Nintendo’s development teams have long designed their games with gameplay as the priority, as it’s a tenet of legendary designer Shigeru Miyamoto. In the early development ofSuper Mario Galaxy, however, Miyamoto’s developers had reservations about whether the core concept was compelling enough to support an entire game.Galaxyis now beloved and commonly celebrated for its clever gameplay, even spawning anequally compelling sequel.
The earliest iteration ofGalaxy’s core idea was actually known asSuper Mario 128, originally envisioned as a sequel toSuper Mario 64. Beginning on the doomed 64DD before moving to the GameCube, a tech demo shown in 2000 saw up to 128 Mario sprites sharing a single, circular platform. The reveal and subsequent release ofSuper Mario 128was anticipated for years, even after the launch ofSuper Mario Sunshine. It wouldn’t be until 2007, withGalaxy, that a fully realized version of the concept was made.
Miyamoto’s Super Mario Galaxy Concept Was Radical
Nintendo Developers Weren’t Convinced At First
In an oldinterviewwith late Nintendo president Satoru Iwata, Miyamoto discussed the genesis ofSuper Mario Galaxy. Tests with circular platforms started withPaper Mario, where Miyamoto’s team “experimented with making a field that was in the shape of a roll, or a ball,” but the idea didn’t pan out until Miyamoto “expanded on that concept with Mario 128, [where] it worked really well.” The appeal in Miyamoto’s eyes was being able to do something that’s impossible in real life:
“Gravity was used a lot in old movies, with things like being able to walk upside-down on the ceiling. But if you think about it, nobody was really able to do that before in real life, and I thought it would be great if I were able to recreate that in a game.People would be able to have a new experience, and it would be so much fun being able to play around in that kind of an environment.”
This sort of experiential mindset has long been at the forefront ofMariodevelopment (and other Nintendo series), with Miyamoto admitting thathe felt even the ground-breakingSuper Mario 64"didn’t really have to be a game;“just freely moving Mario in a 3D environment was exciting enough. Years later, in the early stages ofGalaxyconcepts, there were plenty of doubters within Nintendo.
When Miyamoto wanted to focus on gravity forGalaxy’s main gimmick, he saidthe staff “became worried, and asked me ‘Can we really call something like that a game?'“Miyamoto says he cleverly responded, “if I were to make a game that was not fun, I would much rather make something that was not a game, but everyone would find a lot of fun!”
Super Mario Galaxy Is Great Thanks To Miyamoto’s Proposal
One Of Mario’s Best Outings
Miyamoto’s long-in-development concept clearly paid off, resulting in one of thebestMariogamesever made. In retrospect, it’s a little hard to believe there wasn’t more confidence in the idea of playing with gravity. The difficulty of actually developingSuper Mario Galaxyis one thing, but Miyamoto also claims development said, “I thought Mario was a fantasy game, is Mario going sci-fi now?”
It’s a fair question, but a new frontier for the iconic plumber makes complete sense, given Miyamoto viewedGalaxyas “a good opportunity to re-think what a fun, 3D action game should be, from the players’ perspective.” FromSuper Mario 64, the3D platformer serieshas had a reputation for innovation, withGalaxy 2arguably being the biggest outlier.Super Mario Galaxy’s core concept is so good, though – despite developers initially doubting Miyamoto – that it’s easy to forgive the only direct sequel in the subseries.
Source:Nintendo
Super Mario Galaxy
Developed initially for the Nintendo Wii, Super Mario Galaxy is an action-adventure 3D platformer who takes the titular plumber and launches him into space on a journey to save Princess Peach again. When Bowser decides to conquer the universe and use the energy of the Power Stars to do it, Mario must take to space with the help of the friendly star-shaped Lumas to stop him.
