Motokura: As a policy, I'd had everyone throw out ideas several times. For example, we had people come up with ideas for fun gameplay on an ice course.

Iwata: About how many people were on the team?

Hayashida: At first, about 40 to 50, but there were about 100 in the end. When that many people threw out ideas, there was about three times more than ever before. In any case, there was a ton.

Motokura: Not at all! We were able to have you, Miyamoto-san, take a look at builds of the game from very early on, and Hayashida-san was right next to me, so I was able to get lots of input during the process of making it. With regard to my task as director, I think we were able to proceed without any big problems.

Iwata: No upending of the tea table?

Motokura: Uh, no...right?

Miyamoto: No, no "upending the tea table" this time. Which is unusual.

Iwata: Did Double Mario also come from that deluge of ideas you got? Motokura Well actually...we discovered that when a staff member made a mistake with the placement tool and put in two player Marios. Iwata Huh? It was a mistake, but it worked? Motokura Yeah. When we saw that, we thought it was great! So we went ahead and put that in the game.

Koizumi: Talking about cuteness reminded me of how Toad used to look pretty plain, but because he gets cat ears this time his looks cuter overall. That and with how he can quickly dash around, I think he turned into an incredibly appealing character.

Iwata: Yeah. It may be rude to his fans to say it like this, but Toad is a surprisingly popular character.

Koizumi: Right. There's even gameplay this time that features Toad.

Iwata: Koizumi-san, I have to ask. What would you say to people who say that Super Mario Galaxy is better for Super Mario on a home console?

Koizumi Well...first of all, I say thank you.

Iwata: I can understand that. Your team made it! (laughs)

Koizumi: This may not be a direct answer, but personally, when we made Super Mario Galaxy, I had regrets about some things. I was able to do those things in Super Mario 3D World.

. . .

Iwata: You wanted Luigi and Mario to intermingle in a 3D Super Mario game.

Koizumi: Yes. Another regret with respect to Super Mario Galaxy. I think the deep-blue image of space and the impression you get from the title was more geared toward boys. I felt like a player-character you might want to choose besides Mario was necessary to convince, say, my wife to feel comfortable picking it up and playing. This time, we welcomed in Princess Peach, so you can play as a female character. In that way, I feel like we filled in a piece that had been missing.

Miyamoto: Just so there is no misunderstanding, I should point out that this doesn't mean we'll never make another Super Mario Galaxy game.

Koizumi: That's right. When we first started making Super Mario 3D World, Miyamoto-san asked me if this was going to be more like Super Mario Galaxy or more like Super Mario 3D Land. When we made Super Mario 3D Land, we had our eyes on the form of this game, so we made it this way without any hesitation.

Miyamoto: The same team can't make both at the same time. And we can't bring in a second party and slap the name Super Mario Galaxy on it. I suppose we could idealistically make both in Tokyo, but we want to do something new too, so there was that dilemma.

Iwata: Well, uniqueness and a high degree of freedom versus how easy a game is to understand are always polar opposites.

Miyamoto: Personally, I would like to take on a variety of new challenges with Super Mario Galaxy and design 2D Super Mario games in an easy-to-understand way within certain restraints.

Iwata: Either way, to fans of Super Mario Galaxy, Super Mario 3D World is in no way a different beast that they won't be able to enjoy.