All bow down to the almighty Shiggy! The man had a little chat with CNET at E3 about all kinds of interesting topics. Shigeru does his typical Dolphin-Question-Dodge-Two-Step like no other...but he does offer some interesting views of Nintendo's up and coming powerhouses. 64DD Talk, Mario 64 II, How powerful the Next Gen will be, and how Shigeru gets excited about Maracas! It's all here kids! Check out these Dolphin chunks...

Gamecenter: You've made a very successful career out of doing innovative and fun titles that really haven't been that violent. What are your thoughts on Conker?

Shigeru Miyamoto: Well, what we understand now is that we have captured very loyal customers, especially among elementary-school children, and regardless of the hype and the ups and downs of the gaming industry, they are very loyal customers, and Nintendo cherishes that. But at the same time we understand it's kind of dangerous just to keep a loyal family-oriented base all the time. So we may need some change. Here we are: we have seen yesterday's press conference and how people reacted to the Conker's Bad Fur Day video, so we are excited. It's kind of necessary to deal with different audiences and themes. Having said that, however, we don't want to hamper our good relationships with families, especially the parents, so we are taking a very careful attitude about introducing any new game including violence.

GC: So Mario won't be swearing any time soon?

S. M.: Probably not. (Laughs)

GC: Is it still fun to do after all these years?

S. M.: Yes, I'm enjoying myself quite a lot. Sometimes there are a number of other young guys becoming very good creators, and my role has been changing all the time. I support their work to make new video games, so there are always some kinds of changes around me. I think I am enjoying these changes myself.

GC: Are you personally working on any more N64 games?

S. M.: Yes, I am making some games for the N64--or, that is to say, my team is.

GC: Such as Mario 64 2?

S. M.: (Laughs) Actually it's not very difficult to make a sequel to a video game, but when we say sequel, we always try to make something new, which is not very easy to make.

GC: A few years ago there was a screen shot and talk about a two-player mode in the next Mario game. Is that still going to be on the N64?

S. M.: Well yes, there are kind of ideas to make the two-player Mario 64 system. Actually we have made some kind of programming so that two players can play the sequel of Mario 64 together, but in order to finish up we need more designers and programmers and unfortunately all of them are now already starting work on Dolphin. So I don't think we can see the sequel on N64.

GC: What's your involvement with the Dolphin and the Game Boy Advance?

S. M.: It's always a team involvement, so it's not only me but a whole team that's involved in any kind of system development. I think I should tell you that, when we see the whole workload of our teams, about 20 percent are now working on N64 and some others; 80 percent or so are working on new systems and among the new systems. Between Dolphin and GBA, probably the ratio is about three to one.

GC: So what do you think of the 64 DD? Is it still technology that will be incorporated into the next system?

S. M.: Well, you know, the makings of the communication networks, involving the cells for downloading of new products, or cells of the online shopping and so forth: many things are still experimental nowadays. And we understand that the software is receiving very high marks from the audiences but it's not easy for us to convert 64 DD games to cartridges. As a matter of fact, the way to develop the DD elements in software I have always been thinking about it in making new games. I can at least say that the ideas for 64 DD are always occupying a large part of my mind so that they can be made use of in my future game developments.

GC: How large an impact do the games out on the market have on the development of your games?

S. M.: I myself am not influenced by games created by others when making our own games. But when we have group gatherings or conferences to talk about new ideas, sometimes an idea brought up someone will be seen to be too similar to something currently on the market and so forth. Those kind of talks are always done so that we are not going to make something similar. So this kind of comparison is always made, but not to imitate but to [ensure we] make something quite different. If other companies are making something great, something really unique, they are very, very stimulating. That actually encourages us to make something more, something better.

GC: Have you seen anything lately that's excited you?

S. M.: Samba de Amigo. (Laughs) It's not a bad game. You know Seaman from Mr. Saito [Yoot Saito, creator of Seaman]. Though I was not involved in the production side, I was involved with a lot of the business talks with Mr. Saito.

GC: What do you think of online games? Is it something that interests you at all?

S. M.: I think we have come to a limit when [it comes to] making interesting applications for the dedicated video-game consoles nowadays. So people are trying to find a way to get out of the world, like putting many other things into online gameplay and trying to improve the quality. Another development is to make use of some other devices like telephones or portable video games and so forth. I think online video gaming is just one of these different alternatives and I think it's kind of an interesting alternative that Nintendo may be interested in. On the other hand, if you ask me, "Can Nintendo do the job of business on the Internet with an online society and can Nintendo further expand a purely Japanese online service into the world?" my answer would be, "I don't know yet." And [if you asked], "Can Nintendo take care of the responsibility which it has to shoulder once it becomes an online game company?" again, I don't know. All in all, I just cannot tell if it's interesting enough to go ahead with the online gaming now. But at least by the end of this year we are going to start some new services which will involve the Game Boy with cell phones.

GC: When you create a game, is it more important that it be revolutionary or evolutionary?

S. M.: I think both. There is a Japanese proverb that goes, "You've got to sit on stone for three years." It's about a priest who sat on a stone for three years and came to find detachment. So we have to have both elements all the time. Now I understand that users are often opt for the advancement or improvement of the current technologies. But creators always have to look forward to something revolutionary.

GC: What do you think about the market right now? There seems to be a lack of diversity.

S. M.: You're telling me! Nintendo has been pretty concerned about the situation of the market for a long time. Even though there are more and more titles being produced on the market, the actual number of game genres hasn't changed. I think I mentioned this at GDC, that I was appreciating the Tamagotchi because it showed something new. And today we have Samba de Amigo and Seaman. Those are from competitors, but Nintendo is also keen beyond the existing genre. And for that purpose I think Dolphin and Game Boy Advance can help us a lot.

GC: With the current introduction of new competitors and such powerful hardware, do you feel that the battle among companies will now be in software?

S. M.: I think so. Our competitors, Sony and Microsoft, have the strongest [hardware] muscle ever. But Nintendo is not fighting against them with the volume or muscle we have; we are fighting against them with unique new ideas. And to do so Nintendo has to change people's ways of playing video games. For example, we believe, for family entertainment, if the whole family can sit together and play the same game, that is an ideal situation. But generally, people in this industry may find that's not the case, and some specific person may become very addicted and become too much into a game and turn into an addict. The result is obvious. The market becomes smaller and smaller, and even though there are a number of great new technologies and great new products coming into the market, sales have shrunk somewhat. So we've got to change the situation with Nintendo introducing something quite unique. Although Dolphin is going to be the most powerful machine on the market, we've got to be dependent on the uniqueness of the gameplay.