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Famitsu sat down with Shigeru Miyamoto, creator of Mario, recently to discuss New Super Mario Bros. Wii. A writer over at 1UP has compiled some key points of that interview detailing the thought process, Super Guide, and difficulty. Check it out below.

Miyamoto on the idea to create a new 2D Mario – “It was a courageous choice for the developers. We went with a very orthodox Mario despite the capabilities of modern game systems. With this game, though, our only really overall goal was multiplayer. I figured that as long as multi-play was fun, then simpler would be better for everything else, both to players and to us creators. To put it bluntly, I would’ve been just fine with basically making a multiplayer Super Mario World. That’s not too terribly interesting, though, so our goal was to create a new and serious 2D Mario, insert multiplayer into that, and make it enjoyable for all walks of gamer.”

Miyamoto on Super Guide implementation – “Originally I wanted it to be viewable after failing at a level three times, but that was too few. You’d wind up summoning the Super Guide block even when you’re playing normally, and the testers and I both thought that was just annoying! So after some trial and error, we settled on eight tries. That’s about the point when people start to think ‘Man, this stage is kind of hard’ and get a little frustrated. If they watch the Super Guide, maybe then they realize it’s easier than they thought. We want people to get though this on their own power first, so that’s how we decided it in the end. In Mario 3 there was an item, the P-Wing, that basically let you skip a single stage at any time. I figured that since that game has 80 levels or so anyway, it’d be nice to let gamers take a pass on at least one or two of them; then, once they beat the game, they could go back to those stages and try them again. In New SMB Wii, we took that to another level.”

Miyamoto on NSMBW difficulty – “I do think the game has a lot more oomph to it than the first New SMB. World 1 and 2 are pretty forgiving, things ramp up starting with World 3, and it gets even harder at World 6. I think by the time you master World 6 you’ll have all the skills you need. You could say this game is a challenge to gamers, to see if they have the perseverence it takes.”

[Full interview, click here.]

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