For the second edition of the special Iwata Asks for the 25th anniversary of Mario, Iwata is back in the interviewing chair, as he speaks to Masayuki Uemura, advisor to Nintendo's Research and Engineering department, and Hiroshi Imanishi, ex-Director and General Manager of Corporate Communications.

The interview focuses on their thoughts about the creation of Mario. As Uemura was in charge of hardware development at the time, the story of how the Famicom came about is presented before moving onto how the Mario character affected Nintendo's success in  home video games.

So begins a complex tale of how unlikely the Famicom's existence was, starting with Hiroshi Yamauchi's demands for a  home video game system that used cartridges rather than built-in games that was to be three years ahead of any competitors, and passing through the design problems of early production. The story continues through to the phenomenal success of Super Mario Bros., revealing tidbits such as "Ossan", the original name of Mario.

Do check out the full interview.