Miyamoto Discusses Super Nintendo World’s Mario Focus, Comparisons To Disney, And More

Following the opening of Super Nintendo World Hollywood, Gamespot released a lengthy interview with Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto and Shinya Takahashi, discussing various topics related to the park and to Nintendo in general.

Among the more interesting topics discussed include Nintendo’s decision to base Super Nintendo World primarily on the Super Mario series, comparisons between Nintendo and the media/theme park giant Disney, as well as Miyamoto’s role in developing the park.

You can read the full interview here, or check out the highlights below:

After so many years of designing virtual experiences that so many people guide their characters through, how did it feel to design a physical space? Were there aspects that translated from the work you’ve done in what was totally new when you were designing it?

Takahashi: One of the things I think that we were able to experience as we were going through this whole process was thinking of what we’re going to create and how we’re going to create it. There’s a little bit of uncertainty about what’s going to be at the end of this. Is this going to be something that has been worth all this effort, something that’s going to be valuable? But then as Mr. Miyamoto explained earlier, when we were able to actually interact with, say, the question block for the first time and actually hit it and get that feeling of the coin sounds and knowing that we are able to create something that does bring that interactivity to life. That was where we first had that first sense of, “Okay, this is going to work out for us.”

Miyamoto: So in reality, really we end up building a big building as you can see, and I wanted to climb it. But there’s experiences that happen in real life that [don’t] happen in video games. For example, in Mario, when you’re going into, say, a dungeon and you go into the dungeon in the game, it’s just a scene switch. But in real life there is a transition phase that you have to go through. Or say in the game world there’s Yoshi and Koopa Troopas always moving, so we wanted to make sure that they were always moving in real life as well. But then there’s concerns like, “Is it actually going to be convincing? Is it actually going to turn out the way we want it to?” And after seeing all of these elements come through and actually having them all together in one place and seeing them function, I had this moment where the landscape I’m seeing really links up with my game experience that I’ve had in the past. And really it kind of synced up and matched and realizing all of the elements have come together to make this possible is a moment.

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It’s called Super Nintendo World, but it has a very Mario theme. It follows a lot of the same characters that exists in the Mario universe. Can you talk about how you landed on that decision of “We want to have a Mario-centered theme”?

Miyamoto: As you said, it is Super Nintendo World, and there was discussion about adding other IP in there like, say, Splatoon. But instead of having our focus scattered, we thought it would be best to start with something focused and make sure something that’s quality and good. And so that’s where we ended up starting with Mario. However, because of that backdrop, if you notice you might be able to find some other IP sprinkled in the world. So I encourage you to take a look.

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One of the phrases people use to describe Nintendo and Mr. Miyamoto is “Nintendo is the Disney of the video game world” or “Mr. Miyamoto is the Walt Disney of the video game world.” Now we’re at a stage where that comparison is more apt but you kind of have to drop the “of the video game world” part of it because this park exists and so do movies and [Mario] is everywhere now. How do you both feel about that comparison and how do you think of yourselves as a company now that you’ve moved into a place where you have a Hollywood movie, you have an actual theme park attraction?

Miyamoto: As you said, I’ve also been called the Spielberg of the game world, but I actually don’t like that. I’m Miyamoto. Miyamoto is Miyamoto and Nintendo is Nintendo. However, I do feel very honored to be compared with Disney. But with that said, rather than comparing Nintendo to Disney, I feel that Disney to some extent, especially for families, [represents] a sense of reassurance for families.

I feel like Nintendo is well known for video games and usually video games don’t equate to reassurance very much. But Nintendo is associated with video games and the fact that Nintendo is then being compared to Disney really gives me the [confidence] that we’ve gotten to a point where we can bring Nintendo to the concept of reassurance and perhaps [give that] reassurance. So that’s something that I really feel like we were able to achieve and I’m happy about. And beyond that, I think it’s really up to Mr. Takashi and how he carries everything forward. And so why don’t you ask him.

Takahashi: We as developers think of ourselves more as an entertainment company. That’s where our goal is. And so we look at not only games, we moved into the game of the park, we also have a movie which will soon be coming out and we hope you all enjoy it. We are trying to, as much as possible, move closer to that ideal that Mr. Miyamoto referenced where we’re a company that’s associated with reassurance for the family members. And we also want to continue to challenge things and take on different challenges, and really get to a point where both the people creating the entertainment and the people engaging in being entertained by the entertainment can enjoy [it]–that’s what we want to aim for and shoot for. Nintendo is Nintendo, and we’re different than everyone else.

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