Hindsight is 20/20, as they say. When it comes to certain video games, you have to wonder what the developers and publishers thought when making key decisions. In the case of Shigeru Miyamoto, he’s never been one to shy away from admitting what he did right or did wrong with certain games. You may recall an “unearthed” interview he did decades back where he revealed almost removing Navi from The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time. Now, we have another interview where he discussed Super Mario Sunshine and how he felt bad about how difficult it was at times.
Admittedly, the game isn’t the best that Nintendo ever made, and one of those reasons, in Miyamoto’s mind, is because of the difficulty, and he apologized for it in a rediscovered interview posted on Shmuplations. In it, he notes:
“I want Mario to be a game that all audiences can enjoy. Something that Grandma and Grandpa, Mom and Dad, even little children can easily pick up and play, and right away understand what’s fun about it. However, I think Mario Sunshine turned out to be difficult for the average user. It’s something I very much regret. I want someone who hasn’t played a game in 10+ years to play our game, but I think such a person wouldn’t know what’s going on in Mario Sunshine.”
To be fair, while Super Mario Sunshine wasn’t as great as he wanted, he used that feeling to make the Mario Galaxy games, both of which were hailed as some of the best platformers ever.
