You're sure to have seen the story we ran last week about Japanese gaming bible, Famitsu's interview with Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto and new images of Super Mario Galaxy. Once you'd dealt with the images - Dead Mario! Well, Ghost Mario - the interview with Shiggy would certainly have intrigued you.

Well, here's the meat. And the meat will cause some indigestion to the hardcore gaming fraternity. Remember that at this year's E3 Miyamoto made the following statement: "One game that I wanted to introduce to you all at E3 this year was not Super Mario Galaxy, not Zelda for the Nintendo DS, and not Mario Kart, it's this game Wii Fit"?

We took that to mean, "Bugger the hardcore, I'm here for the casual stuff from now on!" or words to that effect.

Well, Shiggy's expanding on this in the Famitsu interview. He's now not even sure that there is a difference between the casual and hardcore gamer. He says, "The fact is, I don’t think there is such a wall between both audiences. While there are indeed games designed for core and casual markets, core users are also enjoying casual gaming."

All well and good - sure 'core' gamers like to fiddle about with mini-games and the like. However, Miyamoto goes further and expands on how Super Mario Galaxy itself is being fitted into the new regime. "It is very hard to tune the difficulty just for the core market. Even for us, we would still have difficulty finding the right balance. But I think the future is games that are not difficult and yet very fun to play.

"What I mean is that there is no point in making a difficulty level the fun factor of a game. We are making Super Mario Galaxy as a new and fun experience which aims at providing a very appealing, convincing and, before all, fun experience. If we managed to do so, then I’m sure even the core gamers will find it appealing.”

In short, the great man appears to say that he's either done the impossible (and, well, it's Miyamoto, so we're not saying he hasn't) and has made SMG work at polar levels. Or he's saying that the hardcore - because it likes casual gaming as well as the next person - will have to get used to 'fun' over challenge and possibly even failure.

Looking at the man's track record you've got to err on the side of the former - he has managed to pull off the equivalent of producing an album as equally loved by a Napalm Death fan as it is by a Steps fan.

Still it all makes for excellent build up to Super Mario Galaxy.




^{Translation Source: Next-Gen}