During Nintendo’s recent financial results meeting, Shigeru Miyamoto talked about what’s next for the popular Super Mario franchise. He started by detailing the design process for Mario games mentioning that as Mario games have evolved they have started to become more complex so he is mindful that they should also remain accessible. He also talked briefly about 3D Mario games going forward, stating that the next mainline 3D game will continue to expand on what has come before.
“Let me explain by describing the background for the development of the Wii game New Super Mario Bros Wii, which was released in 2009.”
“At the time, it felt like each time we created a new instalment in the Super Mario series – which by then had expanded into 3D – it became more complicated.
“After the release of Super Mario Galaxy in 2007, the goal was to develop a more accessible 3D Super Mario game, and the result was New Super Mario Bros Wii, a basic side-scrolling Super Mario game that even new players could easily play. That later led to the release of the even simpler Super Mario Run game (a mobile application released in 2016.)
“When we develop software, we strive to incorporate new elements, but at the same time we want to make it easy for even first-time players to have fun.
“Recently, people of all generations have been enjoying the 3D Mario game Super Mario Odyssey (released in 2017), so for 3D Mario going forward, we want to try expanding further in new ways.”
I hope the next 3D Mario game is a blend of Super Mario Odyssey and Breath of the Wild because I’d love to see a massive open world Mario Game come to life!
I hope they expand more on Galaxy. The Galaxy series are my favorite 3D Mario Games.
It feels like Miyamoto basically said nothing here, except the obvious – that Nintendo are alwasy trying to evolve Mario in natural ways.
It’s how they usually reply. Nonanswers. Like, if they hear fans want something, they default to We are aware of it, and looking into it. No further comments. so, what’s next for Mario? We will take what works and build upon it, but keep it accessible to newbies.
Mario odyssey with more open world and fun worlds to explore, maybe get some new powerups that bring in new elements. That’s all you need literally lol
No need to “reinvent” the wheel
Mario Odyssey was as open as the series can go. It’s the perfect example of a sandbox game. Being “too open” isn’t always a good thing and doesn’t work for all kinds of games. People are burned out by open world games from Ubisoft and tens of other developers.
I think Mario could use more seamlessness between words with more types of collectibles scattered around instead of just Moons.
If they want to expand on something, then go back to the lore and universe of mario galaxy and expand on what it has. I’m probably alone in this opinion, but I think it’d be nice if Miyamoto had the mario series adopt a more serious or dark tone. Odyssey is nice and all, but I feel lately the games have had too light-hearted a tone, if that makes sense.
It’d be refreshing for a new entry in the series to go back to the planet exploration aspects of mario galaxy, but incorporate a darker theme that could also expand on the lore and give more spotlight to the scarier species in mario like Dry Bones, Phanto, that creepy Eel in 64, Boo’s, etc. I know what I’m about to say is absurd for the mario series, but it’d be nice to get a mainline game where Bowser’s goal is something other than Peach. A game where you’re exploring the galaxy to actually stop some catastrophe from happening, the feeling of impending doom and dread constantly loom over, and bowser actually comes across as a menacing villain.
I doubt we’d ever get that tho.
Yeah I was thinking the same thing about Super Mario Galaxy elements. I really miss traveling in other planets in the game and collecting stars in the game as well. Yeah they should reuse those elements in the next game whatsoever because Nintendo always used such a weird childish tone in every 3D or 2D mario game instead of using a much darker and twisted tone. You know in the next game, they should bring back Mario old enemies as a boss and be part of the story like a frog creature and used him to kidnap peach and turn her in to a frog just like him and mind control her by making her a bride.
I know its a silly idea coming from me, but SEGA did the same thing with Sonic in Sonic Generations.
+London Wright
I often find I disagree with things you’ve said on this website but in this case I 100% agree with you.
I’ve never understood why some people are so obsessed with wanting everything to be dark and edgy in games like Mario and Pokémon, as if they need to validate a fully grown adult playing a game primarily intended for children.
Sonic has constantly tried to be dark and edgy in his games time and time again, and look at how that’s worked out for him. His series is basically regarded as a joke these days, played mainly by pre-teens going through their “emo” phase.
I don’t want the Mario franchise to start taking itself ultra-seriously like Sonic does and essentially become a cringe-fest with zero self-awareness.
Granted, I agree with the sentiment about adding more Galaxy-esque lore to the franchise. Rosalina’s Storybook was a fantastic addition to the game, and I hope they do something similar in future installments.
They could even do something similar to what Majora’s Mask did for Zelda, where there’s a dark undertone, but the game itself is still extremely colourful and full of personality.
But that’s the extent of it. It’s a series about a middle-aged itallian plumber who travels through a Mushroom Kingdom collecting stars with faces on them to defeat a fire breathing lizard-turtle and save a princess, it’s not bloody Dark Souls.
Thank you gawd what up with people wanting dark and edgy things in games like that, I don’t mind having these type of things in Kirby or paper Mario or other games because it fits there but in a 3d Mario game no way, that being said if they do go back to Galaxy I rather for them to expand of Rosalina and add more playable characters because playing as just Mario can get boring sometimes.
Yeah sometimes it does.
Mmm you could say that but there is always a small chance.
Of course I know it’s not dark souls or anything, it’s just mario. But I also don’t mean the series needs to have some overbearing and mature theme that comes across as emo or edgy. I think you misunderstood my point. I don’t want the series to be edgy, please for the love of god no. The Sonic franchise is the golden example of why we don’t need “edgyness” in anything. My point is that I want to experience a mario game where there’s dark aspects, not mature or edgy aspects.
Your example of Majora’s Mask is great. It has dark moments, but overall it’s full of personality. THAT’s what I want in a mario game. A Mario game where it’s not all sunshines and roses, bowser just wants to take peach for himself, and at the end of the day it’s not just another “just foil his plans again”. As another example, I will never forget when I played Super Mario World for the first time as a kid, and when I first entered the Boo Mansion or Bowser’s castle. Those music themes, paired with the dark scenery came across as creepy/eerie and scared the hell out of me. Another is in pokemon snap, when you’re in the cave area, you turn around the corner and see an open area full of darkness, an absolute abyss, and you see these shinning objects in the middle of it. The cosmic-esque music, paried with the sudden opening into an abyss, paired with these unknown objects makes the scene eerie and uncomfortable, it’ll forever give me the creeps. That’s what I’m talking about.
Not full blown edgy, mature, or scary. Just a game that we take more seriously like Mario Galaxy, give Bowser more depth to his personality than just wanting Princess Peach, give us spotlight on creepy monsters in the lore and capitalize on it, give us a mario game that altough is light hearted like a mario game, and can give us those creepy moments that stick with us. The same applies to media; a scary movie is nice I guess, but what really makes an impact is a film that either isn’t horror as the focus or is a horror genre but has creepy and eerie moments that really bring out a sense of discomfort, confusion, and fear. Dark Souls is nice, but it doesn’t creep me out like certain good-natured games do (majora’s mask, the eel from mario 64, that scene in Pokemon Snap where you see the mewtwo constellation, etc).
Well that’s more understandable
Hey to be honest with you. Luigi wasn’t playable in Super Mario Odyssey witch is just really sad. I mean I still enjoy Super Mario Galaxy games and for them to used that element one more time in one game. Also, I still agree with you about playing Mario in 3D games all the time is a bit boring just like people are bored of playing as Sonic all the time. Besides Super Mario 3D World did feature other playable characters like Toad, Peach and Rosalina.
You know they should have done this again in the next mainline Mario game and have those type of characters be playable again if they manage to bring in 3D World elements to that one.
Very understandable in my take. I guess I can agree with that. I don’t want it to be a mature tone either.
If they don’t want Bowser to have a more sinister plot, just have a midway point where Bowser is revealed to be possessed. There we go.
You know as much as I hate to admit this, Nintendo is on the edge on expanding something new for the Mario franchise just to make sure Mario continues to balance in 3D in different direction. They should mix Super Mario Galaxy to Super Mario Odyssey elements together as a new game and make the new game a bit of a open world game.
I said Super Mario Galaxy because its one of my favorite Mario games in the Wii era and they should have bring back some of those type of elements in that game and port it to the new competed game in its concept. I still understand that Nintendo will continue to used a childish tone in mainline Mario games instead of using a humor and dark tone.
I’d love it if they used Bowser’s Furry as a template for the next game. That was a unique experience and was the perfect blueprint for the most ambitious Mario game yet.
Having an open world game rather than connecting everything with a hub world seems like the next step in Mario’s evolution. Maybe use pipes as a way to travel from one side of the map to the other as a sort of fast travel when you don’t want to waste the next 40 minutes platforming to the section you want to be in.
I also liked the idea of having your power-ups like it was in a sort of inventory where you could switch power-ups on the fly and stack them up for later.
My only worry is that this column is talking about how they want to keep it simple while my desire in many ways will do the opposite of that. Its unfortunate, because playing it safe will surely be a successful future Mario game, but I hope they try the open world format with a full Mario game someday. Bowser’s Furry was just a taste and now I want the main course, but my hopes and dreams might not come to fruition.
Anything Galaxy and Odyssey is a major plus.
Sorry to say. But I hated 3D World with a passion
In my opinion, it would do them well to experiment with older games and reintroduce areas like Sarasaland (where Daisy hails from). After all the Switch can put up great visuals and graphics compared to the Gameboy. And with that, they do not have to brainstorm big ideas and worlds. They can just expand on places found deep in the Mario Lore.
Mario is one of the series that I would like “More of the same” from, rather than take big risks that could fire back badly.
It’s going to be almost impossible to top Odyssey and everything selling point that defined the game,
But I’m really hoping Peach won’t burn Mario in the next game (if she has to have any involvement at all).
Why did nobody mention Bowser’s Fury? If they give us that but much bigger I would be very content