Toshiaki Suzuki: Originally the game was going to be called “Koro Monkey” (Monkey Tilt’ N Tumble) because we were using a monkey character. It was very interesting, but at the same time we were still pitching several ideas around. While the monkey was quite charming, the emphasis of the game was not very character oriented. We later decided Kirby would be a more suitable character for the game.

Kazuhiko Taniguchi: We were still undecided. Our next idea after the “Koro Monkey” was using a racoon-dog.

Toshiaki Suzuki: I think we actually decided on Kirby after a discussion with Mr. Miyamoto, who happens to be one of the original creators of the Kirby character.

Hosaka: Le stress agit différemment selon les personnes : soit elles perdent du poids, soit elles en prennent.

Iwata: Oh, j’en connais long sur le sujet. Moi, j’ai tendance à en prendre !

Et la dernière question, celle qui dérange : l’auto-critique. Des regrets pour votre année 2010 ?

(il réfléchit) Je pense qu’on n’a pas été capables de bien passer le message de l’innovation de gameplay qu’apportait Metroid : Other M, auprès des gamers.

C’est un échec commercial ?

Environ 20.000 exemplaires. On pense qu’on n’a pas réussi à suffisamment communiquer auprès de votre audience sur les innovations de gameplay. Il y a les joueurs qui ont perçu ces innovations et qui ont attribué des notes très élevées, et il y a ceux qui sont restés avec beaucoup d’interrogations sur le passage 3D/2D, sur le scénario… On aurait dû mieux travailler ces aspects-là, et aussi lancer le titre à un autre moment.

This game was not initially my concept. The original concept document was about 100 pages long, on the front and back of each page of the proposal. The game was called “something something Harrier” — I don’t remember the previous name. Originally, the game was set in a realistic setting with a jet that shot missiles into the foreground. But with a jet airplane, a game requires a lot of pattern change data to move back and forth across the screen, so I had to simplify the airplane to the character we ultimately used. But then the game loses its impact — at that point, the concept was no longer attractive. So it became a sci-fi game because we had a person flying on the screen. It was a sci-fi game with fantasy elements because I liked the movie The Neverending Story.

The original guy was a person named Ida. And he had a really big head. So, in the game there’s a part where these big heads made of rock appear and I named them after Ida, pronounced I-DA.