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.
Of course, this echoes stories we've heard about Miyamoto over the years. Earlier this year Donkey Kong Bananza producer Kenta Motokura recalled that Miyamoto demoed the game, and instead of playing through the levels as intended, "he just stuck to one point, smashing and digging around a lot." And back in 2017, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild director Hidemaro Fujibayashi revealed Miyamoto spent his first time with the game climbing trees for an hour. So Miyamoto's explanation of testing a game to make sure it feels like a Mario title does shed a bit of light on previous stories about the Nintendo icon.
