Coming from a Venturebeat interview with Miyamoto, Koizumi and Motokura...
On the importance of the 'world' name
“When we were coming up with the name for this game, Super Mario 3D World, the word ‘world’ had a particularly important meaning to me. So you guys may remember that after the original Super Mario Bros. game, there was also Super Mario Bros. 2 and 3. But it was the Super Nintendo Entertainment System title, Super Mario World, that first used this word. [Since then, the New Super Mario Bros. series has inherited the 2D side-scrolling gameplay.]
And then separate from that was the 3D Mario games that started with Super Mario 64 and have continued to evolve all the way through Super Mario Galaxy 2. [We made another little departure with] Super Mario 3D Land, where we tried to combine elements of those two series: the side-scroller and the 3D.
And so it was taking those ideas from Super Mario 3D Land and raising them to the highest level imaginable that we came up with Super Mario 3D World,” Miyamoto said. “The change in title from ‘Land’ to ‘World’ was very significant for me. Now the inclusion of ’3D’ here of course [means] that it’s still a 3D world — not that it’s a stereoscopic view like on the 3DS, which I guess is a little funny for some people who get tripped up on it.” - Miyamoto
On moving to HD
“Now that we’re able to have graphics in HD, this is allowing us to express some different ideas that we really haven’t done before. So for example, the clear pipe is something that’s just that much easier to see in this kind of presentation, and this allowed us to connect it to new ideas for gameplay. We had a lot of fun thinking about what happens exactly inside the pipe if you could see through it. What sort of things are able to go through? And so we worked on, ‘OK, maybe fireballs can go through. Maybe even Goombas could go through.’ We spent a lot of time coming up with different variations.” - Motokura
The goal of appeal
“The goal for us is to appeal to people who’re familiar with, and fans of, both types of gameplay. So 2D players can run straight for the goal pole, and this might be familiar and comfortable and fun for them. But we’ve also incorporated all sorts of different things to appeal to fans of the 3D series and even the chance to allow some crossover between those two. … When we were thinking about it, we were aiming for something that’s a little luxurious. It’s kind of like the best of both worlds.” - Koizumi
The future of Mario
“We did not set out trying to define the future of Mario action games with this title. Rather, we’re just trying to find some fun new elements that we could incorporate. I certainly wouldn’t rule out the possibility of us creating more games in the vein of Super Mario Galaxy. What we’re trying to accomplish here is just to create a really good entry point for new players into the Super Mario 3D games.” - Miyamoto
On recording the 'Meow' sound effect
“Of course, everyone the world over likes cats. But one thing that was kind of interesting to me was that because we recorded voice for this game in the United States, it had a slightly different meow from what I was expecting.In Japan, we say ‘meow!’ [in a high-pitched voice], but in the U.S., you guys say ‘meow!’ [in a lower intonation]. So that was kind of interesting to see.” - Miyamoto
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