How Mickey Mouse Influenced Super Mario

Super Mario is celebrating its 35th anniversary and as part of it, Nintendo has shared a question and answer summary with creator Shigeru Miyamoto. In it, Miyamoto reflects how back in the 1990s a poll was taken outside Japan that showed that Mario had become more recognizable than Disney’s Mickey Mouse. Miyamoto expressed shock that such a new character like Mario could even be compared to a 60 year (at the time) veteran like Mickey Mouse. Still, upon learning this news the team decided to use the cartoon mouse as inspiration when creating new Super Mario games.

Because Mickey had continually changed and evolved with technology, so would every iteration of Super Mario. Anytime Nintendo would release a new piece of technology, a game or program featuring Mario would always be planned to showcase the hardware’s capabilities. Nintendo also continually adds new staff members to work alongside the existing Super Mario team. This allows many more creative ideas to come to fruition. Though, Miyamoto notes that this constant change also makes it debatable which aspects of a Mario game make it fun or must memorable.  

Kurtis Seid, NoobFeed
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