BBC Radio 4's arts show, Front Row, gave over five whole minutes of its 30 to an interview with Shigeru Miyamoto. The show 'dubs' him "'the Walt Disney of computer game design".Actually, leading into the interview is the ironic or plain insulting intro: "Many parents despair that their kids would rather play computer games than read a book these days, and here's the man who's to blame for distracting them..."
After this Shiggy explains why he doesn't make movies, but how movie tech will enable him to do more with gaming:
"The movie and video games industries tend to use similar technologies, and you might think that we're making something similiar. The fact is that in the past I've been asked 'Why don't you make movies yourself now you've made so many games? But I said 'No, no, we're doing completely different things.' And the key difference is the interactivity, which we should cherish.
"It is true that more and more of what we make looks like a movie, and if, for example, we can borrow some of the technologies utilized by the film industry that makes our lives easier. In that case then convergence is good. That would mean that I have more spare time to re-invest in re-intensifying the interactive nature of video games."
Miyamoto then goes into why his and Nintendo's games are less reliant on 'hyper-realism' than the competition. Basically, his games are unique, whereas the competition is simply racing each other.
"Our company makes games of several different styles but we always try to be different, whether it's video game or animations there are always trends", says the Miyamoto. "For example, in the video games industry it seems that the majority of companies are heading in the same direction, taking advantage of identical technologies. They are simply trying to be better than their rivals.
"But my idea is pretty different. We try to be unique and different and try not to depend on the techniques of others. We try to be as uniquely creative as possible, and that's got to have played a part in making our games look different."
Shiggy is asked by Mario the carpenter from
Donkey Kong was so damned ordinary in what he did and how he looked, yet he was a 'super hero'.
"I don't like the idea of perfect hero. I prefer ordinary citizens trying to do something good for society. I'd be embarrassed to have a perfect hero", responds Miyamoto via a translator.
Listen to the whole thing here... including something from the professor of Cultural Studies at Bath Spa university.