:: IGN Interviews Shigeru Miyamoto
May 19, 2005   9:38pm

IGN was lucky enough to interview Shigeru Miyamoto, however they might have been wasting their time because the creator of Mario and Zelda had not much to say regarding the Revolution, which, of course, was mainly the target of IGN's questions. The interview is rather short (2 pages) and doesn't tell us much except things we knew such as Smash Bros. being in development for Revolution (Miyamoto is not in charge) and Miyamoto's team doing some tests for a Mario on Revolution.

He explains this Mario might end up being Mario 128 as it might as well end up being a sequel to Super Mario Sunshine or something completely different. In other words, nothing is certain. One thing underlined in this interview is Miyamoto's confidence regarding the Revolution and the separation with Sony and Microsoft, who "follow their own path".

However, there is a weakness in this reasonning, as Miyamoto often uses the DS as a comparison for success, explaining "[the DS] is really different from anything else out there, people are playing that and really enjoying it." This is debatable as many games on DS have failed to convince, many titles being criticized for different reasons such as their short lifespan or gimmick use of some features of the console.

When reading such statements, you can't help feeling Nintendo is a bit out of contact with the reality of what's happening. It's a pity also IGN didn't bother to ask some more interesting questions (rather than insisting uselessly on the Revolution specs) such as how many titles are currently in development for Revolution, more details about the GameCube compatibility (will accessories and memory cards be compatible as suggested by some pictures ?) and above all, the question Samurai Nintendo would desperately like to ask: does Nintendo realize that the overuse of their characters and franchise is what is responsible for their gradual but regular decline for the past few years and is not going to change by blackening their hardware but requires rethinking and efforts in the creation of brand new games, not just Mario derivative and endless Zelda sequels ?