"Mario 128 será la verdadera secuela de Mario 64"

In a number of publications launching overnight in Japan, Nintendo development overlord Shigeru Miyamoto has confirmed the existence of both Pikmin 2 and Mario 128.

According to an interview given in Japan's Playboy magazine, Miyamoto said, "When you start thinking that you have to raise the number of consoles, you realise that having a lot of brand names is important. But I still have the urge to make new things. We're developing Pikmin 2 and the Mario 128 that we have already shown at previous press events. You will feel something new (in Mario 128) that wasn't in Mario Sunshine."

He continued, "Mario Sunshine was a form of evolution, a deluxe version of Mario 64. We sold over 2.5 million in America and Japan, but we didn't make it to a million within Japan. Maybe we will before the end of the year, but I don't know. A lot of people think it's just too tough, but I don't think that's the issue here."

It's all good. Humble reflection seems a little strange coming from the usually bulletproof Donkey Kong creator.

Furthermore, in press release issued by Nintendo, Miyamoto commented more specifically on how the Mario 128 title fits into Nintendo's general Mario development timeline. "When we announced Mario 128, we were already working on Super Mario Sunshine. At that time, the basic actions were completed; however in the eyes of a Mario player, it was not enough. To go beyond Mario meant using actions to discover new things."

Then, in an interview conducted by Nintendo (strange huh?) he said, "We are working on many different projects. We have shown the idea for Mario 128 before, which is headed in a different direction. But Super Mario Sunshine took this direction. It is an authentic sequel to Super Mario 64. I regret this somewhat not because of the quality of Super Mario Sunshine, but rather because this Mario game may not attract players who are returning to gaming after some time."

If you read closely enough between the lines here, it's kind of easy to see that Miyamoto isn't best chuffed with Super Mario Sunshine, be it in terms of global appeal, sales or general quality of content and accessibility. It now looks almost certain that Mario 128 will be a true Mario 64 sequel, definitely a good thing.

We'll keep you posted on all of this as it breaks and, between you, us and the bedpost, expect to see something of Mario 128, with a new title, in running form at some point next year.

fuente: SPOnG


Miya-san