Shigeru Miyamoto Names the Two Mario Games That Impressed Him Most

28 July 2026
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15 min.
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Shigeru Miyamoto Names the Two Mario Games That Impressed Him Most

Summary:

Shigeru Miyamoto has helped shape nearly every major stage of Mario’s long history, but two games appear to hold particularly meaningful places in his memory. During an interview published as part of Casa Brutus’ special coverage of Super Mario Bros., the celebrated Nintendo designer identified Super Mario World and Super Mario 64 as two titles that left especially strong impressions on him. His reasons were not based on sales figures, technical specifications or critical scores. Instead, he connected each game to a different chapter in his own creative development.

Super Mario World represented the point at which Miyamoto felt he had largely mastered the possibilities of a two-dimensional Mario adventure. Its carefully constructed courses, hidden routes, expressive characters and introduction of Yoshi brought together ideas Nintendo had refined across several earlier releases. Super Mario 64 presented an entirely different creative challenge. Moving Mario into a three-dimensional environment reminded Miyamoto of his childhood interest in puppet theater, handmade models and photographed dioramas. He compared designing 2D Mario games to drawing manga, while creating Mario in 3D felt closer to arranging and controlling puppets on a stage.

Those reflections offer a rare look at how Miyamoto connects game design with physical creativity, childhood curiosity and visual storytelling. They also arrive as attention turns toward Mario’s future on Nintendo Switch 2. Nintendo has already explored a remarkable range of concepts across the series, leaving the next development team with a difficult but exciting question: how can Mario surprise players all over again?

Miyamoto Names the Two Mario Games That Impressed Him Most

Every major Mario release carries part of Shigeru Miyamoto’s creative history, so asking him to choose the games that impressed him most is a little like asking a musician to select the most meaningful notes in a lifelong composition. Still, when the question arose during an interview connected to Casa Brutus’ special Super Mario Bros. issue, two titles stood above the rest for very different reasons. Miyamoto pointed to Super Mario World and Super Mario 64, games that marked the closing and opening of two hugely important periods for Nintendo’s famous platforming series.

His choices make sense when we consider what each release represented. Super Mario World refined the side-scrolling foundations that Nintendo had established through the original Super Mario Bros. and its sequels. Super Mario 64 then broke away from that familiar structure and asked players to navigate freely through three-dimensional spaces. One was an expertly polished expression of an established format. The other was a leap into unfamiliar territory where almost every movement, camera angle and interaction had to be reconsidered.

Miyamoto’s answer was also noticeably personal. He did not simply describe these releases as technical accomplishments. He connected them to the way he experienced creativity throughout his life, from drawing manga as a student to building physical scenes and imagining a future as a puppet maker. That emotional link helps explain why these particular games remain vivid in his memory decades after their original launches.

Super Mario World Represented the Height of 2D Mario Design

By the time Nintendo developed Super Mario World, the company had already learned an enormous amount about designing side-scrolling platform games. The original Super Mario Bros. established the rhythm of running, jumping and discovering hidden surprises. Later releases expanded Mario’s abilities, introduced more varied environments and experimented with less predictable structures. Super Mario World took those accumulated lessons and assembled them into a remarkably confident adventure that rarely wastes a platform, enemy or secret exit.

Released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Super Mario World sent Mario and Luigi to Dinosaur Land, where they encountered Yoshi for the first time. That addition alone transformed the familiar action. Yoshi could eat enemies, gain different abilities from coloured Koopa shells and give players an extra layer of protection. He was more than a charming companion. He changed how players moved through levels and approached obstacles, while quickly becoming one of Nintendo’s most recognisable characters.

The world map also encouraged curiosity. Many stages contained alternate exits, and finding them could open hidden routes, shortcuts or entirely secret areas. The result felt less like following a straight road and more like unfolding a colourful paper map filled with concealed doors. Players could complete the main journey without discovering everything, but the game constantly whispered that another path might be hiding just beyond the visible edge of the screen.

Why Completing Super Mario World Felt Like Mastery

Miyamoto explained that finishing Super Mario World gave him the sense that he had, to a certain degree, mastered the two-dimensional Mario world. That does not mean every possible side-scrolling idea had been exhausted. Nintendo would continue producing inventive 2D Mario games for decades. His statement instead appears to reflect the confidence of a designer who had learned how to communicate movement, danger, reward and discovery through a carefully controlled two-dimensional space.

In a 2D Mario game, the designer usually has a strong understanding of what the player can see and where the character is likely to move. That control allows obstacles to be placed with almost musical timing. A gap introduces hesitation, a row of coins suggests a safe jumping arc and an approaching enemy forces a quick decision. The player may not consciously notice the guidance, but the level quietly leads them like an invisible hand.

Super Mario World demonstrates that approach throughout its adventure. Early stages teach new ideas gently, while later areas combine those lessons in more demanding ways. Switch Palaces alter blocks across the wider world. Ghost Houses play with exits and expectations. Star Road rewards players who question whether the obvious route is really the only route. The design feels playful rather than instructional, yet every screen is teaching something. Reaching that balance is difficult, and Miyamoto’s feeling of mastery speaks to how naturally those lessons came together.

Super Mario World Turned Limitations Into Creative Strengths

Two-dimensional design limits movement to a relatively narrow plane, but those boundaries can sharpen creativity rather than restrict it. Think of a stage play performed on a small set. The actors cannot wander anywhere they please, so every entrance, gesture and prop must serve a purpose. Super Mario World works in a similar fashion. Its levels are readable because the player sees obstacles from the side, yet Nintendo continually finds ways to create surprise within that familiar perspective.

Some challenges depend on speed, while others encourage patience. Certain stages change depending on whether coloured blocks have been activated. Secret exits may be hidden above the normal route, behind seemingly solid scenery or through an action that initially feels risky. Even the game’s cape power-up changes how players perceive each course. Once Mario can fly, ceilings become pathways, open skies become opportunities and previously intimidating hazards can sometimes be bypassed entirely.

This flexibility helps explain why the game still feels lively. It gives players room to experiment without abandoning the precision that defines classic Mario movement. Super Mario World is tightly designed, but it rarely feels controlling. Instead, it offers a carefully built playground and then smiles while players find unexpected ways to cross it.

Super Mario 64 Reconnected Miyamoto With His Childhood

If Super Mario World represented confidence and refinement, Super Mario 64 represented rediscovery. Miyamoto said that developing Mario’s first major three-dimensional adventure reminded him of his childhood. Before his interest in drawing manga became central, he enjoyed Japanese puppet programmes and imagined becoming a puppet maker. He also constructed monster dioramas and photographed the scenes with a camera. Years later, the process of creating Super Mario 64 brought those memories rushing back.

The connection is easy to understand when we look at how dramatically the development process changed. A 2D Mario sprite moves across a flat visual plane. A 3D Mario model exists like an object in a miniature world. Designers must consider how he looks from every angle, how his body shifts while running, how his feet connect with the ground and how the virtual camera presents the action. Suddenly, creating a Mario game involved many of the same concerns found in puppetry, model making and physical staging.

Players could now circle around characters, climb slopes, swim through open water and choose their own approach to many objectives. Peach’s Castle served as a central space rather than a simple sequence of levels. Paintings became entrances to separate worlds, turning the castle into a magical theatre filled with stages waiting behind decorated curtains. The move into 3D was technical, but Miyamoto’s memories show that it was also deeply theatrical.

Puppet Theater Helped Shape Mario’s Move Into 3D

Puppetry depends on giving life to something that the audience knows is being controlled. A wooden figure, fabric creature or carefully built model becomes believable through movement, timing and personality. Super Mario 64 faced a similar challenge. Mario was no longer represented by a handful of familiar side-view animations. Nintendo needed to make a polygonal character feel responsive, expressive and alive while players moved him freely through open environments.

That demand influenced nearly every part of the experience. Mario could run, crawl, crouch, swim, climb, punch, kick, slide and perform several different jumps. His momentum changed depending on slopes and surfaces. He reacted when touching hot ground, struggled when carrying heavy objects and fell asleep when left standing still. These details were not merely decorative. They helped players understand that they were controlling a character with weight, energy and personality.

The analogue stick was equally important. Rather than moving at a single fixed speed, Mario could walk carefully or sprint depending on how far the stick was pushed. That made control feel less like pressing commands into a machine and more like guiding a performer across a stage. The connection to puppetry becomes especially clear here. The controller acted like a set of invisible strings, while Mario’s movements translated the player’s intentions into an animated performance.

The Camera Became Part of the Performance

Moving into 3D also introduced a challenge that side-scrolling Mario games rarely faced in the same way: players needed to see where they were going. In two dimensions, the screen naturally presents the route from the side. In Super Mario 64, walls, corners and large objects could obscure the character. Nintendo therefore turned the camera into an active part of the game, represented by Lakitu following Mario with filming equipment.

This playful explanation made a complicated technical system easier to understand. Instead of presenting the camera as an invisible piece of software, Nintendo gave it a character and a role. Players were effectively participating in a live production, with Mario as the performer and Lakitu as the camera operator trying to capture the action. It was not always perfect, particularly by modern standards, but it gave players more control over their view than many earlier 3D games offered.

The camera system also strengthened Miyamoto’s puppet theatre comparison. A physical performance depends not only on the puppets but also on where the audience is positioned. Change the viewing angle and the same movement can feel completely different. Super Mario 64 asked Nintendo’s designers to think like directors, arranging movement, scenery and perspective so players could understand and enjoy the performance.

The Creative Difference Between Drawing Manga and Moving Puppets

Miyamoto described two-dimensional Mario as feeling like drawing manga, while three-dimensional Mario brought him back to puppet theater. That comparison neatly captures the creative difference between the formats. Manga uses carefully framed images to communicate action, direction and emotion. Readers see exactly what the artist places inside each panel. Traditional 2D platform games offer a similar clarity, presenting characters and obstacles from a controlled angle as the action scrolls across the screen.

Three-dimensional games operate more like a physical performance. Characters occupy spaces that can be viewed from multiple directions. Objects must have depth, stages must be navigable and movement must remain believable even when players do something unexpected. The designer can prepare the environment, but the player decides where the performer goes. It is a fascinating loss of control. The creator builds the theatre, supplies the puppet and establishes the rules, yet every player produces a slightly different show.

That contrast helps explain why Super Mario World and Super Mario 64 impressed Miyamoto in separate ways. The first showed how elegantly Nintendo could arrange action inside a controlled frame. The second opened the frame and allowed players to walk into it. One perfected the page. The other transformed the page into a stage.

Both Approaches Share the Same Creative Foundation

Although Miyamoto distinguished between manga and puppetry, he also suggested that these interests were connected. Both involve creating characters, arranging visual ideas and communicating movement through carefully chosen forms. Whether Mario is a sprite crossing a flat level or a 3D model exploring a castle, the central goal remains the same: players must immediately understand what they can do and feel encouraged to try it.

Nintendo’s best Mario games make complicated design look effortless. A moving platform is positioned where players naturally expect to jump. A trail of coins invites exploration. A suspicious wall or oddly placed object encourages experimentation. These details create a silent conversation between designer and player. No lengthy explanation is necessary because the environment itself provides the clues.

That principle survived the jump from 2D to 3D. Super Mario 64 changed the camera, controls and structure, but it retained Mario’s playful readability. Trees invited climbing. Cannons pointed toward distant destinations. Paintings visibly reacted before Mario entered them. The world constantly encouraged players to touch, test and investigate. Beneath the new technology, the same design instinct remained in place.

Why Mario’s Transition From 2D to 3D Changed Games Forever

Super Mario 64 did more than give Nintendo’s mascot an additional dimension. It helped establish a shared language for controlling characters in three-dimensional action games. Modern players may take analogue movement, adjustable cameras and open environments for granted, but these systems were far from obvious when the Nintendo 64 arrived. Developers were still learning how players should move through 3D spaces without becoming confused or frustrated.

Nintendo focused heavily on making Mario enjoyable to control before filling the game with finished environments. That priority can still be felt whenever Mario runs in a circle, performs a triple jump or slides down a slope. Movement is not simply a way to travel between objectives. It is entertaining on its own. Players can spend time outside Peach’s Castle jumping between trees and experimenting with acrobatics without collecting anything, yet the experience remains satisfying.

This philosophy influenced countless later releases. Three-dimensional platform games increasingly treated movement as a central pleasure rather than a functional necessity. Hub areas became places to explore. Objectives could be approached from different directions. Characters received broader sets of context-sensitive animations. Super Mario 64 did not invent every one of these ideas, but it assembled them into a convincing model that helped other developers imagine what 3D action games could become.

Miyamoto’s Personal Memories Reveal His Design Philosophy

Miyamoto’s childhood memories reveal something important about his work: his ideas often begin with physical experiences rather than abstract technology. Puppets, dioramas, gardens, toys and exploration have repeatedly shaped how he discusses game design. He appears interested in how people touch, move, observe and experiment with objects. Technology matters, but it serves the sensation rather than replacing it.

Super Mario 64 illustrates that philosophy beautifully. Its appeal does not come only from polygon counts or the novelty of three-dimensional graphics. It comes from the pleasure of making Mario move. The game responds with animation, sound and momentum, creating the impression that the player is handling a lively toy inside a digital playset. A jump has a beginning, a peak and a landing. A dive carries weight. A steep hill becomes a slide whether that was the player’s plan or not.

The same physical awareness appears in Super Mario World through different tools. Yoshi’s movement, the cape’s flight mechanics and the bounce of enemies all communicate through clear visual reactions. The technology changed between the two games, but the interest in tactile play remained. Miyamoto’s comparison between manga and puppetry therefore describes more than visual presentation. It shows how different creative forms can lead toward the same goal of making interaction feel joyful.

What Miyamoto’s Comments Could Mean for Mario on Nintendo Switch 2

Miyamoto has previously reflected on the challenge of deciding where Mario should go after Nintendo explored so many different ideas on Nintendo Switch. The system hosted traditional side-scrolling adventures, open-ended 3D exploration, level creation, multiplayer experiments and unusual transformations. With such a broad foundation already in place, creating a new Mario experience for Nintendo Switch 2 is not simply a matter of adding more stages or increasing visual detail.

His comments about Super Mario World and Super Mario 64 suggest that the most meaningful advances come when Nintendo discovers a different way to think about Mario. Super Mario World refined an existing design language until it felt remarkably complete. Super Mario 64 changed the relationship between player and character by moving the entire experience into three dimensions. The next major release does not necessarily need to repeat that scale of historical change, but it will need a strong central idea that gives players a fresh reason to run and jump.

Nintendo has not explained exactly what form the next major Mario platformer will take. Speculation should therefore remain separate from confirmed information. Still, Miyamoto’s reflections provide a useful lens. The future may depend less on raw hardware power and more on finding a playful interaction that could not feel quite the same in an earlier game.

The Challenge of Surprising Players With the Next Mario Game

Mario’s familiarity is both Nintendo’s greatest strength and one of its biggest creative challenges. Players understand the character immediately. They know that blocks may contain items, pipes may lead somewhere unexpected and a distant platform is probably reachable with the right jump. That shared knowledge allows designers to communicate quickly, but it also means audiences can recognise recycled ideas just as quickly.

The next development team must preserve Mario’s identity while introducing something that feels genuinely inviting. Change too little and the adventure may seem predictable. Change too much and it may lose the clear movement and cheerful rhythm that make Mario recognisable. It is like renovating a beloved theatre while the audience is already seated. The building needs something fresh, but nobody wants the stage to collapse during the opening act.

Miyamoto’s career shows that Nintendo often solves this problem by returning to simple questions. What movement feels fun? What makes players curious? What can they understand without being told? Super Mario World answered those questions through refined two-dimensional stages. Super Mario 64 answered them through physical movement inside open spaces. Nintendo Switch 2 gives the company another opportunity to reconsider those questions rather than merely repeating old answers.

A New Mario Game Will Need More Than Technical Improvements

Higher visual quality, faster loading and larger environments can improve an experience, but they do not automatically create memorable design. Mario’s most important games are remembered because they changed how players interacted with the world. Super Mario World made exploration and secret finding feel central to a side-scrolling journey. Super Mario 64 made simply moving through space feel exciting. Their technical achievements mattered because they supported those ideas.

A future Mario release will likely be judged by the same standard. Players will notice sharper graphics and smoother performance, but what they remember years later will be the unusual mechanic, surprising environment or delightful movement that made them grin. Nintendo’s challenge is to find that spark. It might come from a new control method, a different world structure or an ability that changes how players perceive familiar objects.

Miyamoto’s comments remind us that inspiration can emerge from unexpected places. A childhood puppet show helped inform the feeling of a landmark 3D game many years later. The defining idea for Mario’s next adventure could be equally personal and unpredictable. That uncertainty is what makes the wait so interesting.

Why These Two Games Continue to Define Mario’s Legacy

Super Mario World and Super Mario 64 remain important because they capture Nintendo at two different creative peaks. Super Mario World demonstrates the confidence of a team that understood the language of 2D platforming at an exceptional level. Super Mario 64 shows the same creators becoming beginners again, questioning familiar rules and learning how a beloved character should behave in an unfamiliar space.

Together, the games tell a larger story about creative growth. Mastery does not always mean remaining inside a comfortable format. Sometimes it creates the confidence required to leave that format behind. Miyamoto could recognise what Nintendo had achieved with two-dimensional Mario while still embracing the uncertainty of three-dimensional design. That willingness to start again helped produce one of the most influential transitions in gaming history.

His emotional connection to the games also explains why Mario has survived repeated technological changes. The character is not tied to one visual style, controller or level structure. Mario can exist as a drawn figure, a digital puppet, a toy-like model or something Nintendo has not revealed yet. As long as controlling him feels immediate and playful, the performance continues.

Conclusion

Shigeru Miyamoto’s reflections on Super Mario World and Super Mario 64 offer more than a list of two respected Nintendo games. They show how each title represented a turning point in his creative life. Super Mario World gave him the sense that Nintendo had reached an extraordinary level of confidence with two-dimensional Mario design. Its expressive stages, hidden paths and flexible mechanics brought years of experimentation together in one polished adventure.

Super Mario 64 carried a different emotional weight. Building a three-dimensional Mario reminded Miyamoto of childhood puppet programmes, handmade monster scenes and his early dream of becoming a puppet maker. The shift from drawing-like 2D design to a stage-like 3D world allowed those old interests to reappear through a new technological form.

Those connections help explain why both games remain so important. They were not created by technology alone. They grew from observation, memory and a desire to make movement feel playful. As Nintendo considers Mario’s future on Nintendo Switch 2, that philosophy may prove more valuable than any single technical feature. The next memorable step will come when Nintendo once again finds a surprising way to turn a simple jump into something magical.

FAQs
  • Which Mario games impressed Shigeru Miyamoto the most?
    • Miyamoto highlighted Super Mario World and Super Mario 64. Super Mario World represented his feeling of having largely mastered two-dimensional Mario design, while Super Mario 64 reconnected him with childhood memories of puppetry and model making.
  • Why was Super Mario World important to Miyamoto?
    • Miyamoto viewed its completion as a point where he had gained a strong command of the two-dimensional Mario format. The game brought together refined level design, secrets, movement systems and years of experience with side-scrolling platform games.
  • How did Super Mario 64 remind Miyamoto of his childhood?
    • Creating Mario as a three-dimensional character reminded him of watching puppet shows, building monster dioramas and dreaming of becoming a puppet maker. Designing a movable 3D character felt closer to arranging a physical performance than drawing a flat image.
  • What did Miyamoto mean by comparing 2D Mario to manga?
    • His comparison suggests that two-dimensional Mario design resembles arranging action inside controlled visual frames. Three-dimensional design is closer to puppetry because characters occupy a space, move from multiple angles and perform within a stage-like environment.
  • Has Nintendo revealed the next major Mario game for Nintendo Switch 2?
    • Nintendo has not confirmed the exact direction of the next major Mario platforming adventure. Miyamoto has discussed the challenge of finding new possibilities after the wide variety of Mario experiences released for Nintendo Switch.
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