Here's a chat I had with a forum friend on MSN and was wondering what people#s views were on this matter?!

Flameboy says:
hmm I do have a slight misgiving about Nintendo, I think Miyamoto has lost his touch, it was slightly mentioned in Edge:Equip.. But is man whose major hobbies are Gardening and playing his Banjo really relate to the current generation of children? Also he seems totally un aware of Sony's exisitence, he didnt even know wot Eye Toy was and for someone competing he should stuff like that.

Goodfella says:
He may have gone ga ga! He has always showed signs of eccentricity but maybe now he has truly lost it, Pikmin could be the result. I fear he is getting behind the times and losing focus

Flameboy says:
yeah that is very good way of putting it! losing focus, I may start a thread about this, might bring the GC/GBA back to life abit

Goodfella says:
lol

Goodfella says:
I honestly think he has shut himself off from the outside world or at least the competition

Flameboy says:
i think both indeed

Goodfella says:
nothing lasts forever though, like rock bands, they get to a point where they just lose it

Flameboy says:
yeah, also I dont think the individual has as much pulling power in today's industry as it did in the industry of yester years' it's more brands etc...

Goodfella says:
i dont know how much influence Shigsy has, I presume he has rather a lot, but his role is in Nintendo is somewhat vague

Flameboy says:
well is like a producer, director expert, over 50 odd games he has directed or produced bot bad for a guy who started off as an artist

Goodfella says:
at the end of the day he did one hell of a lot for gaming

Flameboy says:
aye! anyway has been nice chatting with you! I'm gonna post this in the forums see wot other people think, then get off!

lost what? the plot :P

He never had that in the first place! that's why his games are so good!

What evidence are yo drawing this on? the fact that sunshine was a bit boring? that celda wasn't brilliant?

He wasn't really involved greatly in those, as he suggested to in equip.

Pikmin, his one true love of the gamecube generation is an outstanding game! Its sheer brilliance, to play, to watch, to feel. Obviously its a bit short... but i think all this is being addressed in pikmin 2, especially with the mulitplayer aspect...

...but I digress... Just because there's been no groundbreaking games from him in the last couple of years, doesn't mean he has lost it.

Something like that can never be lost, and I trust him to pull another bunny out of the hat in the nesxt year or so :)

Shigeru (first name terms with the man, natch) has moved to a more backstage role in the company. Think of it if you will as a football manager moving upstairs to the board.

Miyamoto (we had a fight in the last five seconds and now it's all this formal nonsense again :( ) is trying to nurture younger staff and that's why Shiggy (we've made up! Kisses!!!) hasn't directed as many games as he used to.

I don't think there is anything to fear. Nintendo will become better and better at creating original games in the third dimension as we go along.


giant_frying_pan

Has Miyamoto lost it?

Hmmm, it's a good question isn't it?

The problem I think stems from the N64. Everything he touched on that machine was pure solid gold. He'd create games that would both create genres and set unattainable benchmarks at the same time. Whilst Sony and Sega had done 3D first, no-one had created such epic, majestical masterpieces as the N64 would allow him to do.

Is it really any wonder that he can't match the heights of near-perfect games such as Mario 64?

What we really need is a shift in hardware. The N64 -> GameCube transition was a minor step-up and only allows him to make shiny versions of his old N64 games. Maybe the step up to the next hardware will bring about some kind of technological change that will give him something new to play with and excel at.

As for him not knowing what the Eye Toy is... Typical Shiggy spiel. The man knows... He just doesn't want you to think he does.

Zelda was brilliant, though.

I don't think that "Shigsy" can "Lose it".

The games he's directed or had any influence on in the Gamcube catalogue have been to the same quality of his previous work. While no games are perfect, to say he's "lost it" would be stupid as each game is supreb - Generalisation.

Just becuase many of the games he directs don't appeal to an ever changing audience doesn't mean he's lost it...

I think that Miyamoto-san has consistently made great games for Nintendo and continues to do so. - End Of!

he's probably dead or something, and for the last 3 years, what you think is shigsy is probably a stuffed version of him on a stick

That's simply not true. Just because he hasn't played EyeToy, doesn't mean he doesn't know what the competition's up to. Indeed, he's praised Grand Theft Auto 3 before! Here's what he said about it:

As this is a brand new forum, may I earnestly request that the disrespectful sobriquets, "Shigsy", "Shiggy", "Ninty" et cetera, be banned from this forum's allowed terms of address.

Usage should be punishable by a kick in the chin.

Thank you for reading.

Can we call him "Steve"? Or perhaps "THE MIYAMOTO"?

What's he lost, anyway? His keys? Trouser pocket, love. Always there.

It was brilliant, but not quite brilliant. The difference is somewhere between subtle and large.

It was the same old Zelda really with new swanky pink (lies) trousers (read: graphics, and improved combat and things) I'd argue that Majora's Mask did more to innovate on the formula with the time travel over 3 days than this new one. Still it looks nice.

I'd rather Nintendo went off and started making some new games with new characters now though. Instead of pooling most of their resources into updates of tried and tested franchises. or is that tired and tested?

he always had lost it. thats how you make great games these days. you have to be totally "off your rocker".

'Super-Shigeru 50' would be better.

Well I don't know. '50' is a fairly bland number, isn't it? How about Shiggy 64?


giant_frying_pan

I think it was brilliant, as is brilliant, with italics and everything. Best Zelda ever. Of course, I might change my mind when I replay Ocarina of Time...

My agreement level with this post : 127%

Most, sorry ALL, of the Gamecube mags are toilet anyway but when they are full of stuff like "Mazza was late to the party" etc. it makes me so angry that I shall write into BlameChentral (Editage Avoidage) in a BidgeDirtWiser (more Editage Avoidage) idiom pretending to be a pig. Oh no wait that's some other sad act.

The thing with "Shigsy" and "Ninty" etc is that they are over familiar truncations so that have more space to fill the mag with drivel about how a particular game is 3% more complete than it was in the last preview two months ago.

We will be referring to Miyamoto-san as "Sir Shigs-a-lot".

I read in an interview that he prefers to be know as "Shigicus Maximus".*

dasi

* Caution: untrue statement.

I just think that Miyamoto is spreading himself too thinly, and just letting the programmers get on with it. Oh, and the whole releasing-unfinished-games things, as seen with Mario Sunshine and Zelda. I thought the latter was dull, by the way. Comfortingly dull, like you can play it before you go to bed and it makes you nice and tired. But it's just too short and too padded-out. Sure, it looks great and the combat was extremely well done, but there's hardly any game there. It just ends too early.

As for further Miyamoto thingies, I'm currently so out of touch with the whole games industry thing that I couldn't even tell you what's coming out this year, let alone what I think of the games, to be honest.

That Pacman might be a laugh, though.

Yeah, 'cos the previous generation were, like, so totally into gardening and banjo playing, that he was, like, y'know, totally in tune with those guys, not like us groovy modern dudes that he, like, totally doesn't understand.

Bleh! If the result of Miyamoto being out of touch is that we are treated to Pikmin and Wind Waker, then I hope he stays out of touch tending his banjo garden for years to come.

Yes! I was also going to say something along those lines, but I forgot to. Oh well, too late now.

I think that, well, you should just lay off the guy. So maybe some of you think that he's burnt out and lost the plot a bit. Well i say to you, let the man tend his garden and play his banjo in peace. because how many hours of entertainment has this man given us lot? I doubt I could count em on the hairs on my head!

Now before you start cranking up the wellIpaidmymoneyometer™ if it wasnt for "Sir Shigsy the Third of Wales" (as I like to call him) Mario64 or Oot might not have been the wunderbar that they were!

So lay off him let him play with his Pikmin and his banjo. Then stuff the old codjer down a well with a snes development kit so we can have some more 2d mario goodness on the gba! Yesssssss!

Took me a while but I got there in the end!

And I am 5 sheets to the wind!

I recently have wondered the same thing, completing first Mario Sunshine and now Zelda in the last few weeks, I have been struck by a sense that they're just not as, well, brilliant as his work used to be. If he's more of a back seat player, now, well, fine. That explains it. But then, would he, with any authority over it at all, have sanely let Zelda go out with the bloody SAILING still in it? Really? It's like they made a perfectly nice, if slightly short (although personally, I don't know that it is, I think they just spoiled us something rotten with OOT) game, and decided to "mediochre" it "up", by making you sail around with only that bloody music and the bloody silly floaty monsters and the bloody jump button to keep you entertained. And breathe. Ahhhhh.

Here's hoping more original and brilliant things are to come from the man. I must get my hands on Pikmin soon...

I have a theory. I think Nintendo need to stop innovating. Innovation is killing games.

Sounds like madness? Well, Majora's Mask was ruined for me by the time system. Mario Sunshine was ruined by half trying to be Zelda, instead of a proper platformer (apart from the "void" levels, which were fantastic). Wind Waker wasn't totally ruined by innovation, but nearly endless sailing did get to me. I also think part of it was rather ruined by rushing to get it out, thus skipping temples and the tedious collecting.

I've started playing OOT again, and after I got over the initial graphical ("oh-my-god-link-is-made-from-less-polygons-than-a-crate-was-in-WW") shock after not seeing it for 3+ years (although actually after playing it for a bit the graphics aren't that bad), I'm amazed at how well it still stands up to time. If I ever have kids, I'll demand they play it. And then play Master Quest (which, btw, is ace - lovely new dungeons!).

If they made Super Mario 64 2, with the same castle but totally different levels, I'd buy it. And I'm pretty sure I'd love it, even if they didn't update the graphics. Heck, I'd love it if it was wireframe.

So that's how my reasoning goes. More of the same, innovate in level and character design, be evolutionary rather than trying to be revolutionary. However, I might be talking complete and utter DELICIOUS APPLES (oh come on, surely we can say bo!!ocks). Dunno.

What a world must be like where you don't know about EyeToy. Long may he stay there; the day Nintendo start pandering to other companies is the day they really lose the plot.