Miyamoto’s secret to Mario’s success: Don’t make it childish

In a recent interview, Shigeru Miyamoto reveals his secret to creating a long-standing and successful franchise as Super Mario. You’d be surprised to know that for a genre that caters to the young and young at heart, his strategy is not to make childish writing in his Mario games.

 

 

 

In a recent interview, Shigeru Miyamoto reveals his secret to creating a long-standing and successful franchise as Super Mario. You’d be surprised to know that for a genre that caters to the young and young at heart, his strategy is not to make childish writing in his Mario games.

 

 

 

 

Said Miyamoto:

 

 

 

“I realized that whether it’s story or movies, it’s not about whether we need them or don’t need them. What’s most important is that the game resonates. You notice things like how a certain enemy wasn’t scary, but the next time a similar one appears, its color is a little different and it spits out two rocks instead of one, so you think it must be tougher. You reason things out for yourself and put them to the test. This kind of interaction is interesting.”

 

 

 

“Unless you’re careful, there’s a tendency for games like Mario that can be played by children to gradually become childish. Those making the game tend to unconsciously make them that way. Taking how Mario’s line can be scripted as an example, they even propose to write, ‘Where’d my mommy go?’

 

 

 

When someone in their fifties like me hears their player-character speak childishly like that, it doesn’t quite sit right. After all, Mario wasn’t a game only for children in the first place. As I make a game, I try to keep in mind that guys in their fifties will play it, too.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Via [Nintendo Everything]