Today saw the launch of Disrupting the Game, From the Bronx to the Top of Nintendo, written by Reggie Fils-Aimé; we've shared our thoughts on it in a review. It gives intriguing detail on Fils-Aimé's broader career outside of Nintendo, as well as insights on the big N from a Nintendo of America perspective. A big part of this is forming relationships with the executives and management in Kyoto, and while Fils-Aimé developed a close relationship with Satoru Iwata, he describes his partnership with Shigeru Miyamoto as 'much more formal'.
In the book Fils-Aimé shows a great deal of admiration for Miyamoto-san — even when the designer wasn't happy — sharing examples of insight into what he calls his 'creative genius'. One point was that in many meetings Miyamoto-san would often be relatively quiet, taking notes in a leather-bound journal; this was done to capture ideas, "I am always thinking about new ideas".
One nice story relates to a social occasion in New York. Fils-Aimé was taking NCL's Yasuhiro Minagawa for a nightcap at Keens Steakhouse, due to a strong selection of whiskies and wines. Despite not drinking alcohol, Miyamoto-san went along for a coffee and became fascinated by the ceiling, which holds hundreds of customer's traditional smoking pipes. Being traditionally made from clay, the idea was that due to their delicate nature they would be stored in the premises for valued customers in a 'Pipe Club', so they could request them on visits. An old-fashioned premise, undoubtedly, maintained for the history of the restaurant.
Fils-Aimé observed Miyamoto-san as the story was relayed to him.
During all of this, I focused on Mr. Miyamoto. He was smiling throughout the translations by Mr. Minagawa as he heard this story. He would tilt his head and gaze at the pipes on the ceiling. I was imagining all the ideas that were churning inside Mr Miyamoto's brain. When you next see a game from Nintendo that features a room with long, thin-stemmed smoking pipes on the ceiling, you will know where the idea came from.
I am fortunate to have partnered with him and Mr. Iwata, learning from two of the most creative and innovative minds in the gaming industry.
We'll keep an eye out for that detail, maybe the idea will be used in a Nintendo title some day.
- Further reading: Review: Disrupting The Game: From The Bronx To The Top Of Nintendo - Reggie Fils-Aimé
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Comments (19)
It stopped at "nearly complete" Pikmn 4 seven years ago. 😝
https://www.eurogamer.net/pikmin-4-in-development-and-very-close-to-completion
@rjejr I have to imagine at this point that the game has probably started over. And my money says, its because they looked back at what they had only to realize that Pikmin 4 was really little more than more Pikmin 3 with little innovation from the game before it. Or perhaps, he was actually talking about Hey! Pikmin for the 3DS at the time, and the proper Pikmin 4 was only very early in development or hadn't even started yet.
And then he goes on to limit the creative freedom of others, if Paper Mario is anything to go by.
I have great respect for the guy but sometimes his decisions are really dumb.
@Yosher Nothing is perfect in life, but I imagine the benefits out weighed the negatives. That series also struggles in the too good at the start syndrome, a few game series come into this category. I feel that they get it so right first time then can't evolve it as they used up all the best ideas.
I suspect we'll see an official Western release of Mother 3 before we see this game with smoking pipes hanging from the ceiling.
@rjejr
Adding 4 to a Nintendo title seems to be deadly.
Metroid Prime 4 also appears to be in purgatory.
@dew12333 Them using up the best ideas right away doesn't mean they have to take away the freedom of at least the ability of making more unique characters within established Mario species like Toads and Yoshis though.
@Yosher Seems a bit of a sideways move to me, but I get your thinking.
My creative process also never stops.
It has yet to start, though.
I find it very interesting how much Miyamoto appreciates non-gaming interests and how to relate them to gaming.
If I recall correctly, Miyamoto-san is an avid gardner and that's were we got Pikmin from. It's a very cool way to generate new ideas and that kind of je ne sais quoi is what I've always loved from Nintendo.
What games has he worked on lately that actually turned out well? Sounds like moving into a new venture like movies was a good call for him.
@Yosher I didn’t know he had much of an influence on the Paper Mario games, obviously I know he still dabbles in the development of the 3D Mario titles. I know he objected to the Backstory of Roselina in Mario Galaxy, which was Yoshiaki Koizumi’s Idea. A lot of people were split of the story. I loved it
@BiscuitCrumbsInMyBed From my understanding he doesn't want to harm the image of the Mario universe by keeping all the characters generally the same looking, so no female secretary Toads or mohawk scrappy fighting Yoshis anymore unfortunately until they change this policy. Could also just be Nintendo of Japan in general and not just Miyamoto but I wouldn't put it past him to push such a thing.
And yes Rosalina's backstory in Galaxy was one of the best things about the game, and the game was already grand on pretty much every front. I really don't understand why anyone would not want such a thing in there.
@Chunkboi79
All of them?
@duffmmann I've spent way too much time on Pikmin 4 news and rumours - I bought our Wii U for Pikmin 3 like 10 years ago so didn't get it on Switch so it has been a VERY long time since I played a new Pikmin game and I really like the series - and to the best of my knowledge Hey! Pikmin was NEVER Pikmin 4, Shiggy himself said so at least twice, and they did restart the game in 2019.
My best hunch guess is it was made for Wii U since 3 was a delayed launch title they could have gotten 4 on there if Wii U had a normal 5 year life cycle rather than only 4 years but since Wii U died so fast they wanted to move it to Switch but hard to do when so much of the game was probably being built for the Gamepad. They stripped the interactive map out of BotW so the Wii U version wasn't better than the Switch version, but maybe too much of Pikmin 4 was tocuhscreen reliant to easily move to 1 screen.
I still hope for a Switch 2 DS - I like dual screens and clamshell designs - with Pikmin 4 as a launch title. I'm stupid that way,
@Franklin Adding a 2 to Breath of the Wild hasn't been doing that game any favors either. 😉
@TheRealMr_Carpainter didn't he lead starfox zero?
@Yosher Star Fox zero, I am still mad at him for that forcing using two screens at the same time, he is like , , unless there is a new innovative way to play, then he does not want to do the game, the game would have been brilliant if they would have made it more gritty instead of so clean looking, and of course let people play it the old style way which is much better and much more intuitive.
@Danrenfroe2016 Yeah I don't really understand his whole "must be new and innovative" thing either. Sure he's made great things with that point of view, but he doesn't have to apply it everywhere. Sometimes, more of the same is great and exactly what the fans want. See F-Zero too. They don't know what to include to make it new and exciting again, when all fans want is just more of the same. It's kinda dumb.
@Yosher yeah fast rmx racing, that should have been the new f-zero, they could have fleshed it out and made it more Nintendo style and still had shinin do the game it would have been absolutely wonderful. it's still a great game, but I really wish it was an f-zero game.
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