Today I've gathered a number of developers who have been involved with the Super Mario Bros. series. None of you worked at Nintendo 25 years ago when the Super Mario Bros. game was first released. I'd like to ask how you have been involved with the Super Mario Bros. series since joining the company.
First, I'd like to know which titles in the Super Mario Bros. series you have been involved with, starting with you, Eguchi-san.
Eguchi
I helped draw the levels. After that, I did some other work, but then I returned to the Mario team as the level director for Super Mario World
3 for the Super Famicom system and concentrated on making the levels. Then I shifted over to other work again, so I'm not involved with the Mario series anymore, but as a related game, I helped make the levels for
Yoshi's Story.
4Konno
Right. Then I worked on Super Mario Bros. 3 with Eguchi-san, and as the hardware shifted over to the Super Famicom, I participated in development of Super Mario World.
Konno
Yeah. It took a whole day. We'd give a level layout to a programmer in the morning, and a working version would be ready that night. But then when I'd try it out, something would be wrong, like a Goomba sunk into the ground! (laughs)
Kimura
I joined the company in 1988. I was slated to be assigned to a different development department, but not long after I joined, I received training for the Entertainment Analysis & Development Department (EAD). At that time, Takashi Tezuka-san, who was directing Super Mario Bros. 3, asked me to make some characters. I drew two enemies, and that was my first involvement with the Mario series.
Kimura
Yeah. I was really happy about that. (laughs) After that I was assigned to another department, but before long I moved to EAD again and worked on the
Super Mario Advance series.
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Iwata
The Super Mario Advance series was a project that began with the idea of adapting old Super Mario games to be played on the Game Boy Advance system.
Kimura
Yeah. At first it was decided to bring out a series of four games. The first one was Super Mario Bros. 2, next was Super Mario World, then came Yoshi's Island12, and Super Mario Bros. 3 was last. I was involved with the first Super Mario Advance game as a designer.
Iwata
You were a designer at first?
Kimura
That's right. When it came time to decide who would be the director for Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2 and later games in the series, the suggestion came up of having me direct them since I had been design leader on the first one.
Iwata
When you say it like that, you make it sound as if it just naturally fell in your lap. (laughs)
Kimura
Sorry. (laughs) Um, it wasn't like that. I originally came into the company as a designer, but I'd been begging to do something like think of a game and make it myself, so I think I got asked to do it because of that.
Iwata
Oh, I see. And you worked on New Super Mario Bros.13 for the Nintendo DS system and New Super Mario Bros. Wii14 for the Wii console.
Kimura
Yeah. I was producer of those two.
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Super Mario Advance series: A series of action games released in March 2001, December 2001, September 2002 and July 2003 for Game Boy Advance. |
| 12 |
Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island: An action game released for the Super Famicom system in August 1995. |
| 13 |
New Super Mario Bros.: An action game released for Nintendo DS in May 2006. |
| 14 |
New Super Mario Bros. Wii: An action game released for the Wii console in December 2009. |
Iwata
As the youngest, you're last Koizumi-san.
Koizumi
I entered Nintendo in 1991, the year after Super Mario World came out. I wasn't hired to make games but was in charge of drawing illustrations for game packaging and instruction manuals.
Iwata
What we call artwork around here.
Koizumi
Yeah. And
Yoichi Kotabe-san15 taught me how to draw characters and I started drawing Mario every day.
Iwata
You studied as Kotabe-san's pupil.
Koizumi
He told me things like "The lines for Mario are about this thick" and "This line is two millimeters. The space between these eyes is one millimeter." Then, perhaps by chance, although I don't really know for sure, the year before the Nintendo 64 came out, about 1994 or 1995, I got to work on Super Mario 64.
Iwata
What was the reason you went from being Kotabe-san's pupil to Miyamoto-san's pupil?
Koizumi
I hadn't formally specialized in 3D CG design, but mostly as a private hobby, I had imported a computer called Amiga16, known for its advanced graphics, and at home I would work away at 3D modeling and animation, and I would show it to Miyamoto-san.
Then before I knew it I was in charge of model animation for the player character in Super Mario 64. But games were appearing in 3D then, so I did all kinds of things like designing the camera and making enemies and land forms.
Iwata
Back then, the way to execute a 3D action game wasn't firmly established, so someone who was interested could charge ahead and make whatever he wanted.
Koizumi
Yeah. I really did make whatever I wanted. It was endless, so I might have been a big pain in Miyamoto-san's neck. (laughs) Anyway, that's how I was involved.
Iwata
And that's why you've always worked on the 3D Mario games.
Koizumi
Yeah. In the Mario series, I was involved with Super Mario Sunshine
17 and the Super Mario Galaxy
18 series.
| 15 |
Yoichi Kotabe: One of Japan's foremost animators known for his work on the animated television series Heidi, Girl of the Alps. After leaving Toei Animation, he joined Nintendo, where he worked on character design for Mario. Currently, he works as a freelance artist. |
| 16 |
Amiga: A personal computer developed by Commodore that first appeared in 1985. |
| 17 |
Super Mario Sunshine: A 3D action game released for the Nintendo GameCube system in July 2002. |
| 18 |
Super Mario Galaxy series: A series of 3D action games released for the Wii console. The first one was released in November 2007 and the second in May 2010. |
