Miyamoto talks on casual, hardcore gaming

Innovation and fun, that’s always been the words associated with Nintendo’s consoles, the Wii and Nintendo DS. Top man Shigeru Miyamoto himself has always stood by these words and in a recent interview with Weekly Famitsu he reasserts his views on how games should be enjoyable to the casual gamer as well as the hardcore gamer.

One of the more dominant arguments against the Wii is that while it does invite in the casual gamer – anyone who can wave a stick can play the Wii – it does alienate more experienced players for its lack of hardcore games. Miyamoto says this shouldn’t be so. In the interview, he expresses how games should feel more like games and are fun for the sake of having fun.

The fact is, I donÂ’t think there is such a wall between both audiences. While there are indeed games designed for core and casual markets, core users are also enjoying casual gaming […] I think the future is games that are not difficult and yet very fun to play. […] What I mean is that there is no point in making a difficulty level the fun factor of a game.

His comments were focused on Super Mario Galaxy, which he describes as having all the elements needed for a fun pick-up-and-play experience:

We need to release more games which feel like games. It is important that people who are playing them feel that the games are indeed fun to play […] Should it be fun by only playing it a short time, this indicates already it has a big value as a product […] It is very important that the full fun of the game is being felt in the first stage 1-1.

Via Next Generation

Innovation and fun, that’s always been the words associated with Nintendo’s consoles, the Wii and Nintendo DS. Top man Shigeru Miyamoto himself has always stood by these words and in a recent interview with Weekly Famitsu he reasserts his views on how games should be enjoyable to the casual gamer as well as the hardcore gamer.

One of the more dominant arguments against the Wii is that while it does invite in the casual gamer – anyone who can wave a stick can play the Wii – it does alienate more experienced players for its lack of hardcore games. Miyamoto says this shouldn’t be so. In the interview, he expresses how games should feel more like games and are fun for the sake of having fun.

The fact is, I donÂ’t think there is such a wall between both audiences. While there are indeed games designed for core and casual markets, core users are also enjoying casual gaming […] I think the future is games that are not difficult and yet very fun to play. […] What I mean is that there is no point in making a difficulty level the fun factor of a game.

His comments were focused on Super Mario Galaxy, which he describes as having all the elements needed for a fun pick-up-and-play experience:

We need to release more games which feel like games. It is important that people who are playing them feel that the games are indeed fun to play […] Should it be fun by only playing it a short time, this indicates already it has a big value as a product […] It is very important that the full fun of the game is being felt in the first stage 1-1.

Via Next Generation