It’s hard to imagine the Super Mario games without Shigeru Miyamoto. It’s difficult to imagine Nintendo itself without him, in fact. He has been one of the company’s most recognizable and influential faces for decades, and he still has an enormous influence on Super Mario.
In an interview with Japan’s Casa Brutus magazine (translation provided by VGC), Miyamoto discusses his role in the game franchise, a role that has naturally changed significantly over time. He explained, “Nowadays, I have teammates who help maintain the world of Mario,” which allows the Nintendo icon to have a bit more of a hands-off approach on the development of the games. This doesn’t mean, of course, that he’s any less invested in the course the series takes, or that he doesn’t have any direct involvement in it. On the contrary, he notes:
“I always personally play through about the first 30 minutes of the game and check the interface thoroughly — to make sure it really feels like Mario.”
It warms my heart to imagine Miyamoto with a joyful grin on his face, enjoying the opening half an hour of the latest title in development. It’s much more professional than that, and I’m sure there’d be some critiquing along the way, but there it is. It’s difficult to define exactly what a Mario game ‘feels’ like, but if anybody’s qualified to make the call, it would absolutely be him.
As Nintendo’s hottest property, Mario has definitely become a bigger and bigger star to manage. Elsewhere in the interview, Miyamoto notes that it hasn’t just been Nintendo designers that have taken care of Mario’s development: “With the help of many passionate people outside our company, Mario has expanded into theme parks and movies.”
Mario Mayhem For Every Medium
I’m almost as eager as Miyamoto himself to see where Mario goes from here. We don’t yet know whether his next full-blown 3D adventure will be a sequel to Super Mario Odyssey or something entirely fresh, but I’d venture that it might be the latter. After all, standard numbered sequels are unusual in the recent history of the series. The recently re-released Super Mario Galaxy 2 being the obvious exception, and it makes for quite a substantial package alongside the first Galaxy title.
Elsewhere in the franchise, of course, there’s another film on the way. We know that The Super Mario Galaxy Movie will be chock-full of references for long-time fans to enjoy, but that’s really all we know so far. Miyamoto wouldn’t reveal even the slightest snippet of information to Casa Brutus, simply stating (per VGC’s translation), “the setting for the next movie is, just as the title says, the galaxy — that’s all I can really say.”
All we can confirm is that the Super Mario franchise is still going very strong indeed, with Super Mario Bros. recently marking its 40th anniversary in September 2025. As for Miyamoto himself, he’s going to continue to have a personal and professional interest in the character’s evolution, announcing, “I just hope to stay healthy until Mario’s 50th anniversary!”
