The name Super Mario will forever be associated with that of Shigeru Miyamoto tied together. The future Nintendo mascot was born in 1981 in the arcade classic developed by Miyamoto Donkey Kong. Back then, the dungarees wearer was still called Jumpman. This didn't affect its success – Donkey Kong sold over 65,000 copies.
With Mario Bros., Nintendo landed another hit in arcades in 1983. But the Italian plumber with the mustache was also very popular on the Famicom, which came onto the market in the same year.
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However, the breakthrough to the mainstream only came with Super Mario Bros.which appeared in 1985 and is on both the Famicom as well as on its western counterpart, the Nintendo Entertainment System, sold over 40 million copies.
From this point onwards, Super Mario was Nintendo's flagship and was also considered a software basis around which new systems could be built.
Shigeru Miyamoto was in charge of every Mario game up to that point. That should change with Super Mario Land. The jumping adventure was intended to give wings to the Game Boy, which was released in 1989, as an important launch title. It was even discussed whether Super Mario Land should be included with the Game Boy instead of Tetris. Ultimately, those responsible decided on the block game because it was considered more suitable for the masses.
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Without Miyamoto, but with Yokoi
Today we know Shigeru Miyamoto as the inventor of well-known Nintendo games such as The Legend of Zelda, Pikmin or Super Mario. But Miyamoto didn't shake the craft of game development from his wrist either. He also started small and needed a teacher at his side.
This task came Gunpei Yokoi to. It was Yokoi who provided Miyamoto with advice and support during the development of Donkey Kong. At this point he was already an old Nintendo hand: fresh out of university, the trained electrical engineer came to the company, which was in transition, in 1965.
Source: Moby Games
Yokoi headed Nintendo's oldest research department, Research & Development 1, for a long time and during this time he invented, among other things, the D-Pad, but also developed Game & Watch games and later the Virtual Boy.
But his masterpiece is undoubtedly this GameBoy, in whose development and design he also played a key role. Gunpei Yokoi died in 1997 as a result of a car accident, but is considered one of the most influential, albeit quiet, personalities in game development.
Company boss Hiroshi Yamauchi placed responsibility for Super Mario Land in the hands of Nintendo Research & Development 1. Yokoi's team knew the new hardware, its possibilities and limitations like no other.
From today's perspective, this step seems only logical, but at the same time Super Mario Land clearly broke away from tradition with this decision. Gunpei Yokoi served as producer during development, while Satoru Okada (known for Metroid and Kid Icarus) worked on the project as an equally important director.
Gunpei Yokoi was Shigeru Miyamoto's mentor for many years. Not surprisingly, their design philosophy is very similar. In one of Shmuplations In a translated 1997 interview about the development of the Game Boy and its launch titles, Yokoi said: “Basically, I try to put myself in the player's shoes and figure out what they would enjoy.”
Source: Moby Games
One of the limitations mentioned was the Game Boy's monochrome display. Yokoi himself saw this as a strength that was consciously relied upon when developing the handheld:
“The technology to represent color was there. But I still wanted us to do black and white. Imagine me drawing two circles on a blackboard and saying: This is a snowman: everyone who sees it feels it the white color of the snow. Everyone intuitively recognizes that it is a snowman.
This is because we live in a world full of information and when you see the drawing of the snowman, your mind knows that this color must be white. I became even more convinced of this after trying to play some Famicom games on a black and white TV. Once you start playing, the colors no longer matter. You get mentally drawn into the world of the game.”
The graphics initially played a minor role for him. Gameplay and controls were clearly the focus. “I first take the character (or characters) you're supposed to control and replace that with a dot as a placeholder. Then I think about what kind of movement would be fun.”