Mario is perhaps gaming's biggest monolith, beating out his long-time blue-furred rival and (at least according to GameStop) outlasting the console wars. With the plumbing business showing no signs of slowing, a recent interview saw Mario's creators weigh in on what it'd take to see Nintendo's flagship brand reach a full century of life.
The interview, translated by VGC, featured Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka, both executives at Nintendo. They were joined by Toshihiko Nakago, the representative director and president of Systems Research and Development, and Koji Kondo, the Mario series' composer.
“One might think it would be a miracle if Mario was still here after 100 years," Tezuka said, "since we make things while not knowing when our players may get bored with them. If it’s not fun to play, you’ll get bored, and I’m always thinking of how to keep it so that something like that doesn’t happen so that people keep playing.”
The process of finding the fun, according to the interviewees, happens over two main steps. You have to keep the core of the fun in mind — in this case, the feel of Mario running and jumping. The interactivity of it all. Miyamoto...
