The photographer adjusted the focus and pressed the shutter repeatedly: "It's a bit like the layout of the Sega Jupiter, but not quite the same. The Jupiter has a centered, symmetrical dual-analog stick design, while this Nintendo one uses an asymmetrical design."
Shigeru Miyamoto watched the crowd's reaction.
For the sake of this controller, arguments had never ceased in the meeting rooms of Nintendo's Kyoto Headquarters' Second Development Department and the Information Development Department over the past year.
The initial plan was the design known as the "Trident."
The middle handle featured a joystick, while the left and right handles had a D-pad and buttons respectively.
The original intention was to be compatible with both traditional 2D games and future 3D games, allowing players to change their grip depending on the game type.
Just when they had finalized this design, the Sega Jupiter was released.
Its centered dual-analog stick design, combined with the extremely excellent control logic of several first-party launch titles, taught the industry a lesson.
Players did not need to switch how they held the controller when playing different games.
A reasonable ergonomic design is sufficient to handle the vast majority of situations.
When Shigeru Miyamoto got his hands on the Jupiter controller, he played with it for an entire weekend.
On Monday morning, he rushed directly into Masayuki Uemura's office and said that compared to the Jupiter controller, the trident layout design was not quite good enough.
Facing the trident controller that already had an engineering prototype, Uemura was momentarily caught in a dilemma.
The two drew countless plans on the whiteboard, arguing until they were red in the face.
Miyamoto insisted that the trident design required players to change their grip midway through the game, which would interrupt the flow.
The operational dimensions of 3D games were already complex enough; they could not impose additional learning costs on players' fingers.
Left hand for direction, right hand for action—this was the most intuitive logic that had persisted for twenty years.
If Sega could do it, Nintendo had to do it better.
In the end, Hiroshi Yamauchi made the final decision: scrap the trident design and redesign it.
After a dozen iterations, the final design that was settled upon is the one in Miyamoto's hands.
A main joystick on the top left, function buttons on the right, and the rear two of the four shoulder buttons changed to trigger buttons, specifically designed for locking on and camera switching in 3D space.
"Many people ask me how 3D games should actually be played," Miyamoto continued on stage. "With the addition of a Z-axis, characters can move forward, backward, left, right, up, and down. The D-pad is no longer enough. We need players to feel like they aren't just pressing a switch, but controlling the character's legs."
He turned around to face the big screen.
"Talk is cheap. Let's just look."
The stage lights went completely dark. The big screen lit up, and Nintendo's iconic "ding" sound played.
A CG animation began to play.
Blue skies, white clouds, green trees, and red walls.
Mario jumped out of a green pipe, tipped his hat to the camera, and let out that classic "Hello!"
This CG had been shown countless times in TV commercials over the past few months.
Miyamoto didn't press the skip button.
He stood to the side of the screen, watching the animation play through to the end.
The footage cut to actual gameplay.
This CG had been aired countless times in TV commercials over the past few months. Miyamoto did not press the skip button. He stood to the side of the screen, watching the animation play to the end. The screen cut to live gameplay.
Mario stood on the grass in front of Princess Peach's castle. Shigeru Miyamoto's thumb rested on the left analog stick. "Watch his movements closely," Miyamoto reminded them. He pushed the stick gently. On the screen, Mario began to tiptoe, his footsteps soft. He increased the pressure. Mario puffed out his chest and began to walk briskly.
The stick was pushed all the way. Mario swung his arms and sprinted, kicking up a cloud of dust behind him. A faint stir rippled through the audience. "Analog signal with linear input. It should be similar to our linear joysticks," a Sega engineer wrote rapidly in his notebook, "They've divided the stick's travel into at least three input zones."
Miyamoto didn't stop. While running, he suddenly pulled the stick in the opposite direction. Instead of turning around instantly like in a 2D game, Mario skidded on the grass, braking sharply. His body leaned forward due to inertia, and he slid for a short distance before stopping, then ran in the opposite direction.
"A physics engine," the editor-in-chief of *NetGeneration* straightened up, staring intently at the screen. Miyamoto maneuvered Mario to a tree.
"Physics engine." The Editor-in-Chief of *NetGeneration* straightened up, staring intently at the screen.
Shigeru Miyamoto maneuvered Mario to a tree.
Pressing the jump button, Mario leaped up, his hands grasping the trunk.
Pushing the joystick up, Mario climbed to the treetop like a monkey.
Next, he demonstrated the triple jump.
By pressing the jump button consecutively while running, Mario's jump height increased with each leap, and on the final one, he performed a magnificent front flip in mid-air.
Encountering a high wall, Mario jumped and hit it, and within a split second of touching the wall, Miyamoto pressed the jump button again, causing Mario to use the wall as leverage to jump in the opposite direction, landing steadily on a high platform.
A wall kick.
The entire sequence of movements was extremely fluid, with no lag or clipping.
The media reporters in the audience were so absorbed they couldn't even take notes.
They had originally assumed that a 3D Mario would just be 2D levels made three-dimensional, and that it would be a success if the character could just walk around in them.
What Miyamoto was showing was a complete 3D action interaction system based on realistic physical feedback.
"It's so smooth," muttered an editor from *GamePro*, "This isn't just playing a game; it's controlling a living, breathing person."
Miyamoto operated on stage, and Mario jumped into the moat in front of the castle.
Splashes flew up.
Mario swam on the water's surface, and upon pressing the dive button, the camera followed him smoothly underwater.
Bubbles rose from underwater, and Mario's movements slowed, capturing the physical effects of water resistance.
After climbing ashore, Mario shook the water droplets from his body.
Shigeru Miyamoto steered Mario to a wooden sign and pressed the right shoulder button.
Mario crouched.
While crouching, he pressed the jump button, and Mario performed a high-difficulty backflip, leaping up to the second-floor balcony.
"We designed some button combinations that can trigger a wider variety of actions," Miyamoto said. "As for what those other moves might be—"
He stopped playing and set the controller down.
"I don't want to teach you everything right here," Miyamoto smiled. "The fun of exploration should be left for the players themselves.
When you pick up the controller in the demo area, try things out for yourselves. It's okay if you press the wrong button; Mario is tough, he won't break from a fall."
Laughter and applause erupted from the audience.
Don't explain everything; leave some space.
It's Nintendo's signature style.
By embedding the instruction manual into the game mechanics, they let players experience the surprise of "Oh, I can do that too!" through repeated attempts.
Miyamoto picked up the controller and guided Mario into the castle lobby.
There were several huge murals in the hall.
Mario walked up to a mural depicting a Bomb-omb battlefield.
"In traditional games, a door is the entrance to a level," Miyamoto said. "In a 3D world, anything can be an entrance."
Mario jumped and leaped into the mural.
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