There's a particularly interesting interview over on MTV with Nintendo's design guru Shigeru Miyamoto, revealing more and more goodies about the Wii console. It starts off with some thoughts about how the whole Wii remote idea came to be, reasoning that the motion-sensing technology has allowed for fewer buttons on the controller - thus making it more appealing for a broader audience, as well as opening up some wacky gameplay mechanics. The idea then evolved naturally, with the addition of built-in rumble feedback and a speaker in the Wii remote - and perhaps even a microphone, as Nintendo's recently registered "Wiikaraoke.com" domain (among others) seems to indicate.

The Wiimote's speaker, for instance, will offer great audio feedback when playing the new Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Miyamoto giving the following example:

"With "Zelda" you can hear the sound of the bowstring draw back [from the controller]. It gets kind of a [string-tightening] sound and as you release [an arrow], you hear the "thwip." And then you hear the sound travel to the TV. And so depth of sound is another way to give the user the feeling that their actions are having a direct response in the game."

He also went on to describe a quirky feature available in Wii Sports: "the "Wii Sports" series features these little models which you can put your own faces on... and then you may start to see those characters, with faces you've created, appearing in different games on the Wii system". And, of course, Miyamoto also had a lot to say about the future Super Mario Galaxy game:

"Our biggest focus with "Super Mario Galaxy" is having different spheres or planets Mario can visit, with the idea being if the planet gets very, very large the scenery will look more like he's running across a plane. But if the planet is very small it almost looks like he's running around a ball. (...) What that allows us to do is take a game like "Mario" that has been a very jump-based game in the past, and turn it into a game that is more [about] Mario running around a lot and going to different places and kind of enjoying that."

Be sure to read the whole thing to find out more about the crazy thoughts of Nintendo's gaming genius.

(N.B. Archive text, links removed)