Except Mario Clash
Shortly after the Apple press conference where Miyamoto appeared on stage to announce Super Mario Run, he spoke with USA Today about things like bluegrass music and Star Wars, but most importantly Mario in virtual reality: it’s won’t happen anytime soon.
Miyamoto, a developer who loves to innovate and adapt new technologies, explains that although “adapting Mario to new platforms is a key to keeping him relevant,” they want to maintain the concept of playing with family and friends. He also said they want players to play a long time which is “hard to do in VR,” referring to how people can’t play with headsets on all day. So yeah, you heard it here first: Miyamoto wants you in front of your TV playing games for long periods of time.
One is tempted to argue that many Mario games are single-player, but on second thought there has been some sort of multiplayer or at least encouraged turn-taking through Mario’s history (having Luigi in the original Super Mario Bros. to encourage turn-taking for instance). He envisions family and friends sitting around and playing the game together in a social environment, as opposed to someone like me who plays them alone. Sorry to disappoint you Miyamoto-sama.
Otherwise that could just be their excuse regarding questions of virtual reality instead of “I dunno lol.” A businessman would say the opportunity is there and they will think about it. However, in Japan people are more afraid than in the west to make promises and not deliver in fear of losing face or credibility, so much so that weather forecasters always say “I think” when announcing weather. If that’s the case, it’s hard to blame them given the uncertainty of the future of virtual reality, as well as the colossal failure that was the Virtual Boy.
The 2D side-scrolling formula may not have a use in virtual reality, but being Nintendo, it should be able to find a way to make a unique 3D Mario game in VR. If it were to pull a, well, Mario Runner and come out with a virtual reality Mario game in the next few years, what do you think it will be? What other Nintendo franchise could you see on VR? A first-person Metroid Prime game might be neat in VR.
Miyamoto on why Mario is finally coming to smartphones [USA Today]
