Miyamoto, Iwata discuss Super Mario Galaxy co-op play

The creator of the Super Mario video game series Shigeru Miyamoto was “interviewed” by Nintendo President Satoru Iwata and discussed Super Mario Galaxy, especially its co-op mode.

Wii owners who pre-ordered the game might be surprised at what Miyamoto had to say about the features they’ve included in the game as well as the tweaks they had to do to make the game more enjoyable for two players. The “read more” link leads to the full story.

  

The creator of the Super Mario video game series Shigeru Miyamoto was “interviewed” by Nintendo President Satoru Iwata and discussed Super Mario Galaxy, especially its co-op mode.

Considering that  this game is nearing its North American release, Wii owners who pre-ordered the game might be surprised at what Miyamoto had to say about the features they’ve included in the game as well as the tweaks they had to do to make the game more enjoyable for two players.

In the initial stages, the single-player mode of the game became really complicated. Instead of wasting the additional features they’ve developed, Miyamoto said that they moved a couple of the features to two player mode:

The single-player mode had become very complicated, so we removed some of its features and moved them to the two-player mode. Doing so cleared things up quite a lot. Friendly two-player play is something thatÂ’s easier said than done.

ItÂ’s not a problem in competitive play where the two players are equal, but in scrolling games where one player is the main player, the question of whether the other player could really enjoy the game was just one long-term challenge. With those games, it always seems like the second player is being forced to play, and at times itÂ’s not much fun.

We’re pretty sure that gamers have already experienced playing a multiplayer video game that seemed too skewed towards the first player. More often than not, you just end up playing as the second player to humor the person you’re playing with and not because you’re enjoying yourself.

Well, apparently Miyamoto feels the same way about other games and worked hard to avoid that pitfall in designing the co-op mode of Super Mario Galaxy:

For example, two good friends can have fun no matter what they play. But I wanted the second player to also be able to enjoy action games for what they were. So, by making good use of the Wii RemoteÂ’s pointer, I think we were able to have the second player play the game with a very strong sense of participation.

During the initial stages of development, weÂ’d made it so that the person assisting the main player was able to do things like shake the Wii Remote to make Mario spin or make him jump by pressing A, but we ended up taking those features out because it lent itself to negative play and made play difficult.

Getting in the other playersÂ’ way can be a fun part of gameplay, but I think that with Co-Star mode, which also includes functions to entertain the other player, we were able to finalize the style of the two-player mode.

In typical Miyamoto fashion, his first idea was of a family playing the game together. He even gave a very clear picture of how he imagined a mother and child would play the game together. Miyamoto added as well that with the current system that they’ve implemented for Super Mario Galaxy, it could very well happen:

I had a very strong image of the mother controlling Mario, while her child assisted her saying things like “Mum, there’s an enemy over here!” A parent and child helping each other while they play was something that I wanted to make reality for a long time.

And with Super Mario Galaxy, I strongly feel that situations like this could really happen. So I think thereÂ’s a benefit to sitting next to a beginner and showing them how to play, and I think the two could have all sorts of conversations with each other as they play.

Via Wii