All on the grid

By now you've presumably read our Mario Kart 7 review, giving the latest 3DS racer a well-deserved 9/10 score. If you want to know more about how the game was put together, Nintendo's got you covered with an Iwata Asks interview all about MK7.

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata spoke to series producer Hideki Konno and other members of the Entertainment Analysis and Development Division about the ups and downs of creating a new Mario Kart game with Texan team Retro Studios.

With the team's goal of getting everything running at 60 frames per second, some courses proved trickier than others, with Wuhu Island offering a particular challenge as program director Yusuke Shiraiwa explains:

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It's a busy course graphically as well, so processing was getting heavy. At that time, Morimoto-san took a business trip to Retro Studios. They adjusted the graphics there and at the same time we improved the programming here. Konno-san was worried, so just about every day he would say, "How is it coming?" (laughs)

The team also discussed implementing the first-person view which, if handled poorly, may not have done the 3DS's public image any good. Series producer Hideki Konno and team were equal to it though:

Konno: And when you go over a banana, you spin. When that happens from the driver's point of view, you might get dizzy, so the camera pulls back and just the kart spins.

Iwata: I see. I think the players will get along with it just fine, but whether you contrive it like that or not makes quite a difference. It's important, but it's the kind of thing that's easy to overlook.

Konno: At first, we didn't think twice about having the screen spin. But after one race, we got dizzy (laughs), so we adjusted it.

That's probably for the best.

[source iwataasks.nintendo.com]