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Paper Mario – 2000 Developer Interviews | Shmuplations
(shmuplations.com)
There were rejected badges too. In one of them, Mario would get into a “berserk” state where you couldn’t give him commands, but his attack power would shoot way up. For some reason though, that badge made him turn green when he was berserk. The programmer who created it was a Luigi fan, and I guess that idea was that if Mario became Luigi it could be very dangerous. (laughs)
I love to see in-depth interviews like this! Some of it is lost on me because I haven't played the original Paper Mario (I'll get around to it Someday™), but it's still interesting to learn about the long design process and the refining of the different mechanics. Also, I just learned about kamishibai a few weeks ago so I was like, "Ooh, I know what that is!!"
Shumplations is such a wonderful resource—I was just reading this great Iwata interview from 1999 the other day, which I was turned onto by Part 1 of They Create Worlds Nintendo Wii two-parter (fascinating look at the business and inner politics of Nintendo, by the way!). The whole interview is full of great information, from the early history of HAL to Iwata's personal philosophy, but this excerpt from his final remarks rings even truer today:
I gotta' read that Iwata book that got published with all his articles and stuff. Been meaning to. I love what I've read and heard from him so far.
Ooh, thanks for the tip—never heard of that book, but I'll have to check it out! I always loved reading his Iwata Asks roundtable discussions with developers. The fact that he was still pitching in on programming efforts while he was President of HAL Laboratory is a testament to him never losing sight of his game developer roots. Polar opposite of someone like Reggie Fils-Aime—I guess we can thank for some good memes, but I watched a long-form interview with him recently and he comes off as a total business ghoul.
In the meantime, I can recommend these two shmuplations interviews with Satoru Okada^[Bio blurb: "Although his name is not well-known here, Satoru Okada designed (or co-designed with Gunpei Yokoi) every Nintendo handheld from the Game & Watch to the Nintendo DSi XL"]:
https://shmuplations.com/satoruokada/
https://shmuplations.com/okada2022/
I think I'd only ever heard of him in passing, but he's quite the character! The first interview will give you a sense about his personality and background (and I think is a prime example of "If you want to create things, you should go out and experience life!"), while the second one is chock full of interesting anecdotes about his time at Nintendo.