Miyamoto Unimpressed by Modern Games

The legendary game designer wouldn’t play games if he didn’t make them.

“I think it’s the lack of time in general,” he told The Guardian. “And maybe I don’t see so many titles that I find fascinating enough that I want to spend time playing. Time is precious and a game has to be worthwhile, right?”

“Another problem is that there are so many games on the market today that it’s difficult to find the right one,” he continued. “In many ways I think I am in a similar place to the average game player. This is one of the greatest challenges for the industry right now.”

Miyamoto’s point isn’t that games are getting worse, but that our standards are increasing so quickly its difficult for games to keep surprising players.

“Yes, it’s become more difficult [to surprise players]” he said. “In the past it was just, you touch a button and something happens on screen and this was surprising enough to people! Like magic. Nowadays we have experienced players and players with no experience and we must accommodate the needs of both groups. It’s becoming increasingly difficult.”

Though the franchises he’s created tend to rely heavily on iterative design, with the occasional giant step forward like Mario 64 or Ocarina of Time, Miyamoto seems to value innovation over all else. When asked which of his games were his favorites, he mentioned Donkey Kong and Super Mario Bros before finally seeming to settle on Wii Sports. “With this game we kicked off an adventure into something new. I want to be able to do this bold step many times in my life,” he said.

The interview is a solid piece of work by “Grauniad” writer, Simon Parkin – free of the usual fawning adoration that interviewers tend to heap upon the developer. Miyamoto is even described as “indignant” at one point, when asked if the 3DS’s poor initial performance compared to the DS was due to the platform’s 3D tech being a “gimmick.”

“Actually, 3D is really the most normal thing because it’s how those of us with two eyes usually see the world,” said Miyamoto. “TVs are the unusual things in 2D! We don’t look at stereoscopic as a gimmick. It’s rather the most normal way to display things.”