It’s official: Retro Studios in Austin, Texas is one of the coolest places to work on the planet. Right after Retro had finished Donkey Kong Country Returns, Nintendo enlisted them for the next chapter of Mario Kart. Their involvement reached much deeper than merely designing a DKCR-based track: Retro ended up designing half the tracks and handling the character animation, among other creative duties. This chance-of-a-lifetime for the Texas crew—Mario Kart fans all—marked their first direct collaboration with Nintendo’s EAD team.

According to Satoru Iwata, the unique team-up helped Mario Kart 7 aquire “…a charm that isn’t present in any of the earlier games in the series.” Wow. As if I needed another reason to pick up the game tomorrow.

For the full story, check out the hugely entertaining MK edition of Iwata Asks on Nintendo’s site. You’ll encounter a lot of fun anecdotes, production details and mind-blowing mental imagery. Here are  just a few samples: (more…)

In the final weeks of game development, the team behind Super Mario 3D Land took a look at the nearly-finished Mariokart 7, liked what they saw, and promptly altered the way you experience 3D in their platformer. (more…)

The evidence is fairly obvious- Nintendo’s change in business strategy under the leadership of CEO and President, Satoru Iwata, brought the company back from the depths. Back in the GameCube days of the early 2000’s, many had ultimately consigned Nintendo to the same fate as Sega. And, let’s face it, some of us didn’t know what the hell to think after seeing the initial DS prototype or hearing Reggie utter the name “Wii” for the first time.

But, since his inauguration in 2002, the 51 year-old former HAL Laboratories president and programmer has consistently piloted Nintendo through its most innovative and financially successful period, overseeing the release of the two best-selling platforms in the company’s history. The Nintendo DS has sold almost 150 million units and stands ready to eclipse the Playstation 2 as the highest selling video game console of all time. Hell, there are more Nintendo DS’es out there than there are iPhones (true story). And the breakaway success of the Wii and motion-based gaming proved a truly disruptive and emergent force which expanded the video game market in ways that even Sony and Microsoft couldn’t ignore for too long.

Since Iwata got his hands on the steering wheel, Nintendo has seen record profits, unanticipatedly high sales, and a soaring stock that increased seven times in just four short years. At times, the Wii and DS platforms have boasted double the total market share of their competitors combined, and have hosted some of the best-selling video games in the history of gaming.

But the Nintendo of today is not the Nintendo of several years ago.

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“‘It’s the universe you’ve been longing for…’ Oh, that stinks. Don’t write that down.”

- Shigeru Miyamoto

That quote provides a typically fun, good-natured moment in the Starfox-centered “Iwata Asks” feature on Nintendo’s website. It’s been available since the beginning of August, but as the release of Starfox 64 3D draws near, now’s a great time to take the trip behind the scenes. These round-table game-creator interviews provide amazing backstage glimpses of Nintendo’s creative process. If you have any interest at all in game design or the company’s history, you definitely should check the columns out. (more…)

Iwata:The game play consists of “slowly moving a submarine.” For the lack of a better word, this game is very “plain.”

Miyamoto:I guess so. (laughs)