Super Mario Wonder producer Takashi Tezuka and director Shiro Mouri recently chatted with the US publication Game Informer and explained how new members of staff at Nintendo help contribute to their ongoing design process. Mr. Tezuka says new members of staff can be incredibly insightful and help contribute new ideas, which some of the older developers may not have thought of before. He also went on to say that the Super Mario Wonder team is made up of both veteran developers and newer members of staff, and he says the newer members will challenge the veterans if they don’t agree with something. Super Mario Wonder launches next Friday on Nintendo Switch.
This new crop of developers melded with the long-standing Mario developers to challenge preconceived notions. “It’s really this great mixture of people who have been veterans in the series and also new and upcoming developers, and they are open to fielding the feedback from these new developers,” Super Mario Bros. Wonder director Shiro Mouri says.
“We never, ever, ever ignore the feedback that we get from our new staff members,” Tezuka chimes in. “And when I present an idea myself, they really are quite honest in saying, ‘Yeah, I don’t like that,’ or ‘I do like that.’ I think that’s a really beneficial environment that we have.”
Tears of the Kingdom worries me the older staff members are giving too much freedom to new members with their idea(s) and loosing that Nintendo charm we have all come to love. F-Zero 99 is a good example of bringing new life to a fan favorite and almost forgotten SNES gem.