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3DS

Nintendo Recaps Steel Diver's History, Why Mario's Fat

by Nicholas Bray - May 19, 2011, 4:21 pm EDT
Total comments: 8 Source: (Iwata Asks), http://iwataasks.nintendo.com/interviews/#/3ds/ste...

The Steel Diver Iwata Asks reveals the game's origins, including why the game is slow paced and light on content.

Steel Diver was at one point planned to be a DSiWare title, and Mario is fat because games back then could only read square collision detections, according to a recent Iwata Asks about Steel Diver.

The 3DS launch title began life as a technical demo for E3 2004 for the Nintendo DS. After which, the game’s producer Tadashi Sugiyama became involved with other projects. The game wasn’t revived until Nintendo of America asked if it could be released as a DSiWare game.

At first the team was only working on one mode, but that quickly changed as they decided to move the game from DSiWare to a full retail DS game.

The team took awhile to get the controls and feel of the game locked down. Members of the team, along with members from the Super Mario Club, who do the testing for Nintendo games, said that the game was slow and didn’t respond well. They wanted it simpler and faster. There was a bit of back and forth with making the controls lighter, but then the game started feeling less and less like a realistic submarine. After experimenting with making the game easier to control, the team felt that it didn’t feel right, and decided to go back and make it slower paced and heavier again.

There were also challenges for the collision detection. Lots of things like the periscope stick out on a submarine, which can be tricky to get the collisions just right. Miyamoto joked about simply making the sub a square container like shape. He then went on to give an example using Mario.

“The reason Mario is a plump shape is because gaming devices at that time could only read collisions between square boxes, not because I wanted to make him cute,” Miyamoto revealed. “His design turned out like that because I adjusted for the capabilities of the gaming device of the day. For example, resolution was low, so I made his face big. But today's game consoles can handle collisions with round or irregular shapes. Even so, it's difficult with a complicated shape like that of a submarine.”

Just when the game was basically complete, Miyamoto told them that they should move the game to the Nintendo 3DS. At the time, they didn’t have a sufficient development kit, and getting the game to have the stereoscopic 3D effect wasn’t as easy as they thought it would be. Finally the team got it to look right the day before their presentation.

Director Takaya Imamura asked several times if they could add more content, but both Sugiyama and Miyamoto rejected the idea, instead wanting the game to be more focused and limited so that players could play it again and again.

Talkback

Ian SaneMay 19, 2011

Imamura sounds like he's trying to avoid blame.  "It wasn't my fault the game sucks!  Miyamoto made me do it!" :)

Mario doesn't actually seem that fat in Donkey Kong.  It's more that he just has a freakishly huge head.

King of TwitchMay 19, 2011

Quote:

Director Takaya Imamura asked several times if they could add more content, but both Sugiyama and Miyamoto rejected the idea, instead wanting the game to be more focused and limited so that players could play it again and again.

You coudn't have made the extra content..optional? Remember making not every Pikmin ship part necessary for finishing the game? Skulltullas?

And they made the controls less precise (no circle/d- pad)... just to set it apart from side scrollers?  Is the laughing gas affecting their brains?

Quote:

Iwata: Oh, way back then? Star Fox Command came out in 2006, but you started working on it after the E3 2004?

Imamura: Right. But as we were discussing it, we began to think it might be a little underwhelming to sell as a packaged software. When submarines suddenly came up this time, I was like, "Here we go again!"

Iwata: It was the return of the submarines! (laughs)

Imamura: Yeah. They suddenly resurfaced! (laughs)

Quote:

Miyamoto: I think that was because I had my mind set thinking "Imamura-san's the one to make the submarine game!" (laughs)

Imamura: I suppose you had that idea because I had made a bunch of vehicle-related games.

Iwata: (laughs) You had done cars in F-Zero and fighter planes in Star Fox!

Imamura: And this time it's submarines! I've conquered land, sea and sky! (laughs)

Iwata:http://iwataasks.nintendo.com/_ui/images/3ds/steel-diver/photo8.jpg Wow! So now you have conquered land, sky and sea! (laughs)

Everyone: (laughs)

Imamura: Yeah! (laughs)

Quote:

Imamura: It's like a slow version of F-Zero. (laughs)

Iwata: F-Zero in slow motion. (laughs)

This was the most surreal and awesome part of any Iwata Asks yet:

Quote:

Miyamoto: 's also the one who taught me juggling.
Iwata: Juggling?
Miyamoto: Yes. You know how a clown can juggle balls in the air? All the programmers from England could do that.
Iwata: All three who came to Nintendo could do it?
Giles: Yeah. (laughs)
Miyamoto: They'd be juggling and suddenly toss out a floppy disk.
Iwata: Huh? They'd throw floppy disks?
Miyamoto: Because there wasn't a network.
Iwata: Oh, back then the computers weren't linked.
Giles: So we'd toss each other floppy disks for sharing files.
Miyamoto: They'd snatch one out of the air and stick it in our computer. (laughs) And when they had some spare moments, they would juggle three balls. I was interested, so I had them teach me.

Mop it upMay 20, 2011

The headline tickles me, but I already knew that tidbit about Mario from the old Mario Mania book that might have been a subscriber bonus for Nintendo Power, but I forget where I got it.

Actually, Miyamoto didn't mention that part in Mario Mania.

Mop it upMay 20, 2011

Are you sure? I could have sworn I've read that tidbit before somewhere...

Quote from: Mop

The headline tickles me, but I already knew that tidbit about Mario from the old Mario Mania book that might have been a subscriber bonus for Nintendo Power, but I forget where I got it.

I'm super proud of that headline.

ShyGuyMay 20, 2011

In continuity, Mario is fat from eating Peach's cakes.

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