Shigeru Miyamoto: “There are two types of games – well-made games and interesting games”

Shigeru Miyamoto said Nintendo should make games that are both well made and interesting, warning that polish alone was not enough. In a 1996 interview, he felt the company’s focus had shifted towards execution and away from the innovation that had helped define its games.

He said the early versions of Mario 64 seemed more innovative, while its released version was more polished, and that the game had proved Nintendo could make a solid 3D action title. The article links his call to aim for something more interesting to the ambition of Ocarina of Time, released in 1998 and later awarded a Metacritic score of 99. It also questions whether a remake can recapture the original’s innovation.