After 40 years, the mystery surrounding the creator of Mario and Zelda has finally been solved!
Game news After 40 years, the mystery surrounding the creator of Mario and Zelda has finally been solved!
Video games are full of urban legends, and it can sometimes take years for them to be erased from the collective subconscious. Received ideas die hard, as they say, but it’s another myth that we should, a priori, put in the closet.
Nintendo, separately publisher
For decades, Nintendo has been known as the Japanese company that never follows the rules of competition. In general, their ideas are the ones that are copied by others and you only have to read the interviews with Kyoto developers to be convinced of that. Nintendo has a corporate culture that feels a bit outdated, but that difference means that the works that come out of its studios often have a unique charm and, above all, incredible ingenuity. Just play a few levels of Super Mario Bros. It is amazing to understand that its creators definitely have something different. It must be said that Nintendo, unlike many other studios experiencing periods of crisis, has a completely different approach to its employees.
Although games are subject to timelines, developers do not face the same pressure as designers at some Western studios. It could exist, of course, but you should know that for a game like Super Mario Wonder, there were no time restrictions at all, and at the same time, Nintendo made sure to offer a budget that matched the character. The developers clearly had carte blanche to release them, which gives this title insane generosity. And if we’re talking to you about this, it’s because it fits well with Nintendo’s philosophy.
Cult quote demystified?
In the history of video games, Nintendo has always been considered a separate publisher, and Shigeru Miyamoto, Mario’s father, often had to explain to us what goes behind the scenes at the company. For several decades, the following quote was attributed to him: “ The late game will end up being good, but a bad game will still be a bad game. » This phrase, which has become a cult, has been used several times by some studios to justify postponing a title currently in development. For all, Shigeru Miyamoto is the author of this quote! A quote that has been used in fields other than video games (yes, yes!)! After years of believing in the site Critical hit conducted an in-depth investigation into this famous quote and it indeed appears that Miyamoto He did not say such a sentence.
The first reference to this quote actually goes back to a poster found on Usenet in 1998, and those interested have even traced it back to Siobhan Beeman, the project manager at Origin at the time, who confirmed to them… that it was her, while speaking at the Game Developers Conference ( GDC) in 1996, which launched: The game only lags when it’s charging, but it stays bad forever. » If the same phrase passes through, it is used to replace the original device and it was repeated by many people, don’t the producer of GT Interactive and a new name Ellen Guon (who reprises it) her husband). It had finally been years without anyone really being bothered by it, and Shigeru Miyamoto himself probably wasn’t even aware of it. The bottom line is that Ellen Goon changed her name and became Siobhan Beeman! With reference to the Critical Hit website (Not a small investigation as you can see here) He had the answer. The case was therefore resolved until a new presumptive investigation was conducted.