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A Look Back at Making Mario 64
Press the Buttons has commentary on a short, interesting piece at the Miyamoto Shrine site. There, they look back at the making of Mario 64. From the article: "Possibly the most important part of Mario 64 was making sure Mario was easy to control. Before any of the levels had been created Mr. Miyamoto had Mario running around and picking up objects in a small 'garden' which he uses in all his games to test gameplay elements. 'Alot of the animation was actually in there before any of the game' explains Goddard. 'The Mario that he had running around basically looked the same as he did in the final version. Mario's movement is based on good physics, but you have bits on top that you plug in so you can do things you shouldn't be able to do. They spent a lot of time working on the swimming, it's harder than running to get the feeling right, they didn't want you to avoid the water, the wanted to make it an advantage and fun to dive in.'"
Surely the most important part was making it impossible to know where the bloody was going to swivel around to next, from pointing at the back of his head to looking behind him.
This is a story on Slashdot with the Nintendo logo proudly displayed on the main page...and yet it isn't an article about journalists guessing how the Revolution controller might possibly perhaps be used, or how it might possibly perhaps change the face of gaming simply by existing.
Is this one of the signs of the Apocalypse?