A portion of a Kotaku interview with Eiji Aonuma...

Kotaku: What Nintendo franchise would you want to tackle next?

Aonuma: It wouldn’t be Mario because I’m not any good at that type of jumping game.

Kotaku: There are different reflexes involved there. What about Pikmin? There’s some similarities there. There’s a lot of exploration and a focus on figuring out the gameworld.

Aonuma: When I look at Pikmin, I feel like it’s something that kind of comes out of a lot of the ideas for Zelda. I think that is what happened with in Mr. Miyamoto’s head. If I made a Pikmin game it might turn into a Zelda game. Zelda is the main thing I’m really interested in.