Originally posted at Yukan Fuji Blog.
Translated by Gaijin Punch

Today marks the 20th anniversary of Nintendo's hit, Super Mario Brothers. To celebrate this anniversary, Nintendo has released their new handheld system, the Gameboy Micro. We talk with "Mario's Father", Shigeru Miyamoto (52) of Nintendo, on his thoughts on Mario and the Micro (2005-09-13).

-Why an uncool Mario became so popular

It seems the Super Mario series has sold over 100 million copies world wide. Why do you think it was such a hit?

I think it's because of the fact that people that like games of course, but also people that don't like games, like Mario. It was from there that the premise of having to grab fans that had previously never played it was born. If you make something that's not supported by a large number of people, it just goes on a downward spiral... like Kyojin [Doshin the Giant] right now (laughs). I'm a fan of Doshin, but the recent one has stuck too close to the pattern of success of the one in the past, which has had a negative effect on him.

But Mario hasn't changed in 20 years.

I made him as "unelite" as possible. He's not so smart, his legs are short, and he looks uncool with that mustache.

And that uncool Mario perserveres and saves the lovely princess...

Yes (laughs). I've expressed that hope that a man of any generation would have. I think that's what's given Mario so much support.

-The Gameboy Micro

Nintendo just released the Nintendo DS last year. So why release the Gameboy Micro which could be seen as a competitive product?

We're placing the Nintendo DS as a brand new product. The Gameboy Micro is just a new installment of the Gameboy series. They're not competitors.

As a new installment, would you say 12,000 yen is a bit expensive?

The Gameboy Micro is not just a smaller Gameboy Advance. Functionally speaking it's been quite brushed up. I've been playing with it a lot, and I'm confident that anyone will be pleased with the video and sound quality.

It does look quite nice.

Using data on an SD Flash Card and the Playan Micro software which was released today, you can play videos and music. You can also play Gameboy Advance software. I think it's great for people to use on the way to work.

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Miyamoto was 32 when Mario was born in 1985. He looks back saying, "If you think about it now, my life was decided at that time." Miyamoto entered Nintendo in 1977. Now they are a major enterprise, but until they made a huge hit with their "Game & Watch" product line in the 80's, it wouldn't have been strange had they gone bankrupt. Incidentally, Nintendo's current CEO, Iwata, was 32 when he became the CEO of HAL Kenkyuusho [HAL Laboratory], a software developer that was on the brink of bankruptcy. The fact that these two men who had such a hard time in their 30's are now both supporting Nintendo is an interesting coincidence.