So, an interview from 1995 showing that Miyamoto didn’t want to make a Super Mario World sequel huh?
Ha! I can top that.
Remember the “Mario Mania” Player’s Guide that Nintendo Power put out for Super Mario World in 1991? Let’s flip to page 32, which contains an interview with Miyamoto:
“Q. How do you decide when to make another Mario game?
A. After we finish a Mario game, the staff usually vows never to do another one! But once the game is released, we start hinking it may not be such a bad idea to add another title to the series. We usually have lots of ideas that we haven’t been able to implement yet. A good example is Yoshi the dinosaur who just appeared in Super Mario World. We wanted to have Mario ride a dinosaur ever since we finished the original Super Mario Bros., but it was impossible technically. We were finally able to get Yoshi off the drawing boards with the Super NES.
Q. What’s in the future for Mario?
A. I don’t know if there will be another game in the Super Mario series, but I can say there is something special in the works.“
Imagine you are a young kid back in 1991, reading the “Mario Mania” guide book because you love Super Mario Bros. so much and can’t wait to read about all of the secrets of the newest game, Super Mario World. Then you flip to page 32 of the guide and find that the creator of the series just got done telling you that his team hates making the games and they’re probably won’t be another one even though Nintendo just got done releasing four straight Mario games in a period of six years (plus a handheld game). Wouldn’t you feel distraught?
At least we know one thing for sure. As soon as Miyamoto and the team finished Super Mario Bros. 5, they vowed not to do another one!
The reason why the games were so good was precisely because they didn’t want to do another one. A very good indicator of an upcoming bad game is if the developers are already talking about sequels and if they ever mention their new game with the word ‘franchise’. This means they did not give the game their ‘all’. They are holding back.
If I ever owned a gaming company, I would write on the walls with very large wording this line: “Make every game as if it is going to be the last game you make. One day, you will be right.”
