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In a submission included as part of IGN’s recent retrospective on the Mario series, Keiji Inafune, the creator of Mega Man and the recently crowd funded Mighty No. 9, called out the Mario games as the go-to guide for game developers, going as far as to state that “If any creator has not played Mario, then they’re probably not a good creator.”
Over the course of his comments, Inafune specifically references the series’ design, cute characters, and innovation. “It’s something you have to constantly look at and examine and take hints from as a game creator. It’s the anchor that grounds almost all games,” he notes. He proceeds to declare the father of Mario, Miyamoto himself, a national cultural treasure. “He’s somebody that deserves everyone’s ultimate respect, and a lot of that is due to being able to create Mario,” says Inafune. A point to which I think we can all agree.
All this talk of how amazing the Mario series is has given me the itch– perhaps I’ll go and play through Super Mario Bros. 3 for the millionth time.
Source: IGN
One of the most interesting things about Super Mario and Mario 64 is how Miyamoto was making up the rules as he and his crew went along. There was no real frame of reference for either one, other than a handful of games here and there. A master and his masterpieces.