Miyamoto, Mario and Itoi

Nintendo's Iwata Asks series has provided us with plenty of fascinating insights into the creation of the company's games, the minds of its creators and the creative spirit that defines its output. To celebrate the 25th anniversary of Super Mario Bros., Nintendo legends Shigesato Itoi (creator of the EarthBound games) and Shigeru Miyamoto sat down to speak about how they both create original, engaging games, what Miyamoto talks about at swimming lessons and how Itoi lies to his mother-in-law.

The whole interview is twelve pages long and although it's a little light on genuine details of how Super Mario Bros. was actually created, it does give some insight into the creative process that has driven the series for the past quarter of a century, in particular how Miyamoto likes to take things easy.

Looking back, what's been easy about making the Mario games is that they could naturally change along with the progress of technology. For example, when you make live action SFX movies and as special effects technology advances, then you have new methods at your disposal.

In the same way, as technology advances, the Mario games change, too. On the contrary, books have basically always been made the same way. If it had been necessary to keep making Mario games in the same way like that, we couldn't have done it. In that way, making the Mario games has been easy.

There you go: making some of the world's most enjoyable video games is easy. You just need to be Shigeru Miyamoto first.

[source us.wii.com]