 
Last weekend, Nintendo's CEO Satoru
Iwata passed away at the unfairly young age of 55.
There's never been a leader so selfless, and there may
never be one again. When Nintendo's profits and stock
went south one year, Iwata personally took a voluntary
pay cut, bowing to his stockholders in a show of
humility. I can't think of one other boss that would do
something like that. The fact that this guy is dead while
Donald Trump is still alive means the universe has a sick
sense of humor.
One of the many un-CEO-like things
Iwata did was engage his company's fans directly, and not
in the usual phony, pre-rehearsed,
one-tweet-and-you're-done manner. He personally appeared
to narrate many of Nintendo's Direct videos, even when
his health was going south. And he opened up Nintendo,
which had previously been a very secretive company, to
the public with his roundtable series "Iwata
Asks," which I sincerely hope is able to continue in
some form.
If you've never read these, or haven't
read many of them, you'll be blown away by how many
behind-the-scenes facts are just lying there, spoken by
their creators. I compiled just twelve of these
interesting tales below in honor of Iwata's memory, but
trust me, there are many more. The
site is still up; why not pay
it a visit sometime?
Koji Kondo's Secret To Game
Music
From Super
Mario All-Stars
Iwata
Wow... I suppose lots of people all around the world are
listening to the music in Mario games all the time. When
you play a video game, you listen to the music the whole
time, because it repeats. Usually, no matter how much you
like a song, if you just keep listening to it over and
over again, you get sick of it.
Yokota
Yeah.
Iwata
Why is it okay with video game music?
Kondo
It's hard to put into words, but I try to make music that
people can listen to over and over again without getting
sick of. Then when I think I'm finished, I do this...
(closing his eyes and leaning back in his chair) ...and
listen to it for hours on end. Sometimes I even dance to
the rhythm.
Nagamatsu
Wow!
Yokota
You just listen to it on repeat for hours.
Kondo
Yes.
Iwata
So when you can listen to it for hours, it's done as far
as you're concerned.
Kondo
Right. And when I can't do that, I know there must be
something wrong with it.
Early Game Development At
Nintendo Was As Primitive As You Could Get
From Game
And Watch
Izushi
The chip used in Game & Watch was the same as in
calculators. A single number on a calculator display is
composed of seven segments, so…
Iwata
Each number from 0 to 9 is made of seven parts called
segments. In other words, it's a way to display numbers
using seven component parts.
Izushi
Right. So if a chip can calculate eight digits, that's 7
segments times 8 digits for a total of 56 segments. And
there's the decimal point and symbols like the minus
sign. We made the Game & Watch: Ball game using a
chip that could display 72 segments.
Iwata
You could turn each of those 72 segments on or off, and
used them to represent objects rather than numbers.
Izushi
Exactly.
Kano
And in the upper right-hand corner of the screen for Game
& Watch: Ball was a four digit counter for points and
time. There, we used 28 segments—or 7 segments by 4
digits.
Iwata
You could use a total of 72 segments, so that left 44.
Izushi
We cut back where we could and used all the available
segments.
Kano
Not a single segment went to waste.
Izushi
Thinking up all kinds of ideas for dealing with such
constraints was lots of fun. We had to figure out how to
make a game with just a few available pieces.
Kano
Yeah, that was a lot of fun.
Izushi
When you're under constraints is when ideas pop up.
Yamamoto
And here (pulling out an old notebook) are some notes
from one of those meetings.
Iwata
Wow! What a valuable document! This is Game & Watch:
Chef!
Izushi
I'm amazed you still have these notes!
Yamamoto
I hold on to everything. (laughs)
Super Mario Bros. Originally
Had A Different Main Theme
From Super
Mario All-Stars
Iwata
Before Super Mario Bros. came out, most games had a black
background.
Kondo
Right. That blue sky was really refreshing. I wanted
music to match that, so I made the mistake of creating
something easygoing, like you're out for a carefree walk.
Iwata
What happened to that song?
Kondo
It got canned. I realized that an easygoing sound
wouldn't match Mario's running speed and the way he
jumps. I remade the song so it would match the rhythm of
his movements, and that became the aboveground BGM.
Iwata
Did you start over from scratch?
Kondo
There's a noise in there like triplets. Tee tee-tee...tee
tee-tump... I took that from the first song I made. I was
going to remake the whole thing, but when I wrote the new
melody and listened to it, I decided to try out that
noise, and it just seemed to fit. It had a groove that
suggested moving forward, so I kept it just as it was.
Super Mario Bros. 3 Is Reggae
From Super
Mario All-Stars
Kondo
Right. You might say that the success of the aboveground
BGM for the original Super Mario was hanging over me. It
had an enormous influence over me, so I really struggled
with Super Mario Bros. 3.
Iwata
Even though you yourself had made that music, it must
have been difficult to top it. It had made a strong
impression on so many people, so you were grappling with
that inside.
Kondo
Yes. When I made the music for the original Super Mario
Bros., I didn't really think of it as Latin in style, but
people around me said it was Latin-flavored or jazzy, and
I came to think of it that way, too. So when I made the
music for Mario 3, I wanted to make something that wasn't
Latin in style, but more like reggae.
Iwata
You were thinking of the songs in terms of genre.
Kondo
Yes. I made them with a genre in mind, trying a
reggae-ish song for the aboveground BGM, but when I think
about it now, I'm not so sure it was a good idea.
(laughs) It may not have really matched the rhythm of the
game.
Iwata
You made the aboveground BGM for the original Super Mario
to match the rhythm of gameplay, but this time reggae
didn't match those rhythms.
Yokota
But it's a really good song!
Nagamatsu
I completely agree.
Kondo
There was actually one other candidate song. Right up
until the end, Tezuka-san and Miyamoto-san and I were
debating which one to use. So Super Mario Bros. 3 was a
struggle.
All This Attention To Sign
Behavior
From Ocarina
of Time 3D With Miyamoto
Miyamoto
When you change something from 2D to 3D, though, you
discover a lot of things, like certain things become no
fun anymore. For example, cutting the grass was something
that first appeared in The Legend of Zelda series with
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.13 When we made
it, it was surprisingly fun. Some people started talking
about how this was a video game that you cut grass using
Spin Attack! (laughs)
Iwata
(laughs) 13. The Legend of Zelda™: A Link to the
Past™: An action-adventure game released for the
Super Famicom system in November 1991.
Miyamoto
But when we went to bring that element of cutting grass
into The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D, it was like
we were under orders to do so.
Iwata
It's not like you could be certain that when you changed
cutting grass into 3D it would be even more fun.
Miyamoto
Right. Just when we were saying that simply remaking that
old topic in a prettier way wasn't particularly
impressive, we started talking about how it was weird
that you could cut the grass but couldn't cut the signs.
Iwata
So you asked SRD's Morita-san to take care of that. He
told me about it. (laughs)
Miyamoto
You heard? (laughs) We became able to cut the signs, but
then we knew people would cut them in different
directions. When I said that the signs should cut
diagonally when Link swings diagonally, everyone froze up
and said, "We can't check exactly where they cut
it!"
Iwata
You wanted the signs to cut exactly where you struck
them?
Miyamoto
Even with the Nintendo 64 system, that would be
impossible. So I said, "No, we just have to make
several different cut patterns."
Iwata
Then you made it cut into six pieces like a wheel of
cheese.
Miyamoto
Right. Then you could cut the signs from different
directions, but then when a piece flew off and landed in
the pond, since we hadn't taken care of collision
detection when it hit against water, it would just fall
to the bottom with a clack.
Iwata
It would be weird if it clacked against water.
Miyamoto
Generally, you would just decide not to put a sign by the
water, but Morita-san made it so the piece would float on
the water.
Iwata
And it drifts away.
Miyamoto
Yeah. Morita-san made that because he was certain the
players would love it. Then we just wanted to put more
signs by the water!
Majora's Mask Originally Had
Seven Days In It
From Majora's Mask 3D
Iwata:
You needed a completely new idea to make something in
such a short turnaround like one year, and that was the
“Three-Day System”.
Aonuma:
Right. But at first, it was one week.
Iwata:
Three days was originally one week?
Aonuma:
That’s right. But when you returned to the first day
it was like, “Do I have to go through an entire week
again…?”, so we thought three days would be
just right.
Iwata:
Wait, it got decided just like that? (laughs)
Aonuma:
(laughs) In this game the townspeople do different things
each day and many different things happen, but when the
timespan becomes a week, that’s just too much to
remember. You can’t simply remember who’s where
doing what on which day.
Iwata:
Moreover, you probably wouldn’t have been able to
make it in a year if you were aiming to make a game
filled with so much content for seven days.
Aonuma:
Right, we never would have been able to do it. We felt it
would be best to make it a three-step process, and we
compressed all sorts of things we had planned for over a
week into three days.
Iwata:
That’s how it led to the game feeling like it’s
packed to the gills with content. You squished all sorts
of ideas you were originally planning to use in a week
into only three days.
Aonuma:
I think so.
Aonuma's Dream
From Majora's Mask 3D
Aonuma:
Yeah. Miyamoto-san did tell us to make it in a year, but
he must have been concerned towards the end.
Iwata:
He must have been worried that you were all exhausted.
Aonuma:
I suppose. And at that time, I did have a sense that I
was being pushed on by something strange.
Iwata:
You may have been wearing one of those masks! (laughs)
Aonuma:
I had a dream about it.
Iwata:
What kind of a dream was it?
Aonuma:
It was a dream about being chased by a Deku.
Iwata:
Oh, a dream where you were being chased around? (laughs)
Aonuma:
I was thinking about an event for the Deku, and had been
trying to figure out what to do with it. I thought of it
at home, and a Deku appeared in my dream. I woke up
screaming! I went to work the next day and that’s
when Takumi Kawagoe-san told me that he finished making a
movie for the Dekus, so I had him show it to me… and
that movie was exactly like my dream!
(laughs)
Aonuma:
I even told him “how do you know my dream?”
(laughs) That’s how on-edge I was back then.
Iwata:
Perhaps you were possessed by something.
Aonuma:
Possibly.
Link's Awakening Was Inspired
By Twin Peaks
From Legend
of Zelda: Spirit Tracks
Iwata
The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, which Tezuka-san
did whatever he wanted with, had quite an influence over
subsequent Zelda games.
Tezuka
I wonder about that...
Iwata
As far as the general flow goes, I think so.
Tezuka
I didn't try to do that on purpose, though. Oh, right,
about Twin Peaks...
Aonuma
Whoa, here we go. (laughs) Iwata-san, do you know about
Twin Peaks?
Iwata
No. Bring me up to speed. (laughs)
Tezuka
We were talking about this before you arrived. I was
talking about fashioning The Legend of Zelda: Link's
Awakening with a feel that's somewhat like Twin Peaks. At
the time, Twin Peaks was rather popular. The drama was
all about a small number of characters in a small town.
Iwata
Okay...
Tezuka
So when it came to The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening,
I wanted to make something that, while it would be small
enough in scope to easily understand, it would have deep
and distinctive characteristics.
Iwata
That makes me think of Wuhu Island in Wii Sports
Resort11. The events occur at a well-known location, so
background elements come into clarity. You were thinking
about that for The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening?
(Wuhu Island: The island that is the setting of Wii
Sports Resort and Wii Fit Plus. The general concept is to
develop a wide variety of games entailing adventures and
other activities that take place on the island. For more
on the "Island Concept," see Iwata Asks: Wii
Sports Resort.)
Tezuka
I remembered it earlier. (laughs)
Aonuma
At the time, I didn't know what he was talking about. I
was like, "What is this guy talking about?"
(laughs) But since Twin Peaks was popular at the time...
Iwata
You thought he just wanted to be trendy?
Aonuma
Yeah. (laughs) I thought, "You really want to make
The Legend of Zelda like that?!" Now the mystery is
solved. (laughs)
When I was reading Tanabe-san's comments in the strategy
guide, I saw, "Tezuka-san suggested we make all the
characters suspicious types like in the then-popular Twin
Peaks."
Iwata
Did that guy who looks like Mario appear because you
wanted to make someone who looked suspicious? He did look
suspicious, but... (laughs)
Tezuka
After that, in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and
The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, all kinds of
suspicious characters appeared. I didn't tell them to do
it that way, but personally, I did find it considerably
appealing.
Splatoon's Inklings Began As
Tofu Squares
From Splatoon
Iwata
So what was the idea that became the basis for Splatoon?
Nogami
A demo made by our Program Director Sato-san. At first
there was a white cube in a maze...
Iwata
Tofu?
Nogami
Yes. (laughs) There was a white thing and a black thing
shaped like blocks of tofu, and they were shooting ink
and they had to steal each other’s turf.
Iwata
So at first it wasn’t squid at all. It was black and
white tofu shooting each other with ink. (laughs)
Nogami
Right. (laughs)
Iwata
But tofu is usually white.
Sakaguchi
The black one was sesame tofu! (laughs)
Sato
So the basis of Splatoon was a fight between a block of
sesame tofu and a block of firm tofu.
All
(laugh)
HAL Labs Spent Eleven Years On
Three Kirby Games That Never Came Out
From Kirby's
Return To Dream Land
Iwata
It's been 11 years since the last completely new game in
the main Kirby series.
Kawase
Yes. To begin by introducing myself, I was originally a
designer on a team called Jack and the Beanstalk Project
and worked on games like Pokémon Snap. Now I'm a
producer in Tokyo.
As for that 11-year gap between home console Kirby games,
right after Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards, we immediately
began working on a new Kirby game. That was during the
time of the Nintendo GameCube system, and screen shots
were shown at E3.
Iwata
"Were shown"? You sound so detached about it!
(laughs)
Kawase
Oh, believe me, I'm not! (laughs) But after that, it
never got updated, and I'm sure some people would wonder
and ask, "Whatever happened to that?" To some,
it had become an object of mystery.
Iwata
The release date went unannounced forever.
Kawase
Yes. Actually, there are three lost Kirby games. The
first one is the one that pictures were shown of at E3.
It was a Kirby game based on the concept of four-person
simultaneous gameplay. That was when I learned how
difficult it is to make a game that is both multi-player
and single-player.
Iwata
If it had come out, it would have been soon after Kirby
Air Ride.
Kawase
That's right. The second one was an experiment with
extremely challenging gameplay that placed Kirby in 3D
space and allowed players to freely move around. But
unfortunately, we weren't able to achieve the quality we
hoped for and it never reached completion. The third one
involved an animated Kirby sort of like a pop-up book. We
renewed the Copy Abilities, and tried to power it up. We
spent 11 years… making and abandoning these three
games.
Iwata
During that time, screen shots were shown and release
dates went unannounced for a long time. Then the Nintendo
GameCube system changed to the Wii console. Miyamoto-san
says that video games are something you never really
complete. It's hard when a game simply refuses to come
together.
Kawase
We wanted to bring it out when the fans wanted, but the
movement wouldn't feel right or we wanted to deliver more
of a surprise to the fans, and we couldn't bring one out
in final form. We experienced that difficulty for 11
years.
Mario Started Speaking Because
His Jumping Sound Didn't Work
From Super Mario All-Stars
Yokota
Mario 64 was when Mario first started making sounds with
his voice.
Kondo
Right. It was decided that we should give him a voice. In
3D, I couldn't get the jump sound to match the action
right. So I put in a sound for when he lifted off and for
when he landed, and I had him make a sound with his
voice. A lot changed starting with the N64. Including how
I viewed sound effects.
In The Very Beginning, The
Legend Of Zelda Was Called "Adventure Title"
From Legend
of Zelda: Spirit Tracks
Nakago
This is a bit of a digression, but...
Iwata
By all means. (laughs)
Nakago
(flipping through the file in front of him) After we
talked about New Super Mario Bros. Wii for "Iwata
Asks," I decided to see whether what we said was
accurate or not.
Iwata
Oh, you dug up some old documents.
Nakago
These are the first specifications for The Legend of
Zelda.
Iwata
Oh, wow! It's got Miyamoto-san's personal seal on it!
Nakago
It says "adventure." Over the course of these
few pages it doesn't just talk about the overall
structure of The Legend of Zelda, but also items and
enemies.
Iwata
Was The Legend of Zelda called Adventure at first?
Tezuka
I think "Adventure Mario" was written on the
file binding these specifications.
Iwata
It's for The Legend of Zelda, but it says "Adventure
Mario"?
Nakago
It always said "adventure." Whether it was
"Mario" or "Zelda." On the second
page, for items, it mentions compasses, bows and arrows,
boomerangs, and gold and silver.
Aonuma
Cool...
Nakago
On the third page, labeled "Enemies," it says
"Hakkai." I think that became Ganon.
(Editor's note: The Hakkai reference must be from
"Chohakkai" (which is the Japanese name, and
called "Zhu Balie" in Chinese), a pig-like
character that appeared in the 16th century Chinese novel
"Xi Yóu Jì" ("Saiyuki" in
Japanese). He is typically portrayed with having a pig's
head. This story is popular in the Japanese culture.)
Iwata
Ganon was Hakkai?
Aonuma
It says "Bull Demon King" here. Is that Ganon?
And it says "octopus." That must be the
Octorok, right? Wow... And "Eyeball" must be
Gohma.
Tezuka
That square bit at the top indicates the size of the
characters.
Iwata
Oh, it's two by two. So this enemy should be two by four.
It includes how to actually design it from the very
beginning.
Nakago
And it has notes designating things as small,
medium-sized, or large.
Tezuka
It was visualized clearly from the very start.
Iwata
I guess it's designed with the functions in mind, but
still, I'm surprised.
Tezuka
These specifications were written on a white board that
could be copied.
Nakago
Miyamoto-san jotted all this down, and then we copied it.
Iwata
It's dated February 1, 1985.
Nakago
These are the rough sketches that came up afterward.
Iwata
It's dated the same year, February 13. Not even two weeks
have passed since the specs were first written on the
white board.
Nakago
That's right.
Aonuma
Whoa, there's even a Blade Trap.
Iwata
For the first thing drawn up, it's rather complete. Did
you talk about it beforehand and build up ideas?
Nakago
I think the three of us talked it over as we did it...
Tezuka
Yeah.
Nakago
We wrote down one thing after the next, and this
resulted.
Iwata
The original specifications were drawn up in 1985, and
here we are today still making The Legend of Zelda games
by basing upon these specifications.
Aonuma
Amazing, huh?
Iwata
I wonder if this is what we always mean by the Zelda
essence. (laughs)
Iwata
Was everything here used in the first The Legend of Zelda
game? I see things I don't remember.
Nakago
No, we didn't use all of them.
Iwata
I thought so.
Nakago
We drew materials from this for quite some time
afterward.
Iwata
You got enough ideas from it for five, ten years, I'd
say. I'm surprised.
Nakago
And this is next...
Nakago
Last time we talked about how the first The Legend of
Zelda only had dungeons. This is the planning sheet for
the dungeon select screen we drew up back then. The title
is "Adventure Title," so we hadn't decided on
The Legend of Zelda yet. And that's Miyamoto-san's
signature.
Iwata
You've even got this?!
Nakago
And this is the first land map for The Legend of Zelda.
Nakago
Back then we had some long paper, and Tezuka-san and
Miyamoto-san would sit side-by-side and draw together.
Tezuka
We did?
Nakago
Yes, you did! (laughs) You drew the stuff on the left,
Tezuka-san, and the right side is Miyamoto-san's. If you
look closely, you can tell how marker was used to make
small dots. These are rocks, and these are trees.
And you can see Miyamoto-san's personality. At first he's
making individual dots, but as he gets tired of it,
toward the top, he just fills in a bunch of space!
Aonuma
Yeah, the left and right sides do look different.
Tezuka
They really are different somehow.
Iwata
And they drew this all in one sitting.
Nakago
Yeah.
Aonuma
And it's marker, so it can't be erased. Amazing.
Tezuka
No, we had correction fluid, so it was all right if we
made a mistake.
Aonuma
You should have stayed silent and just let me praise you!
(laughs)
Iwata
Well, that's Tezuka-san's personality. (laughs)
Nakago
Oh, yeah, I can see where correction fluid was used.
Aonuma
Yeah, there it is! (laughs)
Iwata
But there aren't many places like that. Overall, it's
quite a good batting average.
Nakago
The Lost Woods is there, too.
Iwata
I truly am surprised. Our discussion over New Super Mario
Bros. Wii occasioned the unearthing of some ancient
documents! (laughs)
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