Mario's maker digs Angry Birds, inspires Nintendo 'to try even harder'

Given what Nintendo has told us in the past, we thought we'd never see the day. Nintendo game design head honcho and mind behind Super Mario Shigeru Miyamoto admitted to Edge in an interview that he likes Angry Birds. (Gasp!) The proverbial Steve Jobs of video games told the magazine that Rovio's smash hit is actually his favorite game of the year.

"What I like about Angry Birds is that it has a traditional video game [feel] to it, but also a very creative side. And you can really feel that they're having fun developing the game," Miyamoto told Edge. "That's what I like about it." Edge points out that these sentiments are almost an about face from what Nintendo executives have said in the past.

During last year's Game Developers Conference, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata had harsh words for smartphone games, pegging them as more focused on quantity than quality. Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime said to us last year that making mobile games (or on any other platform, for that matter) "really flies in the face of what we believe in." Keep in mind, however, that those are the words of Nintendo's business heads, not its design leaders.

From a game design standpoint, Miyamoto actually stands to benefit from looking at the world of mobile gaming*. "I check up on them sometimes, but I don't have a lot of time," Miyamoto admitted to Edge. "I think we also have a history of having certain fun ideas and making a game out of it, and there's lots of other people also doing this [now]. This kind of environment inspires us to try even harder, and create even more unexpected new things."

*Still, don't expect to see Nintendo's logo pop up on any screen with an Apple logo on the other side for some time.

[Via Kotaku]

[Image Credit: Pocket Gamer]

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