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Two Giant Men Play Super Mario Galaxy

The Back Page · November 7, 2025

Shared from search: The Con

00:23:53 - 00:24:49

employee and it was sort of dared into existence by the developers are like you sure you want to have b mario in here and then before you know it they've built entire levels around b mario i just kind of wanted to hear what you thought about this emerging generation of designers because they must have all been in their 20s and 30s at the time yes they they are now they are now senior devs on the likes of donkey con bonanza i mean they they they're they're like hugely important figures that and that's what i love about these interviews is you read them and then it's like you know this guy who's relatively low on this team is now super important so the two big names from the junior batch to look out for here you've got heioshida who is basically in charge of like the general level flow of the games you get the feeling that beneath kazumi who is the director heioshida's probably got the most impact on what mario galaxy looks like he's the one who evangelizes

In Context

... that some of the left turns of the game or you know wilder ideas and some of the transformations they just came about from this being a younger development team it wasn't miyamoto telling them what to do you know it was they they came up with a lot of the stuff that they wanted to do so employee and it was sort of dared into existence by the developers are like you sure you want to have b mario in here and then before you know it they've built entire levels around b mario i just kind of wanted to hear what you thought about this emerging generation of designers because they must have all been in their 20s and 30s at the time yes they they are now they are now senior devs on the likes of donkey con bonanza i mean they they they're they're like hugely important figures that and that's what i love about these interviews is you read them and then it's like you know this guy who's relatively low on this team is now super important so the two big names from the junior batch to look out for here you've got heioshida who is basically in charge of like the general level flow of the games you get the feeling that beneath kazumi who is the director heioshida's probably got the most impact on what mario galaxy looks like he's the one who evangelizes he's he's basically been in charge of 3d mario ever since and as you'll see you know as these interviews go on he's a huge believer in a wall of post-it notes where anyone can contribute an idea ...

6 more quotes about The Con from this episode

00:24:02 - 00:27:03

have b mario in here and then before you know it they've built entire levels around b mario i just kind of wanted to hear what you thought about this emerging generation of designers because they must have all been in their 20s and 30s at the time yes they they are now they are now senior devs on the likes of donkey con bonanza i mean they they they're they're like hugely important figures that and that's what i love about these interviews is you read them and then it's like you know this guy who's relatively…

00:39:34 - 00:40:07

moment with mario sunshine just means that they're asked they're forced to ask that question a bit earlier than the zelda developers are so yeah that could that could be a big part jungle beat is such a different game you know which is basically the core of the galaxy team make jungle beat before mario galaxy which is the the 2d donkey con platformer that you control with bongo drums sort of almost like an auto running platformer really because it's all about forward momentum and timing your claps and beats to…

00:51:51 - 00:52:24

it took a while for people to play that around the office and say that game was good like it was very steady going 360 was just so dominant i can't tell you what uh what a stranglehold they had on the consciousness of the media in the late noughties they truly the only thing mary galaxy has in common with lair it's the handshake meme both under appreciated by 360 loving galoots i suppose then let's ask the big question matthew what do you think holds up well about super mario galaxy now i wondered if we could…

00:35:06 - 00:35:38

fully formed yet it could still have been a hardcore console as much it was as much as it was a casual console which is how i describe the ds i think it threaded that needle really well and you know the library is sort of like broad but also deep at the same time um which i think is always the the sort of litmus test of how how successful the console will spin if it can give you both of those things that mass appeal but also loads of cool deep cuts to go and discover you know you had this in metro prime 3 out…

01:23:12 - 01:23:46

theory of like three act structure which i think i've mentioned before on the podcast where he's like a great mario level should kind of like introduce and tutorialize an idea in in like the first third then the second third ramps up and then the third you know the last act is what like takes you kind of beyond the concept i always actually felt like he never did it better than in mario galaxy just because you have those reveals of flying between planetoids they can literally pull back the curtain on something…

01:57:35 - 01:58:09

you know like nostalgia for that console talking it's generally fine you know i wouldn't say it like transforms it in any way yeah i agree with that i think it's like uh you know it looks nice in hd which is the important thing really and um yeah i agree this i i played through the entire game on my tv with the the controls it felt like this the way it's meant to be played and i'll be doing the same for merry galaxy 2 that was going to be my last question to you matthew i've still not played super mario galaxy 2…

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