Nintendo icon Shigeru Miyamoto says while he's not as involved with making Mario games anymore, he always plays about 30 minutes during development to make sure they feel right

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That explains the stories we've heard about his playtesting methods

A screenshot from Super Mario Odyssey showing Mario throwing Cappy in New Donk City.
(Image credit: Nintendo)

Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto says he isn't as involved in the development of each Mario game now, but always makes sure to play them during the development to ensure a given title feels like a Mario game.

Speaking to Japanese magazine Casa Brutus (which has been acquired and machine translated by VGC), Miyamoto explains that he mostly leaves the direction of Mario to his teammates – presumably referring to the likes of original Super Mario Bros designer Takashi Tezuka as well as recent series shepherds like Yoshiaki Koizumi and Koichi Hayashida.

However, Miyamoto also mentions that he will always personally make sure he gets his hands on a Mario game during development, explaining that he typically plays around the first 30 minutes of a given title to check things out and ensure that the game retains the feeling of a Mario game – which Miyamoto defines as being easily accessible and unique.

Scott McCrae
Scott McCrae
Contributor

Scott has been freelancing for over three years across a number of different gaming publications, first appearing on GamesRadar+ in 2024. He has also written for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, VG247, Play, TechRadar, and others. He's typically rambling about Metal Gear Solid, God Hand, or any other PS2-era titles that rarely (if ever) get sequels.

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