Who needs story when you have Mario-shaped planetoids?

Traditionally, the core Mario games have never been heavy on story. The Princess gets herself into Bowser's clutches somehow, collect stars, yada yada yada. It's a classic formula, and one that series creator Shigeru Miyamoto finds to be good enough to get the game going. During E3, Wired caught up with Miyamoto about whether Super Mario Galaxy 2 will continue its predecessors story elements.

In short, not really.

I just feel that the Mario games are something that should be a much more bright and active experience. With the Mario games, you don’t need to have such a complicated setting where you have these particular characters with complicated backstories that can weigh down the bright and fun feel of the game.

He's got a point; too much story can sometimes turn traditionally simple games into burning disasters. Yoshiaki Koizumi, director of the Galaxy games, doesn't particularly agree with Miyamoto's story minimalism. Coming from a film and drama education, Koizumi loves him a well-spun yarn.

Mr. Koizumi is the type of person who, whenever we’re working on a new Mario game, he always wants to bring more story elements into it, as he did with Super Mario Galaxy. But in talking with him this time, he agrees and feels that with Galaxy 2, there won’t be a need for as deep of a story.

Koizumi could just be saying that, of course, because he's continually tried to sneak story elements into Mario and Zelda games, and who's to say he'll actually stop? He's responsible for the dream-plot of Link's Awakening, the original Galaxy's storybook hub and the little nuggets of story you can gleam from talking to people in Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask.

“Well, I put a stop to that at the beginning, this time,” Miyamoto said, and for emphasis punched the air with his fist.

Score one for gaming's premiere banjo player! Miyamoto has also had a few battles with the team behind New Super Mario Bros. Wii regarding story.

They always want to have these dramatic scenes where Princess Peach gets kidnapped, but I always tell them, no, it’s fine — Princess Peach likes cake, so you can just have them use cake as bait to kidnap Princess Peach, and that’s enough. [...] I was thinking they could have these big ships come in, and they’ve got these big chains all over them, and they drop a plate down with cake on it.

It's official: Princess Peach is the single dumbest and most gluttonous gaming character ever created, end of story. Do you want more plot in your core Mario games, or are you perfectly satisfied with saving Peach again and again? Let us know!

[source wired.com]