Translated Italian Nintendo Official Magazine interviews

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I asked a bunch of Mario fansites admins if it would be kosher to rehost any original interviews, or translations, on the wiki.

Out of the responses I got, the folks at the Italian Mario fansite and fellow Mushroom World Encyclopedia member Mario Castle stunned me with their offer to not only get permission from the original writers and transcribe interviews from the Nintendo la Rivista Ufficial, but also translate them into English! And without further ado, here they are:

Yoshi's Touch & Go
Kimura Hiroyuki - Director
Keizo Ohta - Game conception & Program director
From "Nintendo la Rivista Ufficiale" #37 (March 2005).

NRU: Hello. Before we start, can you give us an overviewe of your career in the video game industry?

Kimura: Lately, I took part in the development of the Super Mario Advance series, and I’ve been involved in every Game Boy Advance project in general. This is the third time I deal with Yoshi.

Ohta: I’ve been involved in the development of Nintendo 64 games at first, then GameCube ones. In the past few years I’ve been hard at work on Donkey Konga and Donkey Kong Jungle Beat. However, this is not my first time working with Yoshi. In fact, I took part in the creation of Yoshi’s Island on Super Nintendo many years ago.

NRU: Explain a bit of how the development of Yoshi’s Touch & Go started.

Kimura: It all started during the months leading up to E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) 2004, when we were thinking of a software that would be able to showcase the features of the DS. The game as we know it today was built on that concept.

Ohta: That’s right, at last year’s E3 we showed off a tech demo called Balloon Trip, which made use of the DS’ double screen and allowed to trace lines with the Stylus. The figures drawn in the bottom screen then scrolled towards the top one to interact with Baby Mario. Afterwards, my team joined with Kimura’s team, and we started working together on what soon became Yoshi’s Touch & Go.

NRU: So you joined together to discuss a new project. Everything started with a simple demo.

Ohta: The idea we started from was very simple. We wanted to craft a game where you could draw a path for you character, while touching useful items and avoiding obstacles. Since the player doesn’t have direct control over the character, but instead is able to take care of him by creating a safe path, we felt the need to have a pretty feisty main character, and Baby Mario felt appropriate.

Kimura: In the tech demo we brought to E3, the screen could only scroll vertically. Miyamoto himself then suggested - “why don’t you add Yoshi and horizontal movement?”. We liked the idea on the spot, and so we started working on the new project. However, in the first phase of development, Ohta developed the idea on GameCube…

NRU: So Touch & Go was born on GameCube?

Ohta: You see, I wanted to figure out how the thing could work, so I went and experimented with a platform I was familiar with. After getting to try out the vertical scroll, I wanted to test the horizontal one as well. Then, as soon as I came up with a concept for the game mechanics, I asked Nintendo to assemble a team to work with.

NRU: Did you encounter any problems as you moved to the new hardware?

Ohta: No, I wouldn’t say so. Actually, as far as I’m concerned, I felt immediately at ease with the new control scheme provided by the Touch Screen. I think the rest of the team felt the same, mainly because they were very competent people.

Kimura: I can confirm, even though it was very hard, since most of us were busy with multiple projects at the same time.

NRU: Why doesn’t Yoshi’s Touch & Go use any button?

Ohta: We want the players to focus on the ability to draw paths of clouds. There’s no direct control over the character, but we’re certain that whoever will buy the game will have a great time tracing the paths, and certainly wouldn’t find it boring. Actually, at first we didn’t even consider the Start button, but then we realized that someone could need to pause the action...

Kimura: The Stylus is the sole protagonist, and I think this brings even more charm to our game. Since the control scheme is so basic, many people will be able to take on Yoshi’s adventures.

NRU: How did you get the idea of blowing away the clouds with the microphone?

Ohta: While I was programming the game’s code I realized that we failed to make a good use of the microphone’s potential. Adding some way to control the game with words would have required the development of a complex word recognition system. It wouldn’t have been a terrible idea, but we preferred to keep it simple. Then we realized we needed some way to clean up the misplaced clouds, and the idea of of blowing into the microphone just clicked instantly.

NRU: What do you think is the winning factor in Yoshi’s new adventure?

Ohta: First of all, the immediacy of the control system and its ability to provide long lasting fun. In each run you will gradually improve at drawing complex paths and trajectories, and you will get a better grip on the situation.

Kimura: That’s right! I, too, get better and better after each run and learn something new about the levels.

NRU: Thanks for the talk, you’ve been very kind. Now we’ve got to disappear... in a cloud of smoke!

(Fun fact: Keizo Ohta was somehow misspelled "Hiromi Ooda" in the original interview.)

____

Mario Party 7
Shuichiro Nishiya - Director
From "Nintendo la Rivista Ufficiale" #49 (February 2006).

NRU: First of all, we'd like to thank you in advance for this interview. Now, let's talk about Mario Party 7 – what do you think are its true strengths?

Shuichiro Nishiya: I believe Mario Party 7's strongest point is the same as the previous episodes. Our main goal is to always develop minigames which young kids and adults alike can enjoy. I think minigames are what makes Mario Party so entertaining.

NRU: The microphone was one of Mario Party 6’s surprises, and it has returned in this latest installment. Is the same speech recognition technology – that is, the one developed by ScanSoft – used in both games? Was the same technology also used in Nintendogs?

Nishiya: We’ve used ScanSoft’s speech recognition engine in Mario Party 6 and Mario Party 7, but I’m not sure about Nintendogs as I wasn’t involved in its development. I don’t think Mario Party and Nintendogs share the same technology though.

NRU: Is there any chance to see a collection of the best minigames from previous titles in a future Mario Party game? After all, some of these minigames are considered to be true classics by Nintendo fans.

Nishiya: There is a chance that might happen, considering we’ve created a lot of different minigames for various Mario Party episodes. To tell the truth, we believe that our true goal is to always come up with new minigames. That’s an interesting idea, though, and could be realized if we received more requests on this subject from fans of the series.

NRU: We’ve particularly enjoyed the idea of having a different set of rules for each board in Mario Party 6. Will there be any room for even more complex rules? For instance, some kind of Risiko! where territorial conquest is determined by the result of a minigame, or things like that.

Nishiya: Mario Party 7 will have different sets of rules for each board too. Actually, I think Mario Party 7 will be even funnier than Mario Party 6 from this point of view. We’ll keep coming up with more and more “strategical” boards and rules, while keeping in mind that everybody should be able to understand them – even younger kids.

NRU: Have you ever played the GBA version of Mario Party? What do you think about it?

Nishiya: I think it’s a great and fun portable rendition of Mario Party., though it’s aimed more at “solitary” players. This difference basically makes Mario Party Advance and the GameCube games polar opposites.

NRU: Ever since its release, we fell in love with the new Nintendo DS console and its titles. We particularly enjoyed the Japanese versions of Yawaraka and Otona DS Training. Do you think Mario Party could include this kind of minigames too at some point?

Nishiya: We’re having fun with the games you’ve just mentioned too. However, we’re still reluctant to the idea of including minigames which are too hard or complex. We should never forget about younger players and kids. That said, we’ll definitely develop minigames focused on reflection, where you’ll have to use your brain (in one way or another).

NRU: Have you ever thought about making an actual Mario Party-inspired board game?

Nishiya: I think the board game enclosed to the Japanese version of Mario Party Advance is really fun. We’re always looking for new ways to expand the boundaries of Mario Party’s universe, so everything is possible.

NRU: During the new Nintendo Revolution introduction clip, you can catch a glimpse of a scene that unequivocally hints at a hypothetical Mario Party Revolution…

Nishiya: I believe Nintendo Revolution’s controller is basically perfect for Mario Party. For this specific reason, we’d really love to develop an exclusive title for Nintendo’s next console.

NRU: Some of the minigames in Mario Party 6 (and Mario Party 7) made use of the included toy microphone. Have you ever thought of using other kinds of GameCube controllers, such as the Donkey Konga bongos, the dance pad from Dancing Stage Mario Mix or even the GBA/GC connectivity to bring variety to the minigames?

Nishiya: I think that’s an interesting idea. However, we must also consider that not all players own the DK bongos or the dance pad. I believe these players would be disappointed by not being able to take full advantage of the game they just bought. That’s why we’ve decided to limit ourselves to the microphone.

NRU: With its microphone, its double screen (one of which is touch-sensitive) and the Wi-Fi technology, Nintendo DS seems perfect for a new Mario Party game…

Nishiya: Nintendo DS’ technical features make the thought of a new portable episode definitely appealing. We just have to come up with fun ideas for it!

NRU: Thank you very much for the chat!

Thanks to Storm Kyleis for providing me with the interviews and, everybody else involved in the translation.