Miyamoto says at least three Nintendo games were created with the Mario movies in mind

Shigeru Miyamoto has confirmed that at least three Nintendo games were made to with the the two Super Mario Bros movies in mind.

In an interview in the latest issue of Famitsu, Miyamoto confirmed suspicions that the Star Fox remake was developed to capitalise on the potential popularity of Fox after his inclusion in the Super Mario Galaxy Movie.

He also confirmed, however, that Princess Peach: Showtime and Yoshi and the Mysterious Book were also created with the first and second Mario movies in mind, to ensure players had access to new games featuring those characters.

“I don’t decide the entire lineup myself, but sometimes decisions are made based on specific needs,” Miyamoto said (via machine translation).

“For example: ‘We have an idea to include Fox in the script for The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, so we should make a new Star Fox game.'”

Miyamoto also explained that not only did the movies determine which games Nintendo decided to make, but other games had an effect on the films too.

“We started production on the first Mario movie (The Super Mario Bros Movie) and Princess Peach: Showtime around the same time,” he explained, “and we had discussions like ‘since we have this game in the works, shouldn’t we make Peach more active in the movie as well?’

“We also decided early on that Yoshi would appear in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, so we kicked off development on Yoshi and the Mysterious Book to ensure there was a Yoshi game available.

“It varies by case, but I think we will continue to move forward while maintaining a positive relationship between our games and other media initiatives.”

Crossover conundrum

Miyamoto also suggested that while Fox and Pikmin appeared in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, this didn’t open the gate for countless other crossovers in future Nintendo films.

“Basically, Nintendo’s IPs follow the rule that ‘characters from different worlds must not cross over’, with the exception being Smash Bros”, he said. “As for Pikmin, we’ve also decided that its characters can appear in any other character’s world.

“We’d previously held back on this partly because once you start, there’s no end to it, and also due to issues with licensing merchandise and other reasons. But with Fox, there was a compelling reason for him to appear in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, and we thought: ‘If this were a manga, wouldn’t it be more interesting to have this kind of crossover?’

“So that decision was made fairly early on, and even though we broke the rules we’d followed up until now, it was surprisingly well received. “If characters like Samus were to show up though, it would definitely get a bit too complicated, so I don’t think it’s a matter of just throwing anything out there.”