Hiratake: “Games these days have evolved to a point where you can do almost anything!”
☆ NintendObs Weekly – Monday, February 23, 2015 – Sunday, March 1, 2015.
MariChan:
Welcome to the Miiting! I’m MariChan, and I’ll be your host for this interview.
Thanks to your support, we were able to host a second Miiting, so thank you! Now, let me introduce today’s guest. Here’s the man that turned the side character Captain Toad into a star in Captain Toad:Treasure Tracker…director Shinya Hiratake!
Hiratake:
Ta-da-da-daaa, ta-da-da-daaa! Hello there! I’m Shinya Hiratake, the guy who gave Captain Toad his very own game! I’m humbled by the dramatic introduction! Today, I’m prepared to answer as many of your questions as possible! I even gathered some reference notes for today!
MariChan:
Now that’s the spirit! We received around 2,000 comments for you from users worldwide, so I hope you’re prepared.
Hiratake:
Wooow! Thank you! I can’t wait to answer your questions!
MariChan:
Wow, you’re really pumped up today! So, here’s the first question: “What inspired you to make this game in the first place?”
Hiratake:
Games these days have evolved to a point where you can do almost anything! I’m happy to see that game genres and playstyles have become quite broad, however I also feel that features like complex controls can make it harder for newcomers to try new games out! So, for a long time I’ve always wanted to create a game set in a miniature “boxed in” world where anyone can play!!
MariChan:
Come to think of it, didn’t you also work on Super Mario 3D Land and Super Mario 3D World? They both take place in 3D settings, but the controls were simple enough for me to enjoy, even though I’m not that great with 3D games. Was Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker inspired from those games?
Hiratake:
Actually, the inspiration goes further back. It was from Super Mario 64!
MariChan:
Oh, for Nintendo 64! That’s also the origin of the 3D version of Mario.
Hiratake:
I love that game, but because 3D was a new thing back then, I was disappointed to hear that many people thought the controls were too complex and the 3D world was too confusing for them. This is why I’ve always focused on making games that anyone can enjoy, even in 3D!
MariChan:
So Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker is like the culmination of all of these experiences. Now here’s the next question: “Why did you make Captain Toad the main character?”
Hiratake:
When were were experimenting, we noticed that if the character can jump, they can pretty much go anywhere. This meant that the miniature worlds would have to become too big, leading to players getting lost easily and the levels becoming more challenging than we intended! So this made us discuss what non-jumping character would be the best to use for this game!
MariChan:
And that ended up being Captain Toad?
Hiratake:
Yes! Someone mentioned that Captain Toad has been wearing a heavy looking backpack ever since Super Mario Galaxy, so it should be tough for him to jump! …And we pretty much just went with that!
MariChan:
His backpack does look pretty heavy. This relates to a pretty popular question that a lot of users wanted to ask you: “What’s in Captain Toad’s backpack?”
Hiratake:
Hmmm, what do you think?!
MariChan:
Let me see… I don’t get the feeling he’d pack a bunch of the same stuff. I imagine him just putting in pretty much everything he can get his hands on, because he can’t make up his mind. So if most people could see inside his bag, they’d probably say “Whoa, you don’t need all that!” So…what’s the answer?
Hiratake:
Hahaha, it’s a secret!
MariChan:
Just now, I’m pretty sure I heard the disappointed sighs of many Captain Toad fans…
Hiratake:
No, you don’t understand! We specifically decided to keep the contents of his bag a secret!! I expect every user has a different image of what could be inside Captain Toad’s bag, but I thought – you know, that’s what makes him interesting. So whatever each player imagines is inside the bag, that’s the correct answer to them. After all, the bag is filled with the weight of the player’s imagination…
MariChan:
Well, this turned into a deep answer!
Hiratake:
This might be going off on a bit of a tangent, but another one of the questions we received was “Why did you include an attack for Captain Toad where he gets dizzy from spinning around?” This action is actually supposed to be Captain Toad attacking enemies with his backpack! We added it in because we wanted to give his backpack another purpose besides preventing him from jumping! We also wanted to add another means of attack besides throwing stuff, for players who have got used to playing the game!
MariChan:
That backpack is surprisingly convenient!
Hiratake:
However, making this attack too convenient would affect the balance of the whole game, so we’ve also made it pretty vulnerable!
MariChan:
Speaking of attacks, here’s another question: “Did you get the idea of the turnips in the game from Princess Peach’s attack in Super Smash Bros.?”
Hiratake:
Nope, the flow of this idea was “Captain Toad needs more abilities!” → “But he can’t jump…” → “Then could he do something on the ground…?” And that was how we got the idea of him pulling things out of the ground! The turnip actually originates from Super Mario Bros. 2!
MariChan:
Wow, that’s an old title. It’s from back in the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) era, right? Come to think of it, you’ve talked about many features in Captain Toad originating from past games, but are there any original features in this game…?
Hiratake:
Of course there are!! We may have been inspired by past games, but all this game’s features are still original!!! For example, Captain Toad in this game is completely different from how he was in Super Mario 3D World!
MariChan:
Now that you mention it, he does look a little bit different…maybe?
Hiratake:
No, he’s completely different! The character himself may not be new, but his model was created from scratch for Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, so his movements and expressions are much more detailed in this game!
MariChan:
No need to get so defensive, I can see the difference, really! Perhaps because Captain Toad has so many detailed little motions in this game that really bring out his charms, I quickly felt an attachment to him and his friends as soon as I started playing the game! (^ ^) It felt as if I’ve known them for a long time!
Hiratake:
Doesn’t it? Doesn’t it?! We worked really hard on that! I can talk for hours just about Captain Toad’s charms!
MariChan:
Alright then, can you tell me what you think are the top 3 cutest things about Captain Toad?
Hiratake:
What?! I can only mention 3? Can’t it be the top 100?!
MariChan:
Top 3!
Hiratake:
Alright then! At #3, I love it when he shivers in the cold, or shivers from fright in the haunted stages!
MariChan:
Isn’t that two things…? Oh well. Give me your #2!
Hiratake:
When he dances around after he defeats Wingo and saves Toadette!
MariChan:
And your #1!
Hiratake:
The way his falling actions are different depending on how far he falls down! Also, here’s one more!! Most of Captain Toad and Toadette’s actions are voiced over, so I hope you’ll pay attention to their voices too!
MariChan:
You didn’t narrow it down to 3 at all! By the way, are the characters’ voices provided by the development staff?
Hiratake:
Heheheh… I’ll leave that up to your imagination! Oh, speaking of sounds, we put a lot of work into the background music for the final boss battle! In the second half of the song, we included the melody from the Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker theme tune, so that players can really get the feeling that “This is it, the final battle!” To unify the atmosphere of the whole game, bits and pieces of the theme song’s melody are actually used in various places throughout!
MariChan:
Thank you for sharing your passion for Captain Toad! Speaking of characters, we recently held a drawing contest in the Art Academy Events community, where people had to create Captain Toad-themed drawings using Art Academy: SketchPad for Wii U, and Wingo, a new character from this game, was quite popular. Can you tell us a little about how Wingo was created?
Hiratake:
Well, this is how Wingo was created. Adventures involve treasure, so we started off thinking that we needed a creature that gets in the way of him collecting it! We thought, “How about a crow? They like to collect shiny things!” and from there, we fused that idea with the image of the giant bird Roc that appears in the Arabian Nights! Actually, the design of the feather on his head was inspired by an item in Super Mario World!
MariChan:
Off you go with another game reference! Super Mario World was on the Super Nintendo, right? Unfortunately, I don’t know what item you’re referring to (^ ^;) It sounds like there are many references to the Mario series throughout the game, so I hope the players will have a fun time finding them.
Hiratake:
We’ve actually added quite a few other new enemy characters for this game, like the Mud Troopers that attack you in swarms, and Piranha Sprouts you can defeat by pulling them out!
MariChan:
But despite all these challenging enemies, Captain Toad keeps moving “onward”. By the way, the Japanese title for this game is “Onward! Captain Toad”, but did you come up with this name? When was the title determined for this game?
Hiratake:
The whole development team pitched in their ideas to decide the title for this game! We didn’t want Captain Toad to sound overly courageous, so we wanted a title that also brings out a little bit of his clumsy character. After we gave it a lot of thought, we decided on “Onward! Captain Toad”! We agreed on this title around Spring 2014!
MariChan:
Can you let us in on any other ideas that were pitched during the process?
Hiratake:
Ideas like “Captain Toad and his Amateur Adventures” and “Hello! Captain Toad”… Also, there was one like “Captain Toad is Giving His All”!
MariChan:
…I’m very glad you went with the current title.
Hiratake:
Me too! Haha.
MariChan:
Now, this was actually the most popular question we received: “When will the amiibo features be available for this game?”
Hiratake:
The amiibo features will be available on 20th March 2015 in Europe [and North America]. A Toad amiibo from the Super Mario series will also be released on the same day!
MariChan:
What kind of exciting features will be added with the amiibo?
Hiratake:
You’ve really raised the bar with that question! When you touch a Toad amiibo to the Wii U GamePad, a Pixel Toad appears and hides somewhere within the stage! You can play hide-and-seek with this Pixel Toad, tracking him down and catching him. Personally, I think this is a pretty fun feature, so I hope you’ll play this game with your Toad amiibo!!
MariChan:
Now that’s a perfect feature for a 3D game! Will other amiibo do anything in this game?
Hiratake:
There’s a small surprise if you use other amiibo too! You can find that out for yourself when you play the game!
MariChan:
Well, we’ve talked for a while now, so this turned into a longer conversation than I expected. But I still want to have you answer as many questions as possible, so I hope you’re ready for a last spurt!
Hiratake:
Awww, are we near the end already? I want to talk a bit more…
MariChan:
Let’s have some quick answers! Here we go! “What did you put extra care into when you created the world and atmosphere of the stages?”
Hiratake:
I always thought Captain Toad’s mushroom head looks sort of like a turban, so I tried to give the world a bit of an Arabian Nights theme, which you don’t really see a lot of in the Mario series. With this Arabian Nights theme at the core, I aimed to create a world like you might see in a movie or an adventure novel. This game’s about adventure, so we purposely made the atmosphere of the world feel a bit more serious compared to the Mario series.
MariChan:
“It sounds like Captain Toad and Toadette are saying something right when the stage starts and after they get a star. So what are they saying?”
Hiratake:
When the stage starts, Captain Toad says “Ready for adventure!”, and Toadette says “Here I go!”. But in special situations, Captain Toad says “Fight time!’ and Toadette says “Hey, OK!”, and when they get the Power Star, Captain Toad says “Bravo!” and Toadette says “Oh, yeah!”
MariChan:
“Do you have any stages or areas you recommend in the game?”
Hiratake:
Personally, I love Blizzard on the Star Express. It feels like you’re staring at a model of a steam train, which is kind of fun. If you look reaaally closely at the wallpaper in the guest cars, you might find a mushroom pattern!
MariChan:
“Can you tell us about any ideas that didn’t make it into the game?”
Hiratake:
We were actually experimenting with ways to play as Captain Toad in first-person for every stage! However, the controls and the rules got a little too complicated, so that didn’t make it into the game. It was really fun and refreshing looking at the miniature worlds through the eyes of Captain Toad, so we utilized this idea for the minecart stages and the turnip cannons instead!!
MariChan:
“Along with Pixel Luigi, why did you also include Pixel Rosalina?”
Hiratake:
Actually, I didn’t know about this either until the game was completed! Looks like the designers put some extra love into this game! Although actually, there was a time when we were discussing whether the story of Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker should connect with Super Mario 3D World or if we should present it as a story being read by Rosalina! If we had gone with the book idea, Rosalina might’ve appeared in person at the end of the game, but we decided to make the story connect with Super Mario 3D World in the end!
MariChan:
Thank you so much for answering all of these questions, Mr. Hiratake! I’m sure the Captain Toad fans that sent in their questions were delighted to read your answers!
Hiratake:
Thank you for inviting me! This interview flew by really fast.
MariChan:
Actually, this was a pretty long interview. But because of that, I feel like I really understand now that the reason so many people love Captain Toad is because they could feel the love and passion the developers poured into making the game!
Hiratake:
Oh! I’m glad you felt it!
MariChan:
Yes, this game might appear in my dreams tonight after this interview…! The next time I play, I’ll try to pay attention to the sound design and the movements of the characters.
Hiratake:
Thank you very much for all of your questions! Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker will be powering up pretty soon with the amiibo feature, which will be available on 20th March in Europe [and North America]! I hope you’ll have fun playing Captain Toad with the new feature! Thanks again!!
MariChan:
Thank you very much to everyone who sent in their questions, and everyone who read this Miiting all the way to the end! There are many games out there that are simply fun and well made, but from my personal experience, I think you can always get extra satisfaction from games that developers pour their hearts into! I hope you’ll continue to enjoy Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker! Now, let’s wrap up this Miiting! Ta-da-da-daaa!
— マリチャン (NNID: NintendoMchannel)
Source: Miiverse.
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