Miyamoto talks Mario 3DS

When Shigeru Miyamoto speaks, the game industry listens. In his latest interview, published this week in USA Today Nintendo's creative guru sounded off on the 25th anniversary of the US release of Super Mario Bros. for the NES back in 1985. However, he also touched on an upcoming Mario game for Nintendo's 3DS handheld, due out in the US and Europe in March.

"Of course, we are working on a Mario product for the Nintendo 3DS; I can tell you that," he told the national daily. It was unclear if he was referencing the previously announced Mario Kart 3DS or a new project featuring the sprightly Italian-plumber mascot.

Miyamoto continued, "One of the things we have looked at…you know when you are in a 3D world but on a 2D screen, it is difficult sometimes to tell distance; whether an object you are looking at is in the foreground, in the background. Is the object above you? Sometimes it's a little bit harder. So it's going to be really exciting for us to make that easier for the player to understand using the Nintendo 3DS technology. And for the first time ever, Mario will be on a handheld system with an analog stick for controls. That's new."

Miyamoto dodged another question about the upcoming Wii game The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, saying only that development on the project is "going along like gangbusters." He also reminisced about what inspired him to get into game development--namely, watching puppet shows. The Donkey Kong creator also said that game's success led Nintendo to adopt a nation-neutral approach to its big franchises to create the broadest possible appeal.