Nintendo’s Miyamoto discusses the fusion of the world between film, theme parks and Switch 2

Over the past month, I have lost myself in multiple Nintendo worlds. Exploring the world of Super Nintendo Inside the magnificent universea new theme park in Orlando. I was immersed in a new game that arrived For Nintendo Switch 2. I watched the 3D Apple Vision Pro Super Mario Bros. movie.

It feels like Nintendo is crossing the world itself these days. The cool power-up band worn by visitors at the new theme park will also serve as amiibo, a Nintendo toy that unlocks gameplay on the Switch. There is an augmented reality ride on Mario Kart in an epic universe and another AR powered Mario Kart game for your home. Even the Switch 2 release games Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza mirror the two biggest ride themes of the Super Nintendo world. They are gathering in time for the global launch of Switch 2, which will be held on June 5th.

During the epic opening of Epic Universe, I had the opportunity to talk to Nintendo’s legendary game designer Migigeru Miyamoto. We chatted about gaming and theme park design, the future of AR and wearable technology, and why the Switch 2 and Super Nintendo worlds are so close to each other. The following conversations have been edited for clarity and length.

I just experienced the world of Super Nintendo. How did you solve this attractive and playable land? I kept thinking about it when I was wearing a power-up band.
Miyamoto: First of all, it goes back when it was originally decided that we were planning to work with Universal. I think there was a match and creativity that both Universal and Nintendo were always trying to make something. And I think that comes in a form of dialogue.

This technology is there to enable its interactivity. But there is a challenge, how can you make it comfortable? How do you make it user-friendly?

The first step we took was to get in touch with Universal technicians. And in the discussion, we thought that because we have experience with amiibo, we could base our dialogue on the basis of amiibo. However, there is always an app that needs to be done, so the question is who handles building an app. And then, Universal was researching and researching apps used at theme parks. That’s where the two ends met.

I’ve seen a lot of wearable technologies and have been thinking about how power-up bands don’t require phones or charging. And I will inevitably think about this and everything we do at home, how this works as an amiibo – where can it go?
Miyamoto: For the first time, there’s nothing to present here. That said, Amiibo’s idea is potentially something that can be done when dealing with server-side data. And we have a player-based creation Nintendo account created and we have an NSO, a subscription-based service. I feel there are many possibilities.

One of the feelings I had is that when you come to this park you already live in the world of Mario. You probably don’t play games at home or watch the movie, they’re blending in an interesting way. Nintendo appears to be in so many different fields right now. I was curious how you felt about it.
Miyamoto: For me, as someone who worked on original arcade games at the time, all we could do was create 8-bit art. And obviously, at some point I wanted to be a manga artist, so I had a vision of what kind of world I wanted to portray and convey to the players. But obviously, this technique was limited by what I could do. So, for example, there is artwork on the sides of an arcade cabinet or on the control panel. That’s the kind of thing I had to do to really tell players that this is the world I want to convey.

But now, as technology advances make the world 3D, there is even more realism available in video games just like characters. And now we are actually making 3D realities in the world. And when you can work with people who have the technology to make these things happen, it really opens up a lot of possibilities and a lot of possibilities.

There are so many versions of Mario games, and there are many ways people have experienced it. How do you balance it with the creation of the timeless thing in the park?
Miyamoto: It’s certainly a topic that transcends our hearts and something that we put a lot of thought into. Because, like you said, there are different versions of Mario. There’s Mainline Mario and the spinoff. And now, even if we bring the latest version of Mario, when we create a role with real Mario something like this, it will no longer be the latest in a few years. What we wanted to do is really go back to its origins and get a sense of the essence of 8-bit Mario.

Looking at almost 40 years of history, we can see that Nintendo truly values ​​the characters that it created in its first generation. We have deep roots and strong roots, and that is what allows us to actually create these kinds of worlds.

The roots are solid, so we can follow a bit of what the latest technology can do. But again, it’s really basic that we’ve focused on in order to ensure that fans of the series and IP are sure that the IP is still safe.

One of the very core fundamental themes that come up is how you treat Mario. What do you do with Mario in this 3D real world? Mario jumped into the 3D world at Nintendo 64, and there’s clearly a movie. Mario has experienced many evolutions. But looking at some of the background behind Mario’s actions, it hasn’t evolved much. And we were thinking about how we should approach this. It was universal that it came back to us with the actual recreation of the question block.

Do we spend a lot of time on just the surface, just the texture of the blocks, just how realistic it needs to be to feel like Mario, etc.? If you’re doing too much, or if you don’t do it enough, it feels fake. We spend a lot of time trying to figure out the perfect balance.

The construction takes place indoors, and you actually take it out to the parking lot, see it in the real sun, see what it actually looks like, get it back and adjust it. And what happens to an extension to it if it makes a sound when we hit it? So they were able to create something that had a healthy effect. And we thought, oh, this was actually a bit fun.

When we’re talking about Mario and Mario’s landscapes, there’s a lot, but it really boils down to the blocks and pipes, spends time and effort, investing everything to allow real people to interact with the blocks and get into the pipes. And it laid the foundation for everything you see right now.

When you see the epic universe portal and how the portal links to the pipes, it feels like it blends in very naturally. When we talked about how people would enter the world of Super Nintendo, we first thought we needed to build a peach castle. But then, backing down, we thought it had to go through the pipe. And that’s what made the Super Nintendo world so much like Mario.

Speaking of playing with Technologies, one of my favorite topics I have covered so much is augmented reality. I was so excited to try out the Challenge Ride on AR on Mario Kart Bowser. I was curious how it felt compared to the other headsets I used. During the pandemic, I used it Mario Kart Live Home Circuit I reviewed it at home. I was interested in what it still feels groundbreaking. What did you see with that technology and where are you looking at it now?
Miyamoto: Let’s go back to what I mentioned about power-up bands. Technology continues to evolve as VR and AR, but in reality, the key factor is (comfort) and how easy it is to use.

During the development of the Mario Kart Ride, there was a point we were running with hope and prediction. We really needed to wonder: is this possible by the time we need to open the park?

When I discussed it with Mark Woodbury, he and I both wanted to do something new. It provided a new experience. So he said, “You know, it’s going to be challenging, but let’s do it.” And we were able to reach the point where you can see so many characters on screen.

And I am sure there will be more exciting things to do in the future five years.

Obviously, we mostly create entertainment for the home. And it feels like we’re not yet in a place where we have a completely comfortable headset (used 24 hours a day). And I think that helped me concentrate on (that) working on creating a headset for the theme park experience.

I’ve had a lot of experience at Nintendo over the past month. In an epic universe, and toggle the launch of 2. Watching Mario Kurt and Donkey Kong, then playing Mario Kurt and Donkey Kong, you see this kind of experience blending together. They feel connected. Do you think they’ll notify each other?
Miyamoto: First of all, I think there’s a concept that really focuses on IP. Obviously, we are the entertainment company that created the game, but now its focus is based on IP.

We have no experience when we are talking about theme parks. So we work with amazing people, experts who have a lot of experience working in theme parks. The same can be said for movies. And in that we can bring something that is the very specific kind of knowledge and experience that only Nintendo can offer. I really feel that it’s great to have experienced such a collaboration and there’s something there.

But when you look back, I was just drawing cartoons and wanted to make toys. But we wouldn’t have been able to create a game without a programmer, for example.

So when I talk about how to develop games at Nintendo, I think it really helps to be able to work with external partners like this.

With all these aspects, there are people who start to interact with and engage with our IP through video games. Someone may be introduced and start interacting with them through theme parks and films. So I really feel there is a lot of potential to expand on my ideas. And in that sense, you can say there is more fusion in the world.