Miyamoto and Sakurai on Nintendo Wii

In terms of the experience itself obviously the interface is different, so that opens up for a very different experience between the two games. I've actually already gotten used to the Wii controller for Zelda, and because of that I'm incapable of going back. We've already talked about the 16:9 widescreen, which is obviously another difference, and then again if you take the Wii version and played that on the three-by-four television, it's not going to strip down; it'll actually change, it'll cut off the edges of the screen, so that also offers a different experience as well.

It will not be a launch title. I've been told that I can say it will launch in 2007, so it will launch in 2007 and you can look forward to it then.

Well of course for me, you know, working on the Zelda games I wanted to have an interface that's intuitive that uses the least amount of buttons you can have, but still functional, so really for us the biggest challenge was in terms of the controller. Determining how many buttons to have, where to position them - those types of decisions were very challenging.

Actually I'm not the producer on Metroid Prime: Corruption this time around. Mr [Kensuke] Tanabe, who has been the producer of the series since Metroid Prime, is handling all of the responsibilities on Metroid Prime: Corruption, so I actually don't know about it, but I think Bill [the translator] might know more than I do. To which I [Bill, the translator, surreally] say actually I don't know. I've played it a little bit but I don't know much about the story. [And now the PR compere gets in on the act, saying, "we'd like to rewind that to say it's a secret". What japes!]

That's a good question. We thought a lot about what to do with Snake and his moves in Smash Bros. because Snake as you all know is the type of character who in most games is walking around with a gun. Whereas in Smash Bros. I didn't want to try and bring in the real weaponry like guns and rifles that people can get their hands on into the game, so that was a bit of a challenge.

But conversely I thought that if we could use things like rocket launchers and other explosives, that would be fitting for Snake, but also something we could use in a very comedic fashion in the game, and so we're looking at that - and who knows, maybe he'll end up just exclusively using explosives.

And he'll use a cardboard box. [Laughter]

When creating games, one thing I often think about is how do people who are playing the game look to people who are watching them play, and so one thing with the Wii controller that I think would be very nice is that when you're actually playing the gameplay itself that who are playing will look like they're having fun, and that what they're doing is very entertaining, and so in that sense people who are watching them play would also want to pick up the controller and also play. So I'm thinking in terms of how I then take advantage of that in creating software that makes it look fun and enjoyable to play the games and not make something that makes people look uncomfortable.

So I think that people have an idea of what it looks like when you're playing videogames, and there's a stereotype that you're in a darkened room, and there's a young kid, and they're sitting in front of a TV gripping a controller, the light of the TV is kind of reflecting on the child's face, and it's kind of a negative image but it's a serious result of playing videogames and I think with the Wii controller we're trying to erase that image.

Well I think if you look at the technology that's out there and the companies that Nintendo has partnerships with when creating the system, obviously if we had decided to create an HD system we could have very easily. But if you think about what a videogame is, a videogame isn't just graphics. A videogame is a combination of the interface you use to interact with the game, a combination of the graphics, the sound, perhaps the network, and all these other elements that come together, and creating a brilliant videogame system isn't about just thinking of the abilities of each of these, and we thought at this time going in the HD direction was leaning too much to the graphics.

If you look at the penetration rate of HDTVs, it's really not that high yet. Of course I think five years down the road it would be pretty much a given that Nintendo would create an HD system, but right now the predominant television set in the world is a non-HD set, so rather than target a gaming system at a very specific TV set, we thought it would be better to create a system that allows you to interact with any TV set you have in your home in an entirely new, different way, and even kind of turn that into a toy for your TV that anyone can pick up, interact with and enjoy rather than only the people who have a very high-tech, specific kind of TV set.

It is progressing along quite well, but as some of you may have heard, it's often said that when I get involved with a project I upend the tea table, and that tends to delay things. So rather than promise everyone that it would be a launch title right now and then have them break that promise later, I'll just say no for now but say that if it's not a launch title on launch day then it'll definitely be there within the first six months.

No, we're going to change it. I think we're going to try and make a single-player mode that people can enjoy a little bit more than perhaps they did on the GameCube.

This is actually something Mr Sakurai and I have had a difference of opinion on since the very first Smash Bros. game. Mr Sakurai always wanted to have a very deep single-player game, and on the N64 version I just said to him, you know, we've got plenty of very deep single-player games, why don't you hurry up and just focus on multiplayer and don't worry about the single-player. And Mr Sakurai said no, no, no, I want to have some kind of single-player in there so I just said well, make it really short so we can focus on multiplayer and get the game done. And we kind of did a little bit of that on the GameCube, but a bit more single-player than that. This time we're getting a lot of time to focus on Smash Bros., plenty of time to develop it, so people can expect a very robust single-player game.

Actually, what really brought about the Snake character was from a conversation I was having back when I was developing the Smash Bros. game for GameCube when Hideo Kojima phoned me and practically begged me to put Snake in the game, saying please, put him in there, I want him in there!

But at that time we were already deep in development and I was thinking I wasn't able to get him in there and that we'd probably be making another Smash Bros. game afterward, so I kind of gave up on the idea and said it's too bad you hadn't brought this up earlier. And that was kind of the end of the story. But when this project came up, because Mr Kojima had contacted me, we reinitiated talks and managed to put Snake in this time.

It's not so much a corporate level discussion but really more on a personal level between myself and Mr Kojima, but obviously a lot of people have been interested in the introduction of other characters in the Smash Bros. games, and Sonic has been brought up many, many times. Part of it is you have to have someone you can trust to take care of your character and do your character good, so we're looking at various possibilities. There are probably possibilities for other third-party characters as well, and it may be that even now there are corporate discussions going on at a high level about what characters to include, but maybe we'll talk to you about that a little bit later.

Right now Snake is the only third-party character that has been confirmed for Super Smash Bros., but I think because we've announced Snake is in Super Smash Bros. that might open up opportunities for other third-party characters to also be included.

But more than anything it's not just about having a character, but about having a character that's going to be fun to have in there.

Well if there was such a character I would just put them in this version. It's difficult finding the right balance. Everyone has their own opinions about what characters they'd like to see, so that's why I'll be trying to gather as much information as I can from people in terms of what direction to go in.