Comparing Mario to food, gardens, and tea tables!
On the eve of its Japanese release, Satoru Iwata sat down with former Nintendo Dream writer Akinori Sao to talk about Super Mario Galaxy (for the entire interview, click the Related Link above). Here are the juiciest tidbits:
• The concept for Super Mario Galaxy was born from the famous “128 Marios" demo at Space World in 2000. That demo showed an appropriate number of plumbers walking around a saucer. Iwata wanted to turn that concept into a game, but did not think it was possible at the time, given the technical challenges of producing a sphere.
• Incredibly, the Mario Galaxy production team’s previous effort was Donkey Kong Jungle Beat!
• The whole idea of having Mario wandering around a sphere didn’t initially focus on a galactic background. Rather, the stars and nebulae were added after the team realized that, when you put Mario on a sphere, he looks like he’s walking around a planet.
• The team really did hope to have Galaxy done within six months of Wii's launch date.
• Super Mario Sunshine originally had several options for camera control, but the team quickly realized that test players did not like being forced into a single camera option. In Galaxy, the inherent problems of a 3D camera were a big focus.
• Another huge focus in Galaxy was to simplify the controls. The team realized that jumping in 3D space is trouble enough—but precise jumping on a sphere? Thus, Mario’s new spin move was created.
• The Co-Op mode in Galaxy was created with the intention of allowing players to help each other, not compete or lose track of each other.
• The game allows six save files so that everybody in the family can play.
I got so infuriated with the rupee stealing in Four Swords that I never finished the game. 
