In a recent interview with Nintendo Life, the creator of Epic Mickey, Warren Spector, shared some of his high praise for Nintendo.
First, he mentions how Nintendo’s games are different and unique, bringing a breath of fresh air when placed in the middle of various similar games. He also says he thinks they will be fine now that they have decided to create mobile games.
I’m kind of a Nintendo geek. I don’t want to get myself in trouble….you know, I’m looking around the show floor here. And let’s say there are 2500 games being shown. 2400 of them all look exactly alike. You can’t even tell which one you’re looking at, you know? And it drives me crazy.
And then you go to IndieCade, and you go to Nintendo, and all of a sudden it’s like, “Oooh, games can be different. Cool!” So I think from a creative standpoint, from a design standpoint, from an IP standpoint, from a graphics standpoint, I think Nintendo rocks.
The thing is, I mean, from a hardware standpoint it’s hard to say what Nintendo’s future looks like, let’s be honest about that. But the fact that they’re finally gonna put their IP on mobile…they’re fine. There are a billion smartphones on the planet. They’re gonna do just fine when Mario hits that.
Moreover, he also speaks about his experiences meeting Nintendo president Satoru Iwata and legendary game developer Shigeru Miyamoto.
I loved working with them…working with Nintendo is great. I got to spend time with Iwata-san, which was awesome. The guy who runs Nintendo! I was sitting there talking to him, thinking “This guy knows more about games than I do!” (laughter) You don’t find that in a lot of game company CEO’s, it just doesn’t happen.
I got to meet Mr. Miyamoto twice. One time he put his hand on my shoulder and I instantly became a better designer – I heard the Zelda theme go off. (laughter)
They were way easier to work with than most publishers and even studios I’ve dealt with.
If you would like to read more about his reflections on the Epic Mickey franchise, check out the full interview here.