Super Mario Galaxy 2, as with most Mario games before it, is a game that Nintendo clearly intends for children to play. In a recent interview, though, series mastermind Shigeru Miyamoto revealed his fear that sometimes things get a little too kid-centric in the Mario games.
Speaking with his boss, Nintendo president Saturo Iwata, as part of Nintendo's Iwata Asks series, Miyamoto discussed some of the struggles the team had figuring out how much or how little story to include in the Super Mario Galaxy games. From the interview:
"Unless you're careful, there's a tendency for games like Mario that can be played by children to gradually become childish. Those making the game tend to unconsciously make them that way. Taking how Mario's line can be scripted as an example, they even propose to write, 'Where'd my mommy go?' When someone in their fifties like me hears their player-character speak childishly like that, it doesn't quite sit right. After all, Mario wasn't a game only for children in the first place. As I make a game, I try to keep in mind that guys in their fifties will play it, too."
What do you think? Do you ever feel weirded out by the more childish aspects of Mario, or do you think Nintendo has done a good job of hitting a balance recently?