, but I wonder about Mario's fate on Wii after Sports Mix comes out.
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Q: So I assume we have not seen the last of Mario. Can you say anything about his future adventures on the Wii or Nintendo 3DS?
SM: Of course, we are working on a Mario product for the Nintendo 3DS, I can tell you that. One of the things we have looked at, you know when you are in a 3D world but on a 2D screen it is difficult sometimes to tell distance, whether an object you are looking at is in the foreground, in the background, is the object above you? Sometimes it's a little bit harder. So it's going to be really exciting for us to make that easier for the player to understand using the Nintendo 3DS technology. And for the first time ever Mario will be on a handheld system with an analog stick for controls. That's new.
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3DS is going to be exciting. A couple of weeks ago he did mention both 2D and 3D Mario being in the works though. The Wii is slowly turning cold. Not for me, I still have to clear that games backlog before the next Nintendo console comes.

Then there was a question on why Mario was Italian. Just a random thought. And of course, they're beavering away on the new Zelda (Skyward Sword and the OoT remake. They've got a lot to cover) and aren't stopping. *waits*

Fascinating Mario facts from Mario Creator